Saturday, September 4, 2010

Rep of Ireland: Are they falling into the footballing abyss?

The 3rd of September saw the beginning of the start of the qualifying for the European championships. Football of course! As expected, the usual super powers won, the minnows lost and the rest battle it out for the mystical '3 points'.

Rep of Ireland are hardly juggernauts of European football, but as a small nation, Rep of Ireland have always done well and gave a decent account of themselves no matter who they played. The Irish team are not blessed with players with magical powers such as Messi, Rooney or Kaka but they still manage to do resonably well. Who could forget how the Irish were robbed of a World Cup place by Henry and his filthy cheating hand. In those two games against France, the Irish were fantastic and would have been at the World Cup if it wasnt for Henry but mostly if it wasn't for their fear infront of goal. A point shared with me by a true great Irish footballer, Roy Keane. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI0PC2NhwGc

Being an Irishman and a fan of the national team, I sat uncomfortably for 90 minutes watching the Irish display against Armenia. It was the usual story for Robbie Keane. I don´t know why he wears the captains armband. He is a terrible finisher, and shites his pants everytime he gets a sniff of goal. Ireland´s greatest goal scorer needs 3 nets to have a chance to score. Kevin Kilbane was terrible at left back. I have seen paint dry quicker than he runs. Many of the chances Armenia created were down the Irish left hand side. Could the manager not see that Mc Geady couldn´t offer protection to the creaking hips of Kilbane? The center midfield paring of Green and Whelan were dire. Whelan on many occasions looked like a can-can dancer when going in for the tackle. As for Green, you could count on one hand the number of times his name was mentioned during the game. The usual defense minded ugly play by Trappatoni. Why were Green and Whelan just sitting infront of the defenders? With the greatest respect to the Armenian Forwards, I dont think Richard Dunne or Shay Given need protecting.....or did they?

Armenia could have very easily won this game. They had 3 clear cut chances. Luckily for Rep of Ireland they didnt take them. At the other end the same old story with Robbie Keane. Through on goal, only the keeper to beat......Hits the post or drags it wide. At this level it isn´t good enough and he should be dropped. His club have dropped him and want to off load him. Is it because he doesn´t scores goals? People may think i am being a little harsh. Yes i am, but watching such terrible displays is painful. It seems to be the same story with Rep of Ireland, ugly route one football, no creativity and a sicking lack of goal scoring ability.

I personally feel it is time for the manager to go. He is the one choosing the team. He is sending out the wrong players. It is only my opinion, and i am not a football manager by any strech of the imagination. When Fahey came on and scored the solitary winning goal, it wasn´t any kind of tactical genius by Trappatoni, it was luck. Fahey done what was expected of him (Take note Robbie Keane) and scored. He was in the right place at the right time and succedeed in what any other player in that situation should do, put the ball in the back of the net.

On the bench, again, was Manchester United midfielder Darron Gibson. A fantastic up and comming player. Darron owns an almighty shot and a beautiful pass. Why not start the boy or bring him on. His shooting would be an advantage as would his passing.

I suppose not all players were as bad as Keane, Whelan, Green and Kilbane. Mc Geady looked dangerous as did Lawrence. St Ledger, Dunne and O´Shea all played fairly well. Given did what he had to when called upon. Rep of Ireland dont have the quality of players like Brazil or England and it seems they dont have a quality manager. Trappatoni was good in his day, but at 71 I think his day has passed. I would love to see Martin O´Neill as the new manager some time soon.

Maybe as a footballing force, Rep of Ireland have been the great 'over achievers' and sadly their number is up. Maybe it is the stone cold fact that Rep of Ireland dont have any good players. People will say 'A win is a win' and i agree totally. I am glad that Rep of Ireland have started with a win and 3 points because it could have been very easily the other way around. You need to look at the whole picture. Russia and Slovakia are in the group and if Rep of Ireland play as bad as they did yesterday, they will get smashed by Russia and devoured by Slovakia. That will not be 3 points, but minus 12 points. A win is a win, even by the most narrow of margins, but 4 defeats means staying at home in 2012, again.

Things need to change in the Irish squad. Certain big names need to be left out and those who are nearly ready to get their bus pass left out all together. I heard an intresting quote on Spanish TV by David Villa on the departure of Ibrahimovic. He said that Barcelona was Messi´s team. If you dont fit to Messi´s way of playing you dont fit into the team. Could this be the same idea Trappatoni has at Rep of Ireland. I dread to think who´s team he thinks it is, afterall the captain´s armband is worn by........Robbie Keane.

Considering the display and the players that played against Armenia, an old saying sprung to mind: 'You can´t make a good kinfe out of bad steel'

I would also like to extend my congratulations to Belarus, who beat France 1-0 in Paris. ;)