FAI...New Manager Hunt continues

[AFS]

You forgot Stephen Ward, who's pretty much the first choice LB.

[Denn Forever]

Team for tomorrow

29 February:

Given; O'Shea, St Ledger, O'Dea, Ward; Duff, Andrews, Whelan, McGeady; Long, Keane (Capt).

Good to see Long getting a game.

McClean and Duffy both on the bench
Tuesday, 28 February 2012 15:50
Republic of Ireland new boys James McClean and Shane Duffy have, as expected, both been named as substitutes for Wednesday's friendly against the Czech Republic.

[mick999]

Stream for game here: http://sportingtv.eu/

[Forever Green]

What utter shite that was. I have a lot of respect for what Trap has done in his time here but I would rather we changed managers after the Euro`s. Brendan Rodgers maybe???

Anyway, great reception for James McLean. He would have loved coming out to that roar from the crowd. Looked good when he was on, some nice touches. Very well taken goal by Simon Cox. Is he anywhere near the West Brom team? If not, it is a waste as he could be doing a job elsewhere

[Hardy]

I found myself watching this stuff last night - what RTÉ laughingly called the highlights. It was billed as a one-hour programme. It started at twenty past ten. There was some waffle from the waffleheads in the studio that took a few minutes. Then they started showing the actual play. I was surprised when it seemed to be only a few minutes on when they said "half time". I looked at the watch and it was 10:32. So they showed about nine minutes of the first half. Then there were ads for a few minutes. Then some half-time waffling - never saw this before - half time studio waffling in a highlights programme. Anyway, they showed another ten minutes and announced full time. (I was prepared for it this time.) Then a full waffling session for the final half-hour-minus-ads.

So 19 minutes of a one-hour programme was devoted to showing the actual play. If you allow ten minutes for ads, this means that RTÉ Sport thinks that soccer fans want to see 31 minutes of waffle for every 19 minutes of soccer. Is this true? No matter how bad soccer has become to watch, I would have thought people watch it to see the actual play rather than people waffling about the play.

Is this just RTÉ (they do the same on The Sunday Game and on their rugby highlights programmes) or is this how sport is done on TV these days?

[blewuporstuffed]

dissapointed mcclean didnt get more time alst night.
I understand what trap is saying about being loyal to his players, but i think having these young guys pushing will help the squad and not allow anyone to slip into a comfort zone.
i really hope mcclean, coleman, duffy & mccarthy all go in the euro squad

[rrhf]

Won't It make such a difference to us all, maybe there could be a huge plane booked. How was irish ambassador robbie keane last night

[Hound]

dissapointed mcclean didnt get more time alst night.
I understand what trap is saying about being loyal to his players, but i think having these young guys pushing will help the squad and not allow anyone to slip into a comfort zone.
i really hope mcclean, coleman, duffy & mccarthy all go in the euro squad

I don't believe for a second that Trap gives a crap about loyalty. He's long enough in the tooth to know that means nothing in sport, its all about getting the best result possible in the next game. Its about trust for Trap, and it takes a long time for you to earn his.

Also Trap doesnt give a hoot about hype. McClean, Coleman, Duffy and McCarthy are all hugely over-hyped. There's been 2 years of nonsense from Irish media and fans about Coleman playing right back for Ireland, when he never plays there for Everton, and he's clearly behind Duff and Mcgeady for a wide midfield position. And now he's mostly on the bench for Everton anyway after getting a good dose of 2nd season syndrome. He can't possibly be chanced in defence for Ireland given his utter lack of experience at top level in defence, and he's well down the pecking order in midfield.

McCarthy's had a poor season for wigan. Is further behind Andrews and Whelan than he has been since he arrived. Grabbing goals used to make up for his being very ordinary in the defensive side of his midfield duties, but they've totally dried up this season. There's absolutely no way you could make a case for him starting for Ireland.

Duffy looks a decent prospect. Will hopefully get more game time with Everton. But clearly has a way to go to be challenging St Ledger and O'Dea, who are hardly world-beaters.

We're all really hoping McClean is the one where the hype is justified. A big step for Trap to even trust him with a few minutes, and at this stage he's likely to move ahead of Coleman. It'll be key for him that he keeps starting for Sunderland. His power and pace combination gives us something different to all our other wing options, though he was caught in possession a few times last night and will need time to find his feet at this level. Will Trap risk it??

[blewuporstuffed]

Coleman has been out injured alot this season, (its realy his 3rd season anyway as he was excellent when on loan with blackpool aswell)and i dont believe for one second that mcgeady is a better option than coleman, dispite how many games he has played for ireland.
I'd like to see mccarthy go, because he is a different type of player to all the grafters we currently have in midfield.
Andrews & whelan fit the system and are clearly first choice, but surely the like of mccarthy is wort htaking so we at least have a plan b?
as for mcclean, he is probably the most inform irish player at the minute, and taking a pacey, attacking player thats in form, can only a be a boost the whole squad, and again offers somethin gdifernt if we need to chase a game

[Leo]

The last couple of posts make some sense but isn't it amazing how practically the whole stadium swallowed the McClean hype to the extent that a late-developing newcomer gets a bigger reception than the loyal team who got us qualification?
Trapp knows he is working with a pool of very limited players, most of whom struggle to hold a place in the premiership, and he has devised a system whereby they are punching way above their weight. If McClean continues to prosper he will be involved at the expense of Duff - wait to you hear the wailing from the populist Dublin media then. And if the English-born Cox & Walters displace local heroes Keane/Doyle/Long there will be more whinging from those who have an over-inflated idea of our playing stock.
To be rated 20th in the world is absolutely miraculous with this team and it could never be achieved without the play-safe system that Trapp has applied.

[Bingo]

http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2012/0301/trapattoni.html

Eamon has started early this campaign. This man loves a soap opera.

"This coach thinks he knows more about football than we do but he doesn't. He is making grotesque mistakes. He was fortunate to qualify, and he has very little support amongst the football community in this country now."

Thats my favourite line, what would Trap know about football?

You may not like his style but its taken the team to a finals when we haven't looked likely in years and the team is hard to beat reagrdless of the amount of possession the opposition have.

I'd love to ask Eamon on his views on Donegal 

[Asal Mor]

I found myself watching this stuff last night - what RTÉ laughingly called the highlights. It was billed as a one-hour programme. It started at twenty past ten. There was some waffle from the waffleheads in the studio that took a few minutes. Then they started showing the actual play. I was surprised when it seemed to be only a few minutes on when they said "half time". I looked at the watch and it was 10:32. So they showed about nine minutes of the first half. Then there were ads for a few minutes. Then some half-time waffling - never saw this before - half time studio waffling in a highlights programme. Anyway, they showed another ten minutes and announced full time. (I was prepared for it this time.) Then a full waffling session for the final half-hour-minus-ads.

So 19 minutes of a one-hour programme was devoted to showing the actual play. If you allow ten minutes for ads, this means that RTÉ Sport thinks that soccer fans want to see 31 minutes of waffle for every 19 minutes of soccer. Is this true? No matter how bad soccer has become to watch, I would have thought people watch it to see the actual play rather than people waffling about the play.

Is this just RTÉ (they do the same on The Sunday Game and on their rugby highlights programmes) or is this how sport is done on TV these days?

    Great stuff Hardy and very true.Irish people do seem to love their punditry. Dunphy, Giles, Pope, Hook, Spillane have higher profiles here than almost all of the players whose performances they are analysing. I usually enjoy a good waffle session myself though it depends who's waffling.

[AQMP]

I found myself watching this stuff last night - what RTÉ laughingly called the highlights. It was billed as a one-hour programme. It started at twenty past ten. There was some waffle from the waffleheads in the studio that took a few minutes. Then they started showing the actual play. I was surprised when it seemed to be only a few minutes on when they said "half time". I looked at the watch and it was 10:32. So they showed about nine minutes of the first half. Then there were ads for a few minutes. Then some half-time waffling - never saw this before - half time studio waffling in a highlights programme. Anyway, they showed another ten minutes and announced full time. (I was prepared for it this time.) Then a full waffling session for the final half-hour-minus-ads.

So 19 minutes of a one-hour programme was devoted to showing the actual play. If you allow ten minutes for ads, this means that RTÉ Sport thinks that soccer fans want to see 31 minutes of waffle for every 19 minutes of soccer. Is this true? No matter how bad soccer has become to watch, I would have thought people watch it to see the actual play rather than people waffling about the play.

Is this just RTÉ (they do the same on The Sunday Game and on their rugby highlights programmes) or is this how sport is done on TV these days?

Hardy, I'm not one to defend RTE but most stations showing soccer tend to lay the waffle on with a large trowel.  I think the BBC coverage of the League Cup final on Sunday past began at 3pm for a 4pm kick off.  Also I believe the broadcster with the rights to show the game live supply the "highlights" to other broadcasters so RTE are stuck with someone else's idea of what the highlights are.  However that doesn't excuse them from making it a one hour programme, 40 mins would probably have been more than enough.

[Bingo]

Maybe they struggled to get some "highlights" from it.

[Main Street]

I thought there was only 10 minutes of football on the 50 minute RTE program. Are the funds low? have to pay Sky by the minute for transmitting the highlights? In the past RTE have shown a good 40 minutes from a friendly game.
I watched the game on a stream from some Gulf state tv, lo and behold  the RTE commentators were doing the whole match.
I don't know how that was worked out, considering Sky had the game.

The less said about the game the better. The Czech goal was GUBU, our goal was similar but involved considerably more skill from the striker.  Apart from that, the Czechs didn't threaten our goal and we carrried more marginal threat with O'Shea's header, Green's shot and Robbie one on one with Cech.
When you review the game like that it doesn't seem so bad, we were almost unlucky not to win

The reception for McClean was about the same as the one for McCarthy when he made his debut.