FAI...June 2024 Friendlies v Hungary and Portugal

[Sea The Stars]

Ireland were the better side in the first half and I thought they even started the 2nd half fairly decently but after an hour you could tell that some of the players were looking exhausted. This is where's Trap's inaction lost the game as he attempted nothing to reverse the flow of the game until he finally brought Green on with 7 minutes left. By which time Ireland were completely on the backfoot. And still he managed to leave a sub unused amazingly.

I would agree with this. Although I wouldn't say it lost Ireland the game.

Green should have came on sooner for Sammon/Walters - that was probably the most fatal mistake.

I don't know what all this talk on RTE is about bringing on a "playmaker" who by definition needs the ball to make plays...something Ireland have little of from the seventieth minute onwards.

Where is Andrews these days....he'd have been a great man to have there to disrupt the Austrians play. Bar Whelan, the rest of the team had led in their legs for the last 10-15 minutes.

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

Could have done with Gibson there tonight to hold onto the ball

[imtommygunn]

When you consider hitting the post and that save the austrian keeper pulled off then you would have to say it's one that got away.

Austria were much better at keeping possession but didn't create that many chances.

Of all the offensive players left on the one you would never have taken off was long. Sammon was ok first half but never near the ball second half and should have made way. Walters tired but understandably so as he's a striker playing wing. Were houlihan was i don't know either.

Very frustrating.

Also austria's 19 should have been off.

[ranch]

A tactically inept manager at that level who pales in comparison to Trap.

Yeah right

Re-watch our game at home to Israel (WC 2006 qualifier) and tell me he wasn't tactically inept.
I made no mention of his record.

[nrico2006]

IMO it's a great young squad and improving all the time. The next euros might be when they start to hit form etc a bit more belief in themselves and they'd be better sooner.

I can understand why trap is so cautious.

Great mix in the team
Galway
Donegal, Waterford, Leitrim /donegal , Armagh
?, Dublin, Donegal/Glasgow , Derry
Dublin, Tipperary

Lets hope they get the national anthem right tonight!

Walters mother, Helen Brady, from Clonliffe in Dublin

How many non-Irish were in the team last night?  Old Trap gets all the abuse as usual, the man worked a miracle to get Ireland to the Euro's and considering the players he has to pick from he hasn't done too badly.  All this crying for Hoolahan is a bit similar to the same yapping a few years ago for Andy Reid and Stephen Ireland, who have both been found out since.

[NAG1]

IMO it's a great young squad and improving all the time. The next euros might be when they start to hit form etc a bit more belief in themselves and they'd be better sooner.

I can understand why trap is so cautious.

Great mix in the team
Galway
Donegal, Waterford, Leitrim /donegal , Armagh
?, Dublin, Donegal/Glasgow , Derry
Dublin, Tipperary

Lets hope they get the national anthem right tonight!

Walters mother, Helen Brady, from Clonliffe in Dublin

How many non-Irish were in the team last night?  Old Trap gets all the abuse as usual, the man worked a miracle to get Ireland to the Euro's and considering the players he has to pick from he hasn't done too badly.  All this crying for Hoolahan is a bit similar to the same yapping a few years ago for Andy Reid and Stephen Ireland, who have both been found out since.

Cant blame Trap for boys not being able to pass the ball 5 yards to team mate or to being tactically aware enough to run the clock out by being professional.

[Declan]

Traps a fuckin idiot whose best days as a manager were over 15 years ago. He has no clue as to how to change the flow of a game when the opponents change tactics to go three at the back and flood the midfield to boss possession for the last 30 mins. After a bad goal given away we came back well and given the limited options we had up front did great to turn it around. However a combination of tiredness, Trap's stubbornness and individual errors threw it away.

Everyone in the ground last night could see that Sammon despite his work rate isn't close to being an international player. Thought our full backs reverted to type as well and Wilson in particular was very poor - maybe that knock was worse than we thought. McCarthy was disappointing in the second half as well but sure he was probably afraid of getting a punch from the boss.

Our greatest asset is our willingness to work hard and team spirit and when you have a manager that constantly denigrates you in public - who do you think we are we are not Germany or Brazil or England etc - and who has no faith or belief in you and just doesn't understand that we aren't Italian and never will be in the longer term I think it's inevitable that these results will continue. We might get the odd good one but overall he his doing untold damage to Irish soccer.

A three quarter full stadium last night and the prospect of about 10000 going to see the next game against the Faroes - As a pal of mine said to me last night - it's not Trap's team it's our team and if he doesn't think we're any good the feeling is mutual and he can sling his hook

[sans pessimism]

Rio will roll on without the plastics

[Billys Boots]

You're right Declan, Austria saw we were over-running them in midfield and they changed their approach - Trap's plan-b always seems to be to drop everyone behind the ball into the last third and hope the opposition are not good enough to break us down.  If we had managed to keep the back-four in place for the 90 mins we might have got away with it - once Clarke got hurt/went off they looked to have an extra yard of space in our final third.   

[rodney trotter]

Rodney just keeps digging that hole for himself

Hopefully someday you will see sense

[highorlow]

Based on the results last night it seems that the English Football and Premiership lads in particularly are both tired and unfocused this time of year. Long hard season takes it's toll.

I presume the Austrian league and other Euro leagues are shorter with less cup shite to interfere with international games?

Looks like England, Scotland, Wales and NIreland all ran out of steam.

I wouldn't be a huge Trap fan but when a goal goes in with 65 s left it is hard to blame the man for last night. Just bad luck.

He had loads of luck in the Euro qualifiers and his time is running out now (as it's public opinion that rids international managers more than anything). I don't think a new manager would make a dam site of difference though unless we find a new Roy Keane and a new Paul McGrath. Simple as that, we don't have the class.

Also Houhilan wouldn't have made a difference either and Long was on a yellow. He might have taken Salmon off but Alaba still may have got that last minute shot away no matter who was on at that time.

[thewobbler]

The clearest thing to me today is there's a huge amount of Irish football fans who live in a parallel world where reality isn't incumbent. The kind of place where:

• Ireland are not just underachieving with their current band of journeyman players, but are an absolute disgrace.
• The answer to every problem is Wes Hoolohan. That's Wes Hoolahan of Norwich, formerly of Blackpool, Livingston and Shelbourne.
• Protecting a lead by dropping everyone behind the ball is an archaic tactic, and Chelsea are not the reigning Champions of Europe based on that principle.
• A selection policy of players in form shouldn't apply if your name is Kevin Doyle
• Irish players who knock their pans in for 60 mins should also be able to keep up those energy levels for the last 30 mins.
• Ireland were denied a very good result not by deflected goal, but by shocking tactics.
• The very reason that shot got away was not the midfield's fault, but in fact Trapatonni's fault, even though he had reinforced the midfield with Paul Green.

Unrealistic and unfair expectations chaps.

[Billys Boots]

Irish players who knock their pans in for 60 mins should also be able to keep up those energy levels for the last 30 mins.

So professional footballers whose stock-in-trade is a high-tempo game and workrate shouldn't be expected to do so at home for 90 mins against a side to whom that type of game is foreign.  This isn't amateur junior-level gaelic football for under-10s. 

[rodney trotter]

Wobbler, who cares if Hoolahan played with Livingston, Blackpool, that was then, this is now. He has proved he can play in the Premier League, and is a creative player. We don't have many players like him.

Whatever about Doyle's form at International, he far way more suited to playing alongside Long than throwing in Connor Sammon, in a vital game. Doyle has a lot more ability than Samon. It was Doyle who saved Ireland in Kazakhtsan.

[thewobbler]

Irish players who knock their pans in for 60 mins should also be able to keep up those energy levels for the last 30 mins.

So professional footballers whose stock-in-trade is a high-tempo game and workrate shouldn't be expected to do so at home for 90 mins against a side to whom that type of game is foreign.  This isn't amateur junior-level gaelic football for under-10s. 

That's a question for the club managers and coaches though Billy. In an ideal world we'd love to expect our professional athletes to maintain a high tempo game for 90 mins. In the real world, most of them don't do it week in, week out, and don't train for it (let alone have the attitude to carry it off, but that's a different story). It's not Trap's fault; he only has them for 4-6 weeks a year. He can only use 3 subs. Which means if we want to play high tempo football, then many of the players are going to be wilting at the end.