Ask Siralex

Do I think I am not always right? I'm certain I am not always right. Jaysus, If I was always right, I'd be a rich man living off my bets. What I tend to think I can do is call the long-term right, as opposed to individual matches or whatever. I'm not too interested in players, I see them as the pawns really - especially at the highest level of the game. My real interest in football is the manager. I study the shapes of teams and approaches to certain games that managers take. I find it fascinating. So by trying to study them and watching a lot of football, I tend to be able to call what I think will happen over time with teams, how they will do in that competition, what sort of approach they take, where are their strengths where are their weaknesses. I tend to look for those things, it's my buzz, it's my favourite hobby.. I'm far from always right, but if you watch a lot of football and properly watch it, you tend to find you can call it right from a genuine angle as opposed to just using soundbytes like most do and talking about individual players etc. 

Regarding United's defense. As I said, Sunday was very disappointing performance - all over the park for United. But up until then, United's defence looked rock solid. As I said, there had only ben two ocassions in United's opening five games this season where an opposition player had the ball in behind United's defensive line. That's two times in 450-minutes of football. That's incredible. Sunday was a big blow and I didn't like the lapseness of United against Leverusen in the last few minutes. But aside form that, they have looked rock solid at the back. One game against an on-fire City wouldn't change my mind on that at all. My overall view is that United look really solid defensively and  I don't think they'll conceed many from open play over the next two months in the Premier League. Maybe a couple, and that would be jaw-dropping, but I'm so confident in how United look defensively that I'm pretty sure they will conceed very few goals from open play! I'll actually stick my neck on the line to show you what I mean, I'll indulge and give you a figure. I think United will not conceed more than four goals from open play over the next two months of Premier League games...Because I believe, muck more oft hen than not, Moyes' United looks rock solid in open play.

 

Who do you think would be the best man for the vacant Ireland managers job?
Ah, been answering this one for the past week. From a personal point of view, I'd love to see Roy Keane get the job, only for the fact that so many people in the country who are disilussioned and not that interested in international football such as me, would suddenly have our ears pricked. The Aviva has never been to full capacity under Trap, under Keane the nation would be intrigued again and every seat would be full - for a while at least. Whether he is the best man or not is totally open for debate though - he's just the most interesteing man for me. In farirness, Martin O'Neill fits the bill in terms of age and experience, but it is a very boring appointment. He has great qualities required for a national team manager, age profile is perfect and he is known for getting the best out of average players. He is also very passionate and I think passion can be everything at international stage. But make no mistake about it, his approach to winning football matches is exhaustingly boring. My pick: Keane. Safest pick: O'Neill.

What were your views on Trapattoni as Ireland manager?
He did very well, initially. It's interesting to me that he had his views and his appraoch that really worked well but when he was asked by the FAI to change it and to introduce new and younger players to his team,  results went down the pan. WHy change it? Things had been working well. The FAI got scared by some plumbs in teh media. The best Ireland can hope for, due to seedings, is finishing in the play-offs, but are certainly no certs for finishing second in groups. Let's not forget that Europe is expanding massively and our chances are not great. But Trap finished second twice from three attempts and I think we should acept that from ANY manager. That's slightly overachieving in my eyes, to be honest. He was a stubborn f**ker though, and only wanted to do his own thing, but al the great managers are stubborn f**ks.