Martin O'Neill...

Not enough multi-quotes on this thread. 

horsebox wrote: kearney304 wrote: horsebox wrote: rolo wrote: I'd rather a manager who changes partnerships when things arent working in a tournament, than one who stubbornly sticks with the same players. Like a clearly under performing Randolph and in form Westwood? Not to mention taking a huge gamble with Kevin Long. Mr. Horse - Was Randolph at fault for Austria goal? Did he make any mistake? Howler as you all predicted? Make a great save? Yes he did.  Team = justified. Long was excellent - no issue there. Obviously impressed in few games / training etc.  I never said he did make a mistake, nor did I predict he would make a howler, the point I am making is that Westwood is a better keeper than Randolph, which goes against the point Rolo made. And the poll put on the side showed that all the fans wanted Westwood to start in goal instead of Randolph. I don't think anyone bar you, thought Long had an excellent game. He did ok. Again, the point is that O'Neill played 2 inexperienced players together in a crucial game, this in my opinion was a mistake.

It doesnt go against the point im making. The point I made (as you quoted) is that MON changes it when things arent working. But when it aint broke, MON doenst fix it. In Randolph's case, MON made it clear that he didnt see him as broken. He said as much after the game.
I'd have had Westwood in but MON picked Randolph cos he hasnt let him down before. He isn't afraid to change it though when things arent going well.

As for your point about Long. I know that ppl may forget now but Richard Keogh passed the ball straight to Garreth Bale in the final moments v Wales and Bale was a whisker away from scoring the winner after accepting the gift and closing in on goal with our defenders at sixes and sevens.
MON clearly decided - correctly imo - that he's a liability.
JOS obviously didnt impress him in training or his end-of-season form to merit selection.
So MON clearly saw himself bereft of options. He opted for Long, who played in two friendlies and 3 PL games in the lead-up, and trained well presumably. I dont see where the gamble is there.

Edited by rolo - 20 Jun 2017 at 2:14pm

"As for your point about Long. I know that ppl may forget now but Richard Keogh passed the ball straight to Garreth Bale in the final moments and Bale was a whisker away from scoring the winner after accepting the gift and moving in towards goal, with our defenders at sixes and sevens.
MON clearly decided - correctly imo - that he's a liability.
JOS obviously didnt impress him in trainig or his end-of-season form to merit selection.
MON clearly saw himself bereft of options. He opted for Long, who played in two friendlies and 3 PL games in the lead-up, and trained well presumably. I dont see where the gamble is there."

rolo wrote: Harsh or not he has his job on the line. Has to make the right call. Anyway Keogh made a mistake for one of the French goals too, and he just doesnt inspire confidence. The ball is like a hot potato to him. He's just a bit all over the shop. Cant remember how he got on in the Mexico game. The pass to Bale was the final straw. Rightly so.

coyne wrote: TJ why did you dodge my question when I called you out for previously calling MON to be sacked after we won a game. I genuinely don't think you actually believe anything you post.

Can you show me the post where I called for him to be sacked after that game? Not sure I said that tbh. I'd let him finish out this campaign regardless of results.

kearney304 wrote: unless you have a direct quote from a player saying MON advised his players not to play ball at home in a qualifier

If you want quotes, look up Keane's press conferences.
If you want evidence, look at all the wild rash kickouts and elbows that went in the last two home games, and the amount of hoofball in both. That's not accident, that is clearly an instruction from the top. You could never accuse Trap's teams of being full of dirty players.

as you saw at the Euros we were exposed and embarrassed. Did you feel embarrassed after Poland? Were you quiet then? I'm sure you were. We lost 1 game in the Group at the Euro's, drew one and won one. We rattled France for an hour.  We beat Bosnia comfortably in the play offs, beat Germany, won out in Vienna plus many more good results. We are top of this Group. It's his 2nd campaign and we have a great chance of qualifying. Talk about rules changing there or Italy B.

He should talk about them, as despite beating Germany, Bosnia, and Italy B, if there was no third place, we would not have gone any further in the tournament. That's where the 10 dropped points against Poland and Scotland come in. Bosnia were no better than Estonia 4 years ago, a team we destroyed away from home, and the only time we ever won an away playoff. Despite winning it the easy way for once, Trap was crucified for doing so with RTE boasting while we were 2 and 3-0 up that "the job wasn't done" when the dogs in Tallinn knew the tie was already over.

I wasn't embarrassed by the results in Poland. We were the weakest side in the championships in the toughest group, playing against the best in Europe, and the results showed it. There's no embarrassment in that, it was great to be there. 37 other nations had to stay at home.

He continues to pick Kevin Doyle in squads over potential like Sean Maguire - seriously we have had this. I'm from Cork and don't think Maguire should be in squad.

He isn't in the squad because he plays LOI, and despite so many ex-LOI players in the current squad, they have been banned from playing for the national side since 1986. He'll be at Preston a wet week and be in the squad. Nothing much will have changed in such a limited time. You can either score goals as a forward or you can't, regardless what league you're in.

thebronze14 wrote: Far better way of doing it instead of everyone including the opposition knowing the team 3 months in advance

And despite knowing all this, very few sides beat us. We lost 5 qualifiers in 5 years with Trap, and lost 1 of 16 away qualifiers. MON lost two in one campaign. Just a year ago, we were getting embarrassed at home by Belarussia. So the advantage of not knowing who will play until ko is?

notpropaganda73 wrote: when you hear the likes of Tardelli coming out and saying Irish players aren't tactically intelligent I think that tells you all you need to know about the type of tactics Trap was always going to employ. It made us hard to beat and we got to a European Championships with it. But I don't think you'll ever hear MON or Roy Keane coming out and calling the players tactically stupid or not able to understand what they're trying to do. I think if there's one thing you can say for Martin O'Neill is that he instills belief in the squad. They battle away because they believe in what is being done. You can't deny that. MON isn't perfect, but he has done decent enough so far. If he gets us to a World Cup you'll have to give him huge credit. So can ye just stop crawing on about Trap, that's done, it's over, just get over it. Are we a better team now than we were under Trap? Yes, I think so.

No we're not. We've mainly got by in the past 4 years on luck and good fortune. We're not a better football side, we don't have better players, we don't have revolutionary tactics, we still haven't shown we can qualify automatically out of a group as of yet, even a group as weak as this. Smash it forward and see what happens is not sophisticated tactics, it's the game at it's most primitive.

Tardelli and Trap bluntly told the truth about the squad, the way Keane used to. They're all adults, if they can't deal with the truth, that's their problem.

The day I stop comparing this regime to the one before is when I see a massive improvement, not more of the same.

planning wrote: No we're not. We've mainly got by in the past 4 years on luck and good fortune. We're not a better football side, we don't have better players, we don't have revolutionary tactics, we still haven't shown we can qualify automatically out of a group as of yet, even a group as weak as this. Smash it forward and see what happens is not sophisticated tactics, it's the game at it's most primitive. Tardelli and Trap bluntly told the truth about the squad, the way Keane used to. They're all adults, if they can't deal with the truth, that's their problem. The day I stop comparing this regime to the one before is when I see a massive improvement, not more of the same.