World Cup Qualification Group D Thread

Fergie is an arrogant prick. That's why he spoke so positively. 1000's of managers since then have spoken the same words but ended up with egg on their face. It turned out, Fergie was a great manager but it helped that he was at a massive club.

Can't compare Fergie with MON for what MON is trying to achieve.

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Edited by Hickster74 - 15 Oct 2016 at 11:46am

I never said management was easy or that you have to be arrogant. I stated that successful people in sport rellish high expectations and thrive on them.  They enjoy being the favourite and living up to it.  I am sick of us always needing to be underdogs and having the manager play down our chances against the likes of Serbia or Georgia as if a draw would be a great result.  I think this playing the underdog card feeds into the players minds whether he says it in private or not.  It doesnt look like it to me that he send Ireland out to win every game.  Georgia away, Scotland away, Poland away, Serbia away...It looks like he is happy to play for draws away.  Tacticallly on the pitch and also in his interviews. He definitely played for a draw away to Georgia in 2014.  Why are we playing for draws away to the likes of Georgia and Serbia?  They are difficult but very beatable.  We have been to 2 major championships out of the last 3. Why are we afraid? Where were Serbia and Georgia? Theres a reason for us not winning away in generations.  Its not ability.   Its that killer instinct, a belief that a win is not something that is unrealistic, or unattainable.  The lads sh*t themselves because they think winning away is not supposed to happen.

Here's an example. You can take the pre match Georgia press conference as the opposite to this.  I would like to hear him say with conviction before every game ''that we are playing to win. That we are always disappointed not to win every game.  We play to win.  Of course we know that we wont win every game but that is our aim.  We respect Serbia/Georgia and know it will be a difficult game but we are here to get 3 points.''

You don't have to be an underdog to be focused and avoid complacency.

Trap junior wrote: I never said management was easy or that you have to be arrogant. I stated that successful people in sport rellish high expectations and thrive on them.  They enjoy being the favourite and living up to it.  I am sick of us always needing to be underdogs and having the manager play down our chances against the likes of Serbia or Georgia as if a draw would be a great result.  I think this playing the underdog card feeds into the players minds whether he says it in private or not.  It doesnt look like it to me that he send Ireland out to win every game.  Georgia away, Scotland away, Poland away, Serbia away...It looks like he is happy to play for draws away.  Tacticallly on the pitch and also in his interviews. He definitely played for a draw away to Georgia in 2014.  Why are we playing for draws away to the likes of Georgia and Serbia?  They are difficult but very beatable.  We have been to 2 major championships out of the last 3. Why are we afraid? Where were Serbia and Georgia? Theres a reason for us not winning away in generations.  Its not ability.   Its that killer instinct, a belief that a win is not something that is unrealistic, or unattainable.  The lads sh*t themselves because they think winning away is not supposed to happen. Here's an example. You can take the pre match Georgia press conference as the opposite to this.  I would like to hear him say with conviction before every game ''that we are playing to win. That we are always disappointed not to win every game.  We play to win.  Of course we know that we wont win every game but that is our aim.  We respect Serbia/Georgia and know it will be a difficult game but we are here to get 3 points.'' You don't have to be an underdog to be focused and avoid complacency.

MC Hammered wrote: You're right TJ, let's lobby the FAI to hire Phil Brown. He talks a great game and sets expectations sky high. On the subject of positivity, I remember this Italian lad who used to manage us who thought all our players were technically rubbish, so much so that our full backs couldn't leave our half and we played horrific hoofball. He said we didn't even have a national league and thought our lads were so bad that he couldn't be bothered to go and watch them. What was his name again? I'd say he had the players brimming with confidence

I think their respective CV's speak for themselves.

One is a genuine football legend and the other is Martin O Neill.

Anyway back on topic. Can we not stop with this underdog sh*te? Its not doing us any favours.

@TJ, Ranieri had a very similar approach to O'Neill when facing the media and talking about his team's chances. He constantly spoke of them getting to the 40 points mark and be safe from relegation even when it was glaringly obvious that they were very well positioned for European football. Do you think he was saying to his team behind the scenes that a point away to Sunderland would be a good result as it would edge them closer to safety?

Not all successful managers have to big themselves up all the time.

Talking our chances down in front of the press doesn't mean he is talking our chances down behind closed doors.

The players have the performances in them as we've already seen many times so i think its down to management and tactics. I'm guessing O Neill is telling them keep it tight for a certain period and if we go a goal down he gives them free reign to equalize and then its back to basics. Its blatantly obvious that's whats happening as we've seen it time and time again.

The game in Warsaw though was just bizarre as we had nothing to lose but just sat back and did nothing and that's why i'm pessimistic about the rest of our away games.

Trap junior wrote: We don't have the balls to win a group.  Even if we are in pole position with a 2 or 3 games to go I can see us snatching the playoff spot from the jaws of victory. We have a serious lack of belief that we can be group winners.   Might be wrong but I don't think I have heard MON once say this is a winnable group. We seem to set our sights low.  We try to 'nick' a playoff spot.  I hate when I hear our manager talking about 'nicking a goal' as if doing so would be against the run of play, against what is expected, against all odds as if we are a loser team who hope to fluke the ball into the net and somehow get out of dodge.  He talks about nicking goals against average teams.  We should be talking ourselves up more. Its not technical or physical ability that has never seen us win away against anyone of decent ability in 30 years, and Scotland in 1987 were not really a top team at all even though they had some good players.  Its pure inferiority complex bred into us.

Edited by rolo - 15 Oct 2016 at 7:06pm

I think we've a real chance to top this group, a serious chance. We haven't been in this position for over a decade, now we need to build confidence if we get a result in Austria I fully expect to us to END Wales attempts to make the WC by defeating them in Dublin.

Edited by SByrne24 - 16 Oct 2016 at 1:05am