World Cup 2018 Group C- FRA/AUS/PER/DEN

Completely agree. A lot of dreamers on here 

I'm not entirely convinced that we couldnt represent ourselves reasonably well at the World Cup. I would make the following points.

1.By the time we met Denmark we were down Coleman, McCarthy and Walters. We also had Shane Long sitting on the bench and struggling for goalscoring form. That was a major blow, and would effect any team.

2.Our tactics had become more and more blunderbuss as the qualification tournament went on. By the time we met Denmark in Dublin we were anchored by Duffy, Meyler, and Murphy, with a very flat and bypassed midfield, and we were expecting McClean to continue to be our inspiration (and had he scored from his breakaway things could have been different).

3.The extent of the defeat was totally compounded by decisions to withdraw Meyler and Arter for Hoolahan and McGeady, and then taking out Clark rather than Ward or Christie. The first half outcome was a result of poor mentality, the second half was the product of poor tactics. I am not a football manager, but I would always have thought the most sensible approch would have been to withdraw Christie and Ward, and replace them with Hoolahan and Long, with Brady and Meyler dropping back into defence. An equaliser could have changed the course of the game before introducing McGeady to try and run directly at the Danish defence.

4.I appreciate that we certainly got numerous rubs of the green during qualification, but we were difficult to beat at the same time.

I would like to think that at full strength we should be able to remain competitive, and that we are not as bad as the Denmark game suggested. But I think trust needs to be vested in the team to actually play ball. As ive said, this World Cup has shown me that defensive systems can be employed without playing the type of football we have been.

And the fact that we picked up one point against two ten-man teams in Dublin needed to be examined. I think the players we have are good enough to make us competitive and play reasonably attractive football. But the tactics HAVE to change. The bypassing of midfield is our major problem.

I actually think its the type of long ball we play is the major issue. When we actually started making inroads against Austria in Dublin was when we brought on Murph to join Walters at the top. But for most of the group we separated our one striker from the midfield, which seemed to be dropping very deep, was bypassed anyway, and was unwilling to put its foot on the ball. The hoof ball was being played to an isolated striker, who was easily swallowed up on arrival.

When I really think about it, its a very limited, limited form of football.

We were lucky in some ways but desperately unlucky with injuries at the same time. 

That world cup group isn't as difficult imo as the Euro 2016 one which we did well to get out of. Played well in the Sweden and Italian games. There's no reason why we couldn't have done as well as we did in France. Didn't see much of the Denmark-Peru game but I'd imagine we'd have had our backs to the wall in that and hope to get a draw. 

Jack played long ball with Quinn and Cascarino playing alongside David Kelly, John Aldridge, or Tommy Coyne (i'm not sure how tall John Byrne was). Before Mick went to the highly technically gifted frontline of Keane and Duff, he used Quinn and Cascarino in the same role, and Quinn happened to be a particularly gifted player with the ball on the ground. Trappatoni obviously liked it too, with Doyle playing as a form of target man.

The difficulty currently is that there is the target man, but not always the man to reach the drop offs, and with the disconnect it is a futile strategy. If Long or Maguire plays off Walters that would make a lot more sense if the long ball will be employed.

Spot on.

I'm sick of saying it, but we need a midfielder. We will never do anything without one.