Long and Clark. 

We can win this football match, clear our lines and make sure Jankos' knock downs are cleared into Row Z, McCarthy needs to keep track of Alaba and let Shane Long, McClean drive the f**k at their defence that is exactly what Hungary did at the Euros to them, look how that went.

Can't wait for this.

At least thats only two goals against. If Peter Stoger took time off posting here, and went back to the day job it would be 3 goals.

Indeed. Two w**kers 

 Heard Harry Ramdsens are sponsoring the game

Touche 

no Austrian cards yet

Austria will be strong.  They dominated against Wales in Vienna and Wales were a little lucky to get the draw.  Their team is made up of pretty much of Bundesliga players, with a good few in the better clubs like Bayer Leverkusen and Werder Bremen.  

And they have the Irish bete noir and today's answer to Toni Polster: David Alaba.

They definitely have a lot of ability and are great on the ball, but one alarming thing for them is that they are leaking goals like there is no tomorrow : conceded six goals already when they only conceded five in their qualifying group for Euro 2016.

Agree fully with this. Getting results in football is all about momentum and this away game to Austria couldn't have come at a better time in that sense. Obviously I would take the draw now if you offered it to me but there is the potential to win this game and make potential qualification a lot easier and a lot less stressful.

 

A seeded play off really is a booby prize and whilst this Group is incredibly tough with so many decent teams it's probably one of the easier groups to top in the sense it doesn't have a stand out top class team. We can dare to dream.

Get a draw out in Vienna (a win would be incredible) and back ourselves in Dublin. We have a real chance here. The other teams will have seen our home record over the last couple of years and with Austria and Wales already losing ground they won't fancy having to come to Dublin to try and make it up

If in the next month the likes of Murphy, Westwood, Arter, and McGeady can regain fitness, and Gibson can force his way back into the Everton set-up post injury, and if Hogan can be convinced to join the squad, and Pilkington could re-find favour, we would appear with a genuine opportunity to take more than a single point from the game.

 

It would take a few injuries across the board for this line-up to happen. Ward is no.1 LB so will be in there. I'd prefer to have o'shea alongside duffy at the back, although I reckon Keogh is probably more of a happy medium. As much as I'd like to see arter in there, I'm not sure he'll be thrown straight into the action having not played in a qualifying match before. o'dowda on the bench, and long will most certainly be starting. and unless McCarthy is ruled out with injury, he always starts.

 

Randolph

 

Coleman

O'Shea

Duffy

Ward

 

Walters

Hendrick

McCarthy

Brady

McClean

 

Long

 

It would take a few injuries across the board for this line-up to happen. Ward is no.1 LB so will be in there. I'd prefer to have o'shea alongside duffy at the back, although I reckon Keogh is probably more of a happy medium. As much as I'd like to see arter in there, I'm not sure he'll be thrown straight into the action having not played in a qualifying match before. o'dowda on the bench, and long will most certainly be starting. and unless McCarthy is ruled out with injury, he always starts.

 

Randolph

 

Coleman

O'Shea

Duffy

Ward

 

Walters

Hendrick

McCarthy

Brady

McClean

 

Long

Arter has to start. He is one of the real form players we have. It doesnt matter whether he has played a competitive game or not. He is a mid 20's mature player. get him in the team

And doing well in the PL. Arter is a player with serious potential, and I hope that it won't happen 5 years from now that new management sees it that way, like we have done with Hoolahan.

I think Walters is starting to look his age on the pitch. Pity coz he was good player for us. He's still there or there abouts for a starting position in my eyes but definitely looks like he's starting to slide.

Looked ragged out wide but more assured and held the ball up well when moved central.

Let's not forget that he is lacking sharpness himself and probably not quite at 100%. 

We've scored one goal in Vienna in 52 years and we lost that game 3-1, they are our ultimate bogey team. 

I guess Long, Brady, Hoolahan etc didn't have a good game 52 years ago 

well in terms of austria, we are already 3 points ahead of them so in theory, matching their results and 2 draws sees us finish ahead of them.  beating Serbia at home and matching their results, sees us finish ahead of them (for instance we would need them drawing in vienna also which isnt beyond possible).

that then leaves a straight fight out for top spot between us and wales. 

I'd look at it more like we're a point ahead of Austria - one point where they didn't get one. We still have to go out and win in Georgia

It's a strange one, we actually have a far superior record against Germany in recent decades.

I've a sneaking suspicion the reason is though that both times we met Austria in the last twenty years or so, we were a team in decline. Played them back to back in 1995 right at the end of Charlton's reign when we weren't playing well and then met them twice in 2013, again when Trap's team was seriously on the wane. We've never actually played them in recent decades at a time when we were in good form.

McGeady

Pearce

McShane 

Doyle 

Done nothing for too long now, I'd bring in

Horgan

Hogan

Hourihane 

Egan

Fresher, hungrier and able to fight for starting places 

In general I'd agree but I think when you have a serious amount of injuries your going to deviate towards having a bit of experience there

As mentioned previously by others, it would be nice to see some fresh faces instead of some of the dead wood but doubt it will happen.

Would like to think were capable of grabbing the win as I dont think Austria are as good as they were in recent years.

Playing in Ireland taking points off Dutch and Israeli teams but it's nothing cos he hasn't done a cold windy night in Inverness yet 

A loss would not be the end of the world TBH but we need to win at the same time and leave 2016 on a high. This game will be completely different to the last 2. Sadly i can see it going like Glasgow 2014 and we will narrowly lose this game

A lot of people here think we have Hogan in the bag but theres still a lot of discussions/ground work to go and it may not be completed in time for the Austria game. There is a chance he might not be as good as hes made out to be and if he starts the game there will be huge pressure on him (same goes for Arter) 

Expect Georgia to beat Moldova and Wales/Serbia is a hard one to call but i think Wales will scrape it. If we lose than the table will look like this (Wales top on 8 pts, ourselves, Austria and Serbia joint 2nd with 7pts each and Georgia 5th (4pts) 

 

The Scotland defeat rocked us back on our heels in 2014. It meant we lost a huge amount of momentum in the group and very nearly cost us qualification. It's absolutely vital we don't lose in Vienna, not with only two teams in contention to get out of the group.

As for Hogan, now is the time for him to declare his interest (or not). If he tries any stalling tactics, we can forget about him. If a player doesn't want to play for a team who are top of their qualifying group, or needs more time to think about it, then he's not worth bothering with.

Not to mention the Serb keeper in Belgrade

 

i think part of the problem we have if you could call it that, is our center halves are too proned to passing it long. we need to unearth two center halves that are comfortable playing it out. 

 

actually that's not what I was getting out , there will at least one game I believe..........

There's a few changes I would make also. I'd start by bringing Keogh in for Duffy. I was surprised he was left out of the games recently. Was he carrying a knock or seriously out of form at Derby (I know they've had a terrible start to the season)? He started the last two games at the Euro's and the first game of the campaign in Serbia. Anyway, I think his experience will be crucial. There's too many mistakes in a partnership of Duffy & Clark. 

I agree that Walters has looked laboured out on the right lately. Obviously a lack of game time at Stoke isn't helping, but he looked much better when moved centrally after Long went off. He is much more effective there. I think he is wasted on the wing and it also becomes too easy for the defenders to just launch hopeful/wasteful balls out to him like we painfully witnessed v Georgia. He doesn't really have many options for knocking the ball onto out there. I think it has to be a case of starting one of either Walters or Long up top. That in turn gives us a very good attacking option to come off the bench. It probably makes more sense for Long to be the one to come on as a sub as he can then run at the tiring defence. 

This then allows someone like Hendrick to play in a more narrow role on the right to give the midfield more options and make it more solid. Or perhaps maybe he'd try an orthodox winger out there, although there's not too many options. I'd love the base of the midfield to be McCarthy and Arter but I'm not sure MON will throw Arter in from the start. I don't think the midfield three of McCarthy, Hendrick and Brady that we saw against Georgia is strong enough to be honest, especially for a game like Austria away. Personally I would have Brady on the bench for this one (awaits backlash). I don't think we should be trying to wedge players into positions and then not having much quality to bring off the bench. If you go with the below starting 11 you have serious talent in Long and Brady to come on and change things. 

                                                       Randolph

Coleman Keogh Clark Ward

                                           McCarthy             Arter

                 Hendrick                          Hoolahan                                 McClean

                                                       

                                                         Walters

There's no way this will be the team though   I fully expect it to be the same starting 11 as the Georgia game with the exception of Duffy more than likely being dropped. 

I reckon 1-1 but I think we could nick a 1-2 

Coleman O'Shea Clark Ward

                                           McCarthy             Hendrick

                 McClean                            Hoolahan                          Brady

                                                       

                                                         Walters

Arter will be a sub.  MON is not just going to throw him in against Austria. Long is better coming off the bench IMO and Walters is a good player for us playing centrally.

Don't get me wrong I'd be happy with a point if you were giving me one now, but in all seriousness it's Austria away we're playing not Argentina. 

McCarthy can hold, you have Arter beside him and Weso just off Walters or Long you have players who can retain possession. McClean is a willing runner, as is Hendrick who imo is suited to playing on the wing in international football as its limits his responsibility to demand the ball. 

Yes, absolutely. McClean is the one with all the pace and dynamism, but can't touch Brady for technique. He's the one you want on at 60 minutes

 

That's funny as I could've sworn we beat 2 in the last year in crunch games that ended up qualifying us.

 

I just we're in for a tough night against a team that know they can't afford to drop any more home points against another of their group rivals. Obviously it's great that we have had good results but to me a draw would be the best we're probably going to get. I would love to see us get right at their defence which'll be very nervous when they're up against a pacey player like Long.

 

I think Long will be one of the very players we can't really afford to lose for this one.

 

Germany & Italy you loon!!