Shane Long is our main man backed up by Johnny Walters.

We need Hogan to come off the bench at the 70th minute or so and drive at the bloody goal. The fact we've tried James McClean as a striker a few times now.. is worrying.

Stokes has two votes 

Sarcasm.

Sammon and Keogh up front with Paul Green playing just behind them.

Anthony Stokes parents are obviously here too.

Injuries have prevented us from finding out if that theory is right, but looking at all those crosses going in from Hayes, Horgan & Brady last night, Long is an excellent header of the ball who tries to time jumps, take a step away from the CB to make a bit of space & place headers where the keeper cant get to it, but everything has to be perfect for that to happen, the cross, the run, the timing of the jump etc. 

Murphy will just go up there anyway, directly take on the CB, won't really give a damn what the defender is doing and even if he doesn't win the ball, the defender probably won't either. It won't look anything near as pretty, but it can be as effective. 

I said in the match thread last night that I thought the players who had their reputations enhanced the most last night (and throw in the Wales game as well) were Hoolahan & Murphy. For Long's biggest strength (his pace) to be utilised, you need either something of an accurate or lucky long ball, or a defence splitting pass at the right time. Whatever about the first option, the 2nd one is seemingly only something Hoolahan is capable of doing on a regular basis. 

He also seems to link up well with Long, as in the 2 seem to have a good understanding, Wes where Long will run to & the type of run he makes, Long for anticipation as to where Wes will put the ball.  Long doesn't look as effective for us without Hoolahan. 

Murphy is a whole other option, completely different player and not much movement, nearly none at all in comparison to Long. But lump enough crosses or long high balls at him & one or 2 will stick, and closer to goal, he will simply bully defenders rather than try anything too clever. But you don't need Hoolahan for Murphy to be effective, you only need a few decent crosses or long balls, we have been doing that forever as a team, and I think this factor will come in to MONs thinking in future games, provided Murphy is fit for them. 

Shane Long by a country mile.

I agree that Murphy has become his first choice  and it is perfectly understandable. He doesn't have Walters work rate or Long's mobility but his positioning in the box for crosses is far and away the best we have and is probably the best finisher we have too, hardly a ringing endorsement! When you watch him play he is always either getting his head on a cross or very close,compare that with the last fifteen minutes on Friday.

 He is also the best target man of the three because he doesn't move, you don't have to look up to know where Murphy is! He must be given huge credit on how he is worked at his game over the past year, I didn't want him near the squad 12 months back.

Because after Long,Murphy and Walters are options are all grand honest lads who aren't very good!

 

 

 

 I thought I put him in

 

He's been gone for the last 4 or 5 years

 

*our

Long (31 in Jan 2018)

Walters (34 in Sept 2017)

Murphy (35 in March 2018)

in that order.

We are fine for this WC campaign but in 2 years time we will have a massive gap up front.

The question should be who is likely going to fill that gap.

But he is effective enough in some games in the game plan that we play

 

 

We need to forget about these long balls forward to a big man and half the time I think having a big man up front makes it an easy decision for a defender to lump it long whereas with a smaller guy, we may need to take a more sensible approach and keep it on the deck.

 

Also means we can accommodate Ward, McClean and Brady v Austria.

Jaysis. That is a fairly mental suggestion. 

Woah Woah woah. There's a big difference playing as a number 10 as the most advanced midfielder of a central 3 and playing as a striker. I can see Robbie playing in a central role as Wes does and as he himself has done for us previously. I do not see him as a central striker unless we are going down the false 9 route (which we absolutely will not be doing any time soon)

 

My exact sentiments. Use the speed of Long while he still has it, and use the size of Walters.

Given our propensity for mostly long ball hoofs, why not?

Has McClean been tried as the main striker yet?

Given the age of our current batch and with no likely candidates coming through playing at higher levels, we will be back to the good old days of make shift strikers. It's not so long that Brian Kerr played centre back Gary Doherty as a makeshift striker, although he had some experience of the role at club level.

ETA: When Walters plays as a winger he does an enormous amount of defensive duties. I don't think we'd get the same mileage out of him as the main striker.

And, according to Norwich fans anyway, playing him in that position was the most mental of all Alex Neil's mad decisions and didn't work! Most of them, like me, believe Brady to be a very good winger and, at a push, a decent wing-back, he isn't a central player at all.

I think we could try Westwood there, he plays there in training, is very strong and has a powerful shot.

He actually fits the MON criteria of the tall striker / good in the air hold the ball up that's why.

Hence why the likes of Murphy, Walters and Long are preferred, even Doyle fits the criteria hence why he got the nod - 

Seanie Maguire will never be considered as #1 because of that. And neither will any of the more crazy suggestions in the thread. But Sheridan is a fine shout. 

They are preferred as they are our best  three options!

Have any of the resident geeks on here got the stats for Longs goals for Ireland off the bench vs when he starts? 

His competitive goals are:

Russia (H) 2010

Poland (H) 2015

Gibraltar (A) 2015

Germany (H) 2015

Moldova (A) 2016

Interesting. Cheers for that. 

We get absolutely bossed in midfield when we go 4-4-2

I just added his penalties, I can't be arsed working out how many of his 36 starts were in competitive games!

We got bossed in midfield when we play 4-5-1 too! I think there is an argument to be made for Walters and Long up top with the former dropping in to midfield when the opposition have the ball. Let's be honest, if we are starting Hendrick it is essentially 2 in the middle.

said it before, but I think a 3-5-2/5-3-2 is the answer with the players we have - we can set that up as a defensive one or a more attacking one.. either way it protects us in midfield and still gives us 2 up front. 

defensive:

GK

O'Shea Duffy Clark

Coleman Ward

McCarthy Whelan

Hendrick

Walters Murphy

Balanced:

GK

Clark Duffy      Keough

Christie Brady

McCarthy Arter

Hoolohan

  Long Murphy

probably as good a team we could field in that formation, nowhere for mcClean tho

I suppose I was going for if everyone was available - I chose McClean over Brady for the left wingback slot in the attacking formation as I think you'd get more running out of him. 

I like your team too - I still might plump for O'Shea ahead of Keogh but really any 3 of our 4 best centre halves would do a decent job. 

The crucial thing is that it gives us a good attacking trio that will hopefully be close together on the pitch while still keeping the solidity in the middle of the park that we often lack when we push too far forward. I think it could help us to hold on to the ball a bit better too - we'd normally have spare players in positions other teams haven't covered due to the difference in formations.. 

don't see MON doing it either, but I do think that system would address a lot of the problems the team has - it could, of course, throw up a lot of other ones that I haven't considered!! 

Airtime being the appropriate word, on many levels.

Scotty's thread has recently broken the 1000 replies barrier. A major achievement for someone who's never actually played for us.

               Randolph

    Christie Keogh Clark Ward

               McCarthy

     Brady                McClean

                Hoolahan

          Long      Murphy/Walters