1/ Randolph

2/Coleman

3/Doherty/Cunningham

4/Duffy

5/Clark

6/Rice

7/Hendrick/Doherty

8/Jimmy Mc

9/Long

10/Brady

11/McClean

 

 

GK-Randolph 

RB-Coleman 

CB-Duffy 

CB-Egan

LB-Stevens

RM-Doherty 

CM-Rice(Arter if he switches to England)

CM-Hendrick 

LM-Brady 

CAM-Browne

ST-McGoldrick 

                                         Randolph

Coleman               Duffy               Clark              Brady

Young Doherty                Arter             Hendrick        McClean 

                                   O'Dowda

                                   McGoldrick

 

Kelly

Rice*

Hendrick

Robinson

Long

O'Dowda

*Shaun Williams if Rice doesn't go with us

McGoldrick is a good shout given his current form and past experience with McCarthy. Hendrick I think will continue to play a prominent role (especially as he is always available). Brady and McCarthy when fit are both likely to start. Randolph is the most to getting the nod, although it’s good to see Westwood playing again. Duffy is a natural starter. Rice will apparently be the lynchpin if he declares for us. At that point I feel it’s anybody’s guess for duffy’s Partner, left back, potential second striker and central midfielder

Coleman Duffy Clark  Stevens

Doherty Rice Arter   Brady

  Robinson

   Long

Coleman

Duffy

K.Long

Cunningham

O'Dowda

Rice

McCarthy

Brady

Robinson

Long

Coleman Duffy Breen Ward 

Doherty Arter Kinsella Brady 

             Long

            Murphy

                    Randolph

Coleman   Duffy   Clark  Stevens

                       Arter

Doherty  Browne  Hourihane Brady

                  McGoldrick

like that a lot

im in 2 minds so will post both

Randolph; Coleman, Duffy, Egan; Doherty, Hendrick, Arter, Brady; O'Dowda, Long,McClean

or

Randolph; Coleman Duffy Clark Cunningham; Doherty Browne Arter McClean; Long McGoldrick

Coleman       Duffy      Egan     Doherty

        McCarthy    Rice    Brady

        Redmond    Long   Obafemi

    

RB COLEMAN

CB DUFFY

CB CLARK

LB BRADY

RM DOHERTY

CM ARTER

CM HENDRICK

LM ROBINSON

CAM BROWNE

ST LONG

Alternatively I wouldn’t mind a 3-5-2 also 

GK-Randolph 

CB-Coleman 

CB-Duffy 

CB-Egan

RWB-Doherty 

LWB-Stevens 

CM-Rice/Arter

CM-Hendrick 

CM-Browne 

ST-McGoldrick 

ST-Long

Coleman 

Duffy

Long

Brady

McCarthy

Arter 

Robinson

McGoldrick

O’Dowda

Long

We have hardly any automatic picks and no squad depth. The dream combination. 

Stevens is having a very good season and deserves a shot

Because of his delivery. 

Me local chipper has a better delivery  ...truth is, its slim picking for a left sided winger with Robinson out injured. Its Brady, McClean or Horgan who all arent up to much at the moment. 

Coleman

Duffy

Clark

Ward

McCarthy

Rice

Brady

O'Dowda

Long

McClean

  Coleman Duffy Egan Stevens

Robinson Browne Rice Arter Brady

                    Long

An Irish supporters forum discussing the national team,  whatever next.

Horgan over O’Dowda? 

Coleman

Duffy

Clark

Cunningham

Doherty

McCarthy

Arter

McClean

Robinson

Long

Could also see Doherty at left back as a possibility

Finnan

Cunningham

Breen

Harte

Duff

Kinsella

Holland

Kilbane

Quinn

Keane

When you consider that Carr, Stan, Dunne, Roy, Carsley, McAteer and Steven Reid were also available for selection, we didn't realise how good we had it.

O’Dowda is in great form at the moment as was Callum Robinson before injury. Those two could be decent options on either wing. 

I see that Robbie came off with a knock vs City yesterday, I’m not sure he will be fully fit in time for Gibraltar / Georgia. 

 

GK - Darren Randolph

 

RB - Seamus Coleman

CB - Shane Duffy

CB - Kevin Long

LB - Greg Cunningham

 

RW - Matt Doherty

DMC - James McCarthy

AMC - Harry Arter

LW - Robbie Brady

 

ST - Shane Long

ST - Jonathan Walters

 

 

GK- Randolph and westwood each playing every week, reasonably well it seems

 

RB- doherty on fire, Christie playing every week seemingly decent, coleman depends on who you ask but hes playing regularly and is our captain

 

LB- stevens playing well for sheff u, ward back from injury and made bench for burnleys last 2 games, Cunningham apparently out of favor at Cardiff but was getting decent game time earlier in season, Williams at Blackburn

 

CH- duffy playing great, egan playing really well, past that still have clark, dunne, Keogh, k long,lenihan etc

 

CM- browne and arter playing well, hourihane seems to be doing reasonably well, hendrick has maybe found a little form, shaun Williams ever present for millwall. McCarthy back from injury. obviously rice would be huge if he stays, not sure what Crowley's status is but that's another option further forward

 

wings- o'dowda in great form, brady returning from injury, horgan and mcgeady seem to be playing regularly/decent.

 

fwd- mcgoldrick, s long, Hogan, Maguire, Curtis, O'Brien, obafemi. potentially bamford joining up. callum robinson was also quite good before his injury.

corpus is the man , he has never let us down , we just need to keep him out of midfield.. jaysis 

From that the team should probably look like:

Randolph

Coleman

Duffy

Egan

Stevens

Arter

Browne

Hendrick

Brady

Long

O'Dowda

You forgot McClean on the wing too btw. Still has something to offer though prefer Brady on the left.

Matt Doherty has to start! He has been our most inform player in the Premier League. Seamus Coleman has been completely out of sorts all season so if it’s a choice between him and Doherty for right back then it has to be Doherty. However as others have said on here we probably could play Doherty as a right midfielder and Coleman as the right back. Alternatively in a 5-3-2 we could play Coleman as a centre back and Doherty as the right wing back. Since we are probably most lacking in the striking department for inform players in comparison to midfield and defence I would probably favour a 4-5-1 of:

Coleman

Duffy

Keogh

Stevan's

Doherty

Rice

Hendrick

Brown

Odowda

Long

That's our best performing eleven playing in the top two divisions. Brady, McLean are just not preforming this season.

Given his history with McCarthy and the fact that he is actually scoring goals you have to assume mcgoldrick is probably leading the way. If Maguire, can score a few over the next month he might be in with a shout. 

You cannot play Hendrick or Browne / Hourihane in the same midfield. Only one out of the three can play. 

McGoldrick will feature somewhere, as will Callum O’Dowda and Callum Robinson when he returns from injury. 

Mick may opt for Westwood over Randolph too imo. 

Anybody’s guess as to who starts in midfield.

 

agreed on most of above but especially on this, exciting young players who should both be first choice (robinson whenever he is healthy again )

We could play a 3-5-2/5-3-2 of:

GK-Randolph 

RCB-Coleman 

CB-Duffy 

LCB-Egan

RWB-Doherty 

RCM-Arter

CM-Browne 

LCM-Hendrick 

LWB-Stevens 

ST-McGoldrick 

ST-Robinson 

Coleman    Duffy    Egan     Doherty

            Arter    Rice     Brown

      Robinson    Long   O'Dowda

.. Coleman ... Duffy....Egan....Stevens..

..................   Rice ........................

..... Doherty ............. Browne ..........

................   Crowley ...................

......... Obafemi ........ O'Dowda ....

Edit: Adding Johansson to secure him to the green ;-) 

Such effort 

Once Johansson plays for the U-21's he's tied to us. 

Is he not tied once the switch goes in? Or was he never officially with anybody else?

Has to play I think

You don't need to play for a switch to go through, just the paperwork. Grealish was gone as soon as the paperwork went through.

True that. They're not required to play. Can only switch once, so will be tied regardless. 

I just think for too long under Trap and O'Neill team selections went stale and just got so predictable!

For sure the argument will be that someone like Alan Browne isn't going to look like Iniesta in place of Hourihane or whoever, but that's not the point. The point is to see our form players at club level getting a chance to stake a claim to start for Ireland. 

We really need to step away from being a team that's renowned for just plugging holes in the first 11 and develop proper systems and use the correct formations (whatever they may be) to suit the players we have available and if there's a situation where Coleman and Doherty are playing brilliantly, then let's see the manager try and squeeze both of them into the side.

I'd find it hard to see him being as negative as O'Neill for one anyway so one would like to believe we will start having a proper go at teams (especially at home)

My point was more focused on the selection of form players at club level anyhow. 

Randolph; Coleman, Duffy, Keogh, Stevens; Doherty, Hendrick, Arter, Browne, O'Dowda; Long

 

                      Randolph

 

             Randolph

Coleman Duffy Egan Stevens

        Arter McCarthy

Doherty Browne O'Dowda

            McGoldrick

Doherty left back wud ya go way wud ya

------------Randolph

Coleman--Duffy--Egan--Stevens

Doherty--Arter--Hendrick--O'Dowda

------------Browne--------------

------------Obafemi-------------

Coleman Duffy Egan Doherty

               McCarthy

            Browne Brady 

 O’Dowda                  Robinson

               Maguire

If Robinson is still out, put Brady on the left and a cat in the middle. If the cat is out, Arter or Hendrick.

I cant believe the amount of people still going for Brady and McCarthy.

Brady has been abysmal for club and country for almost 2 years but with his injuries and lack of game time its halted any chance hes had to turn his form around.

...and its too soon for McCarthy, he needs a run of games in him. Its a tough one to come back from and you dont want to be throwing him straight in having only played a few minutes in the reserves.

We just need to pick our in form players at present, id go for

+1 This Brady obsession is baffling.

Id take that team but with long up front, it would be great too see a team picked on form but considering we are up against the rock and georgia i think shane needs to start should he fluke a goal or two it might give him a jump start. I firmly believe if he starts scoring at all we will make the euros.

The three of them are luxury players, teams like us can just about afford to fit one of them in the starting eleven. 

Our best chance of getting any creativity into the team is to play two sluggers in the middle, with one of Browne, Hourihane or Hendrick in front. 

Put O’Dowda on one wing and Robinson on the other and lump a few balls into the box. 

I think Mick will go something like this in midfield; 

O’Dowda-Arter-Browne-Williams-Robinson.

armahibee wrote: Id take that team but with long up front, it would be great too see a team picked on form but considering we are up against the rock and georgia i think shane needs to start should he fluke a goal or two it might give him a jump start. I firmly believe if he starts scoring at all we will make the euros.

I do like Long, he works his bollocks off for 90mins and tries his best but hes just not a natural goalscorer and it isnt just going to click for him now at 32.

Hes best at holding up play and having a go at tiring defenders. So Id rather see McGoldrick start since hes the one banging them in, with Long to come off the bench later in the game. A goal or 2 would probably help McGoldrick get going more than Long IMO.

On reflection I agree with you 100%. It’s very unlikely Mick will play more than one out of Hendrick/Hourihane/Browne in midfield.

One of Meyler/Whelan/McCarthy usually accompanied Arter and Hendrick in a midfield trio for the last 2 qualifying campaigns and Euro 2016. With the lack of game time and injury problems for McCarthy and Meyler’s drop down to League 1, Shaun Williams should probably start for Ireland as that defensive midfielder. Honestly I do think it makes most sense to go with a back 3. Matt Doherty and Enda Stevens are two of our most inform and consistent performers. They both play as wing backs for their respective clubs in Wolves and Sheffield United. There’s no guarantee that they would be as effective in a back 4. Should we really jepordise the form of 2 of our most inform players by playing them out of position. In the case of Matt Doherty particularly, should we really be playing him as a right midfielder or left back just to shoehorn an out of form Seamus Coleman into the team as right back! Playing Doherty as left back would also mean Enda Stevens would be on the bench which is surely a negative. We should be playing to our strengths. Another positive with the 3-5-2 is that we can play two strikers. I do think we really struggle when playing a lone striker up top. Long really has no hope when he’s just running after aimless long balls which is hopefully a thing of the past anyway. However I do think some of our best performances under O’Neill was when he played Murphy and Long up front in a 4-4-2 diamond! The games against Italy and France at Euro 2016 are prime examples of that. I thought we looked far more dangerous with Murphy as a target man who would complement Long’s pace. The problem with the 4-4-2 diamond is that it leaves us quite open in midfield and defence which Eriksen and Denmark showed us in the 1-5 drubbing. I don’t think a 3-5-2 formation would cause us those problems as you have 3 central midfielders and it can become a 5-3-2 when the wing backs track back! If you look at our current striking options McGoldrick stands out as the most inform striker with an impressive 10 goals for promotion chasing Sheffield United. However McGoldrick plays in a 3-5-2 with his striking partner Billy Sharpe up top! McGoldrick might not be as effective playing as a lone striker for us. So playing a 3-5-2 would also play into our strikers strengths not just our wing backs. The injured Robinson at Preston should probably partner McGoldrick up front for us if we take into account goals scored this season but you could make arguments for the likes of Long, Maguire and Obafemi. Taking into account all the above I think this is our strongest team. I admit Coleman may not be suitable at centre back but since he is one of our few top premier league players on his day I think it would be no harm giving him a try at it like the English did with Kyle Walker. I also accept that playing a 3-5-2 would rule out playing the inform Callum O’Dowda. I do think the pros largely outweigh the cons but that’s just my opinion along with the rest of this rabble 😂😂😂!
 

I’d be happy with that although hendrick coming into a bit of form 

A fair enough side. 

Re: Brady, he is one of the very few players who can pass and move and actually open up space. I literally cannot think of another midfielder who can do that other than (funnily enough) Williams. Even though he has been desperate the last couple of years, I still hope that mick can bring some of the old magic out of him

With the first game against Gibraltar this is how I think the line up is going to be

............................Randolph..........................

Coleman.......Duffy............Clarke.......Stevens

Doherty......Arter..............Hendrick.....O'Dowda

......................Mcgoldrick...........................

.....................Long..................................

There are a lot of lads out injured or just coming back like Robinson, McCarthy, Ward, Maguire, Brady etc but can't see them being fit or sharp enough for a starting place, maybe Maguire if he keeps continues playing & scoring.

Browne has a better chance of starting than Arter Hendrick. He's an absolute shoe in on current form.

I don't think so, I would be surprised if Browne started, he has very little international experience and has not proved himself at that level, Arter & Hendrick have. I could see brown coming off the bench tho. 

Until after the Denmark game in June I can see Mick starting players that have a bit of international experience behind them because he doesn't have enough time to work with the players.

 

duffy/ keogh

 

clark /egan

 

cunningham/ stevens

 

doherty/ hendrick

 

Maccarthy / hendrick

 

arter /browne

 

mcclean/ brady

 

odowda/ mcgoldrick

 

long/hogan

 

Thank god Stephen Kenny is going to be on the way in soon. As it's this type of attitude that needs to be eradicated. We're playing Georgia and Gibraltar for god's sake. 

Roberto Baggio wrote: Browne Rice would have been a tasty midfield

I dunno. I personally would have found it stodgy.

 

What about Long Browne Rice?

 

 

     Coleman Duffy Egan

Doherty Arter Browne Brady

             O'Dowda

         Long Robinson

Now that's a lot better. With Robinson out for so long, switch him for McGoldrick 

I think he said that his old way of playing would be inadequate these days as there is a need nowadays for midfield control. With Kenny using 4-1-4-1 in the under 21's I expect we will line up the same way.