I predict and would take a 1-0 right now.

You would hope a big home crowd we might get over the line.

Then away to Denmark and if we could steal a draw home to Gibraltar then

we could have 10 points after 4 games. And if mick is as good as tactuation as we are lead to believe  he might have us in some shape and with few granny rulers up front who knows.

That being said Georgia at 5\1 Tuesday is not a bad bet

I think there needs to be a holding midfielder, but that can’t sacrifice a player up top. Essentially a similar way to how we set up against Sweden in 2016 would make sense.

Neither is it Hendrick or Hourihane, as they so ineptly showed yesterday. I don't think we have a solution, but we do have a more structured midfield when Whelan plays.

He is the best we got and that tells it's own story

scrappy goal

Georgia had no penetration and nothing going forward yesterday for all that they can knock it about a bit in midfield, we should be compact and resolute enough to keep them out, and if its 0-0 for a while can see them sitting on that

I expect there will be changes though, just not as many as I would like.

We were very lucky to start Mick's tenure with such a weak fixture. Imagine if the opening game had been away to Switzerland.

Dunno. Might have been better.

Different set up. Probably only 1 up front. Stronger midfield. Playing a team that won't play 11 behind the ball. We would have less possession, which would play to our strengths more.

I still think yesterday was a freak. And unfortunate for the players and Mick, it was the opening to a new tenure. 

Who would you bring in PM? 

The midfield is key in every game, we can't be humping the ball away all game and in games where the impetus is on us to control the ball, like yesterday and Tuesday, we probably need a 'horses for courses' approach. We need a midfield structure of some sort and stop being so wasteful. I know we don't have world beaters to come in, but some semblance of intelligence in picking the team and tactics. 

I couldn't understand the logic of that midfield before the game and I understand it less afterwards. Hendrick and Hourihane are two lads who get slaughtered by their club fans for going missing for their teams, they don't regularly play as central midfielders in a 4-4-2, so sticking them  together in such a system seemed bizarre.  Neither of them ever demanded the ball and set the tempo and regularly played hopeful, and often dangerous, percentage balls.  I don't think we have two midfielders good enough to play 4-4-2, maybe Mick thought it would work against Gibraltar,, but his attempts to rectify it don't fill me with hope! If Hendrick has to play it should be in front of two players who will cover him when he loses it and who will also look for the ball from defence.

                      Randolph

Coleman     Duffy       Egan      Stevens

              Whelan        Arter

Doherty         Hendrick           Brady

                     Maguire 

Something like that should see us structured  enough to get a foothold in the game and compete with Georgia in midfield,where they do look capable. Then,  if we start to dominate the game without scoring then you can look to change it a bit, but we have to get a hold of games against Gibraltar and Georgia. Yesterday, it felt like Mick put out an eleven that was individually most likely to score. Every player seemed a goal threat, but without a modicum of organisation or structure to help them do that.

I agree with most of what you said and absolutely agree with getting the midfield right. It is bizzare that so many media commentators focus on the lack of strikers and overlook our bigger problems in midfield. 

I wouldn't go with Maguire up front though. The team you have would surely be able to get some crosses in and think Collins is a better all round option. 

What is Egan's distribution like from the back? Hope his default isn't to pass to Duffy for the long punt. 

Mick turns it around. 

Collins should be an option off the bench, but I think having him on from the start would lead to Duffy taking command of the ball, humping it at him and we will be back to playing without any structure. Let's try and link with Maguire, who only gets the nod because of the lack of alternatives, and see if he is good enough or not.

Think that midfield is probably our best option against the bigger teams too.

The plan should be to have a physical presence in midfield and play simple passes out to our wide players which is where we arguably have the most depth.

O'Dowda, Doherty, Robinson and Brady (maybe) are all decent on the ball and should be encouraged to get forward while the likes of Whelan and Arter can fill in and allow the full backs to contribute to the attack too. 

I don't see us having any success trying to play the ball through the middle - even our goal against Gibraltar came from a bit of half decent wing play. 

McGoldrick, McLean, Keogh

Fair enough! Although that is assuming Duffy looks for a target when he knocks those balls forward.

Would take any sort of a win at all. Georgia collapsed a bit after the first Swiss goal yesterday but they move the ball around far better than we do so I think they'll have a fair chunk of possession. A scrappy 1-0 will do, they will take points off of one of the top 3 in this group, just need to make sure it isn't us.

I get the impression he never wanted it to work and was doing it to appease the media, which is a real worry in itself. 

I get where you're coming from, but playing a team like that at home won't wash. ZERO guile in the midfield. Even if we string passes together, you're looking at pragmatism and sideways/backwards passes all over the shop. Need someone to put their foot on the ball and who at least has the potential for a killer pass (or even a forward pass).

That's how it appears to me. Absolutely nothing worked yesterday, but he is dismissing that from ever working? Come on! If that is the case there would be 10 changes for Tuesday!

All we need to do is find such a mythical creature.

Oh I agree, I can't get my head around it at all. Hooking Doherty after 50 odd minutes when he wasn't nearly our worst player. When the Coleman Doherty combination wasn't nearly our biggest issue. There is zero logic to anything McCarthy has done around the Doherty situation imo. 

Get rid of Arter and replace with Hourihane. Swap Judge for Brady.

Nothing mythical needed, but that midfield 3 aint doing nothing. 

Arter and Whelan in the same midfield against Georgia...at home? Georgia are a decent team going forward, but you need to exploit their sh!te defence. The midfield will do no such thing.

We need a midfield structure, players with some grasp of positional sense or we will have a similar performance to yesterday. This idea that we can give up structure and shape for more of an attacking threat was debunked yesterday. I am no lover of Arter, I think he is sh*te, but he  would give us some structure.

Hourihane offers no guile whatsoever, he really offers very little. He drifts around on the fringes of games and little more. He has a decent strike and a decent set-piece, it should be a straight choice between him and Jazzy Jeff, you can't have two luxury players on the pitch. Personally, I would have Hourihane on for his set-pieces,but  unfortunately the jazzmeister won't be dropped.

Judge's best position isn't on the left, I don't see the need to shoehorn him in there. I know Brady has done f**k all for years, but he is our best option there still by default.

These are the harsh realities of where we are at.

The EIRE 1-0 Geowgia

I agree that his partner in crime, Hourihane, should get equal criticism, but the reason that we were so utterly, utterly inept yesterday was, yet again, that  we didn't have a midfield. Have a look back at any one of the umpteen big humps down the field by Duffy and look to see if either the boy wonder or robin were within thirty yards of him and looking for the ball. Granted, neither of these players are suited to the role, certainly not together, but their cowardice against such a bad team was embarrassing for professional footballers. That is why he is getting stick. 

I do think Hourihane is getting away with a bit, but that game was made for Hendrick  to go prove us all wrong, to get on the ball and drive us forward, instead he shirked responsibility and hid and because of that we played the game at their level and could have played a far, far bigger price and, if we had, those two would be getting slated across the board. Instead, because he scored a goal against Gibraltar, and the other fella hit a couple of decent free-kicks, we are supposed to ignore how poor they were.

Agreed.

I don't think anybody can ignore how poor any of the players were, and in every area of the pitch. If McCarthy (and especially his predecessor) had've named a side with a holder like Whelan or Arter in a 5-man midfield against a side like Gibraltar fans would've decried this as an overly cautious and negative move. In the event we were so evenly matched with this team of amateurs he ended up having to withdraw a striker and bring Arter on to see out the win. That's a measure of low we've sunk. Hourihane and Hendrick are notorious for their flakiness and for flitting in and out of games, so playing them both together is just asking for trouble.

We need somebody with, to use Gilesy well-worn cliché 'the moral courage' to demand the ball drive the team forward and make things happen. This has been the case for a very long time. Is Hendrick appreciably worse than any of our other sub-par midfield options for going missing and failing to take the game by the scruff of the neck? I'm not so sure. And Hourihane getting MotM yesterday was laughable.

Yesterday was his chance, if he doesn't have the 'moral courage' against Gibraltar you would have to say that yes, he is worse than the other sub-par midfield options . I would have taken him off at half-time for Arter, who is a very ordinary player, but I doubt even he would have hid.

McCarthy shouldn't give a f**k about the fans or the media, it is usually one of his most endearing and beneficial qualities. 

I agree with all the rest though, we are lacking that player and Mick got his tactics all wrong yesterday by playing them together, but that doesn't absolve either of them from blame.

Duffy will score from a corner/free-kick and we'll get a second towards the end on the break . 

You cannot base what went before to now. 

17 years ago! 

McCarthy is a win your home games, try and get something away, type manager. It's the Charlton DNA in him.

After his first campaign, he made Lansdowne a fortress. That's what he'll try to do again.

.....................HOME........AWAY

.....................W D L

Ah here ffs. Look at the squad he had then and has  now. Majority of those starting XI's then were playing top flight football in England on an almost weekly basis. The players we have now aren't

+1

The team back then was undoubtedly better, but what I'm talking about is how I expect McCarthy to approach the games at home in this campaign.

Based on past performance, I think we'll get a much more positive strategy. 

What we got from him in the past was a higher tempo of play. More pressure on the opposition, and more chances created. A mix of passing and long balls, and therefore more possession of the ball.

I'd agree there Fruice

Hopefully not though. There will surely be a reaction out of the players after how bad we were against Gibraltar.

I would take a draw after Saturday!

If you're comparing Mick v Roy, I say; hope for a change in atmosphere, a change in performance, and a change in result tomorrow. And tell Roy to f**k off. 

So yea this is gonna be a boring grind. Possible 0-0 unless someone slips up. 

Thanks Georgi. 4-0 Ireland so 

 

I'm predicting we'll start surprisingly brightly and be two up after the first half hour. Nothing whatsoever to occur after that point and the game to finish 2-0.

2-0 Ireland Duffy first goal. 

For so long we had Keane available to us, and between Long and Walters there have been over 30 goals. Even Darryl Murphy in his later years seemed like a potential.

You could put Ferguson, Shankly and the Ayatollah in charge of this lot and the result would be the same.

No score draw or 0-1 Georgia.

Sincerely hope I'm wrong.

That would be a decent result