# Trappatoni



## jasconius (12 Oct 2012)

We would have been better off playing translator Manuela Spinelli against the Germans tonight! I feel sorry for those Irish fans who showed up.

BTW, are we paying her salary or is it the Italian or Dennis O'Brien?


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## Teatime (13 Oct 2012)

Trap needs to go closely followed by Delaney. Actually I would call for Delaney's head first. He is a tool.


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## Leper (14 Oct 2012)

I saw Stephen Ireland on Celebrity Bainisteoir last week.  He was assisting his girlfriend to coach one of the teams.  

Now I dont know too much about Association Football, but perhaps Stephen knew something we didnt when he refused to tog out for Rep of Ireland?

The heavy defeat was a long time coming and there is more of the same ahead.  It doesnt matter whether Mr Trappatoni is the manager or not.  We are back in our rightful position with the Faroe Islands, Lichtensteins, San Marinos of this world.  We might earn the title of Giant Killers again, but it will take some time and be intermittent at best.

Like we said in a related subject some time ago on this forum, it's all about money and no heart outside of token rounds of applause.


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## jasconius (14 Oct 2012)

Like the Wales,NI, and Scotland teams, our football too has collapsed. This feature to me is because of the growth in numbers of foreign players in the Premier League due mainly to the wealth of money put up by Sky, and also because of the increase in ownership by oligarchs.
The England team too, at the moment, doesn't look bright either.


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## MrMan (14 Oct 2012)

jasconius said:


> Like the Wales,NI, and Scotland teams, our football too has collapsed. This feature to me is because of the growth in numbers of foreign players in the Premier League due mainly to the wealth of money put up by Sky, and also because of the increase in ownership by oligarchs.
> The England team too, at the moment, doesn't look bright either.



The Irish are foreign players in the English league too, so why do other countries continue to produce stars? The English team actually looks pretty strong to me.
Our expectations are very high, but most fans think that their team has a chance otherwise they would lose interest


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## MrMan (14 Oct 2012)

Leper said:


> I saw Stephen Ireland on Celebrity Bainisteoir last week.  He was assisting his girlfriend to coach one of the teams.
> 
> Now I dont know too much about Association Football, but perhaps Stephen knew something we didnt when he refused to tog out for Rep of Ireland?
> 
> ...



That's losing perspective, there are plenty of players to call on that are of good quality, and we are team that should continue to fight for second place in groups. We got hammered 6-1, man united got hammered 6-1 at home last year and only lost the league on points. England got hammered 4-1 by Germany in the last world cup, england hammered Germany 5-1 in Germany a few years before that. We can only move on and improve from such a result as all of the others have.


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## Deiseblue (14 Oct 2012)

I must admit to being nervous about Tuesday's game away to the Faroes given our current form , the injuries & the increasing lack of depth to the squad.

To somehow suggest however that our rightful place is among the Faroes , San Marinos & Litchensteins of the footballing world is pure tosh , we have a proud football tradition qualifying for three World Cups ( emerging from the group stages in every case ) & two European Championships.

We have produced players of outstanding ability who would have been comfortable on any stage - Giles , Brady , Keane x 2 , McGrath , Hurley , Carey, Coad , Beglin ,Given , Irwin etc. 

For a country of 4 million I think that we have punched above our weight particularly in recent decades  & with the recent good form shown by our under 17's , 19's & 21's I am relatively hopeful for the future ,  I believe that given the small size of the country that downturns are inevitable in our fortunes.

As for Mr. Ireland all I can do is quote the terrace favourite " Alive , Alive Oh Stephen Ireland's two grannies Alive , Alive Oh " - the man is an imbecile.


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## Leper (14 Oct 2012)

The Might of the Faroe Islands awaits us next week and we wait in hope.  We think we have a chance of being second in the qualifying group.  Forget about being second and also forget about being third.  Mind you, I hope we do come in second, but remember the favours Germany are used to doing for Austria - where's your memories guys? We're the whipping boys of the group with little ability and no heart.


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## Deiseblue (14 Oct 2012)

Leper said:


> The Might of the Faroe Islands awaits us next week and we wait in hope.  We think we have a chance of being second in the qualifying group.  Forget about being second and also forget about being third.  Mind you, I hope we do come in second, but remember the favours Germany are used to doing for Austria - where's your memories guys? We're the whipping boys of the group with little ability and no heart.



Which favour - the annexation of Austria in 1938 or the footballing non aggression pact in the World Cup of 1982 which disgracefully eliminated    Algeria ? 

There is no doubt that we are in a difficult group with Sweden perhaps favourites to finish second after Austria only drew with Khazakstan - puts our result there in some perspective perhaps ?

Yes we are poor at the moment but the whipping boys of this Group - no.


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## MrMan (14 Oct 2012)

Leper said:


> The Might of the Faroe Islands awaits us next week and we wait in hope. We think we have a chance of being second in the qualifying group. Forget about being second and also forget about being third. Mind you, I hope we do come in second, but remember the favours Germany are used to doing for Austria - where's your memories guys? We're the whipping boys of the group with little ability and no heart.


 Sweden got a last minute win against the Faroes, I doubt if their fans are throwing in the towel after two games.


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## RMCF (14 Oct 2012)

MrMan said:


> Sweden got a last minute win against the Faroes, I doubt if their fans are throwing in the towel after two games.



Their winner was in the 75th minute, but overall point taken.

We should beat the Faroes on Tuesday.

Our really big game will be next March away to Sweden. Lose that and we can forget about Brazil imho.


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## Shawady (15 Oct 2012)

RMCF said:


> Our really big game will be next March away to Sweden.


 
+1
A bad loss there and the FAI will be looking at half full attendences for the remaining home matches.
On the plus side, If we beat Faroes and Germany beat Sweden tomorrow, we will have made the same start as the swedes (our main rivils for second spot).
However, I agree witht he previous comment that the beating on Friday was on the cards.
We have been completely outclassed when we have played anyone decent over the last couple of years and are not as good as we once thought we were.


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## Ceist Beag (16 Oct 2012)

MrMan said:


> That's losing perspective, there are plenty of players to call on that are of good quality, and we are team that should continue to fight for second place in groups. We got hammered 6-1, man united got hammered 6-1 at home last year and only lost the league on points. England got hammered 4-1 by Germany in the last world cup, england hammered Germany 5-1 in Germany a few years before that. We can only move on and improve from such a result as all of the others have.



+1 MrMan. Friday was bad but to look at the positives from the past 4 days, we now have 2 fullbacks who perform regularly in the Premiership (albeit one of them at right midfield), we have McCarthy looking like he could settle into a regular spot in center midfield, and Walters looks good up front. For the game against Sweden you could have the following team (although I doubt Gibson will come back for Trap):

Westwood, 
Coleman, O'Shea, Dunne, Wilson
McGeady, McCarthy, Gibson, McClean
Walters, Long

That's not a bad team at all. Add in more Premiership defenders as cover in Alex Pearce, Stephen Kelly and Ciaran Clark, Premiership midfield cover in Whelan, Hoolihan and Pilkington and suddenly we have a squad that has almost everyone playing at the top level! So plenty to be optimistic about!


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## Leper (17 Oct 2012)

Game 3:- We beat Faroe Islands (bottom line). But, hats off to our opposition they played with some heart for parts of the game, something ours didnt do against the Germans.

The race for 2nd place in the group is now on.  Unfortunately, Rep of Ireland is propping up the chase.  I predicted that ROI would finish 4th in the group.  If I influenced anybody by that, please accept my apologies; my prediction now is that ROI will finish 5th.


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## Ceist Beag (17 Oct 2012)

We'll see you back here at the end of the campaign so Leper!  I think if we keep Trap we will finish third (behind Germany and Sweden) but if we managed to get Big Mick back in charge could have a real run at a top two finish. I think Trap has done a lot of good for the squad over the past few years but we now have a decent squad of players and need someone to instil a bit more belief in them than he seems to do and also to bring in quality players that Trap seems to ignore, and I've always been a big fan of Mick McCarthy and would love to see him back in charge.


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## Kine (17 Oct 2012)

My fear is if they do remove Trap they will look at Roy Keane to become manager.


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## Delboy (17 Oct 2012)

I'm for him staying if he bloods a few more young lads in the next few friendly games, gives the likes of Ciaran Clarke a game...(John O'Shea is done and Darren O'Dea plays in Canada!!). He also has to move away from the kick and no rush style of play

The alternative is a manager in the UK out of work such as Coyle, Keane or Redknapp...Trap is better than the lot


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## MrMan (17 Oct 2012)

You don't know if Trap still is better than the lot though and that seems to be the problem. I wouldn't agree that O'Shea is finished at all, he has been trying to play with a mish mash of inexperienced defenders. He hasn't played well in the last two games, but that's hardly cause fro ditching him.


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## Leo (17 Oct 2012)

The timing of their own-goal did us a huge favour last night, they had us under pressure at the time!


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## RMCF (17 Oct 2012)

Just announced - he's staying.


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## Leper (18 Oct 2012)

The FAI have released a statement that they are on course to qualify for Brazil.  If this was a cartoon in the Hotspur or the Victor comics of the 1960's it would be accompanied with the words "snigger-snigger" "ha-ha-haaaaa"


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## Deiseblue (18 Oct 2012)

Leper said:


> The FAI have released a statement that they are on course to qualify for Brazil.  If this was a cartoon in the Hotspur or the Victor comics of the 1960's it would be accompanied with the words "snigger-snigger" "ha-ha-haaaaa"



Leper , your knowledge of comics is comparable to your knowledge of football 

The Victor & Hotspur contained adventure stories , cartoons were the staple diet of the Dandy & Beano !

My speedos are already packed for Brazil !


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## gillarosa (19 Oct 2012)

Deiseblue said:


> Leper , your knowledge of comics is comparable to your knowledge of football
> 
> The Victor & Hotspur contained adventure stories , cartoons were the staple diet of the Dandy & Beano !
> 
> My speedos are already packed for Brazil !


 
Didn't the Victor have Roy of the Rovers, the fish and chip eating, plumber who sidelined as a footballing dynamo..........and hotspur I didn't read, but did it have a lot of football?


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## Deiseblue (19 Oct 2012)

Roy of the Rovers featured in the Tiger.

Roy was a full time footballer if I remember correctly.

Alf Tupper aka The tough of the track dined/trained exclusively on a diet of fish & chips & it never did him any       harm , Alf was a welder .


The Hotspur featured plenty of football related tales but to my mind wasn't a patch on the Victor !


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## Leper (19 Oct 2012)

You're not going to believe this guys, but once I had the entire collection of Victor comics complete with the freebies that came with it occasionally. It was a mighty collection collected every Thursday afternoon.

Alf Tupper was running in the colours of the Lone Wolf Athletic Club. Incidentally, this was my favourite feature. Then there was Morgan the Mighty, truly great adventure epic from week to week. The front and back page contained a different story each week of British adventures in WW2. The Germans and Japanese were made look like second rate soldiers.

Alas, my collection disappeared (probably sold off by prime suspects my brothers).

Back then, it was normal to graduate to 64 page comics after the Victor and from then to Zane Grey westerns (adventure books without pictures). Audy Murphy was the hero in the films and always wore the white hat.

Now, where does this leave the Rep of Ireland soccer team? Oh yes with Desperate Dan in The Dandy or was it the Beano? But, one way or the other we could do with Roy of the Rovers on discovering that his grandfather was from Killenaule or Hackballscross.


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## Leper (27 Mar 2013)

I know certain people in the media are screaming for Giovanni's head. But, Ireland put up two creditable performances in the past few days. At least, they are seen to be trying to play and not like earlier matches when they appeared not to give a damn.

I reckon we wont qualify for Rio but the team is improving and I think we should stick with Trappatoni.


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## PaddyW (27 Mar 2013)

Leper said:


> I know certain people in the media are screaming for Giovanni's head. But, Ireland put up two creditable performances in the past few days. At least, they are seen to be trying to play and not like earlier matches when they appeared not to give a damn.
> 
> I reckon we wont qualify for Rio but the team is improving and I think we should stick with Trappatoni.



Cases for and against I suppose. Team has show signs of improvement,but Trap still seems to be making errors of judgement. Hoolahan should have been on instead of Greene. And taking Long off, when he was clearly still full of running, was a major error.


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## Ceist Beag (27 Mar 2013)

On balance I tend to agree with Leper, but only for the remainder of this campaign. I think Brady was spot on last night in that some of the questions by Tony in the interview of Trap last night were stupid. Asking him if he should resign after a draw with Austria - Trap was completely right with his reply!
On the negative side, he is infuriating with his unwillingness to use the subs. Last night the midfield pair of Whelan and McCarthy were shot after about 65 minutes, anyone could see they needed and extra body in there to help out. Even Trap said it himself yet did nothing about it. Also I still find his selections hard to figure out at times, for example choosing Sammon last night and ignoring McCarthy, Wilson, Coleman and Long for so long.
However on the flip side, I do think the spirit in the team is great which is a long way from where we were under Staunton and even Kerr. When you look at the squad on the whole, we really only have a very average pool of players to pick from so I think to be in with a shot of second spot in the group is really the best we can hope for. Our playing pool is not that much different from that of Wales and Scotland and look at both of them.


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## Betsy Og (27 Mar 2013)

I think he should go, why are we always at the mercy of his 'senior moments'. His stuborness stifled getting the best players on the pitch for so long (& still a bit of an issue). His communication is atrocious & this occasionally has real implications - various unnecessary run-ins with players, the latest being the 'basket casing' of Robbie Brady.

He continually tells us we're just donkeys, he obviously believes that, however there is an almost unanimous view that we should have continued to play in that 2nd half, not attempted to park the bus. Its not like we got no warning, Austria had about 6 fair to good chances before they scored, it looked like only the clock could spare our blushes. So even on the 80th minute he should have said "this isnt working, its only a matter of time before they score, lets get control of the ball, control of the game, play in their half and finish out this game".

I think most people would accept results if the best players were on the pitch playing a style/styles that suit us. Its one thing to not achieve, but to not achieve because you are not properly utilising what you have is the galling thing.

When should he go?, probably no point damaging a new guy by starting him off with an impossible task, so suffer it out until the maths are done. Of course I hope we qualify but hard to see it at this stage.


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## MrMan (27 Mar 2013)

Well he did get us to the euros, where we got spanked by three of the best teams there.
He doesn't pick the team that the press and fans generally call for, but we do tend to make stars out of players that are out of the team. Hoolohan is the latest name to be thrown in as the player that will get the ball down and keep possession, but maybe Trap agrees, but feels that there isn'e another 4 or 5 players to assist in keeping it. We saw last night that when we had to wind down the clock for the last 5 minutes, we couldn't even take it into the corner; was Hoolohan going to do it alone? 
I would have like to see him play a part, but there has to be reason for the decisions made.
I don't think that you can simply say that Ireland should control the ball and control the game, because that has never been the way, and we don't have a culture of keeping possession, even England with all there stars can't do it at international level.
I have enjoyed the last two games, and that for me is a start, because it shows that there is a way forward with these players, and maybe we are not that far from assembling a decent team to compete.


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## Delboy (27 Mar 2013)

He should go after this campaign... I was at the game last night and how Trap and Tardelli could'nt see what was happening for the final 30 mins is beyond me.
We were pinned back for so long, Whelan was just back from injury and looked wrecked, as did Walters, Sammon was never up to it....and what did he do...brought on Green and put him in right midfield and left Sammon and Whelan on!!!! 
It beggars belief such an experienced manager could do this.

And in general, hist attitude towards and the way he deals with the players is all wrong.

Time to go is fast approaching


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## dereko1969 (27 Mar 2013)

Delboy said:


> He should go after this campaign... I was at the game last night and how Trap and Tardelli could'nt see what was happening for the final 30 mins is beyond me.
> We were pinned back for so long, Whelan was just back from injury and looked wrecked, as did Walters, Sammon was never up to it....and what did he do...brought on Green and put him in right midfield and left Sammon and Whelan on!!!!
> It beggars belief such an experienced manager could do this.
> 
> ...


 
I was there last night too, the whole bleeding stadium knew we had to bring on a third sub, someone who could either pass the ball or keep it, really couldn't understand not bringing hoolahan on.

I think the players still lack confidence, walters and green playing for their club sides would have stood over that free near the corner flag and just played it to each other and drawn a free or won a throw, count down the clock, letting the austrians win that ball was criminal.

They played a lot of good stuff last night but we really should have had another goal or two, wilson's miss was awful. Ref didnt' do us many favours either.

Don't really see the point in replacing trap now much as I would like to.


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