Trapattoni names Ireland squad for Croatia friendly
Giovanni Trapattoni has named 32 players in his preliminary squad for next month’s friendly against Croatia.
With the match almost four weeks away (see our countdown timer on the bottom right of the page), the Irish manager has named quite a large squad in order to deal with prospective injuries and withdrawals. After their absences for the Carling Nations Cup games, Stoke trio Marc Wilson, Glenn Whelan, and Jon Walters return to the squad, as does James McCarthy who missed those games due to injury.
There is no place for either Caleb Folan or Anthony Stokes, who both pulled out of the last series of games. As for the included players, Trapattoni asserted his authority by stating that the previous withdrawals must declare their intentions before turning up. “They must say ‘I want to come to the team’,” said Trapattoni. “I’ll ask [them] why they didn’t come. They must say ‘I wish or no’.”
There are no uncapped players in the squad, as Trapattoni sticks with his tried and tested approach, although Wilson, Walters, Clark, Ward, Cox, and McCarthy could be expected to add to their respective hauls.
Goalkeepers: Shay Given, Keiren Westwood, David Forde
Defenders: John O’Shea, Paul McShane, Kevin Foley, Seamus Coleman, Stephen Kelly, Stephen Ward, Richard Dunne, Sean St. Ledger, Darren O’Dea, Damien Delaney, Ciaran Clark, Kevin Kilbane
Midfielders: Glenn Whelan, Darron Gibson, Keith Andrews, Keith Fahey, Aiden McGeady, Damien Duff, Stephen Hunt, Liam Lawrence, James McCarthy, Keith Treacy, Marc Wilson
Strikers: Robbie Keane, Kevin Doyle, Jon Walters, Shane Long, Simon Cox, Andy Keogh
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All good realy not impressed to see mcshane and keogh in there thought they gained 2 much praise 4 the Italy game.shame not 2 c Barry Maguire or Ian Harte in there but a relief to c the likes of mccarthy walters etc.
That’s a really strong squad. Let’s hope they all stay fit and actually turn up. My starting 11 for the qualifiers would be.
g. Given
rb. O’Shea, cb. Dunne, cb. Clarke, lb. Ward,
rw. McGeady, cm. Andrews, cm. McCarthy lw. Duff
fw. Doyle fw Keane
subs Westwood, Coleman, St Ledger, Kilbane, Hunt, Wilson, Walters, Cox, Long.
But we all know that’s no going to happen.
That’s a quality Premier League player (McGeady aside) in every position that will actually be starting for their club teams this season. That team should be good enough to beat Slovakia and at least get a draw in Russia.
hoolahan wuda been a gud shout aswell
Looks to be more or less our strongest available squad. Really hope McCarthy shows up and gets a decent spell on the pitch, central midfield is still our weakest area and with the 2 showdown games coming up this is his last chance to get a foothold in the team in this campaign. Good to that Trap isn’t being vindictive with regards to the players that pulled out last time (Stokes excepted, but he’ll need to up his performance level to get in the squad on merit anyway).
No surprises. Disappointing not to see Hoolahan in there. Don’t know what Keogh and Kilbane have to do to be dropped.
I don’t know why people would call for Kilbane to be dropped. Never mind what he has to do to be dropped, what does he have to do for everyone to realise there’s no player more committed to playing for Ireland, and doing his best in a green jersey while he’s there?
I admire Kilbane’s commitment and in all honesty, he is probably a nice guy but I can’t see us going anywhere with him at left back. He is 34 years old. He really needs to graciously step aside. He really hurt our chances of qualifying for the World Cup with several mistakes and he still looks like an accident waiting to happen.
He hasn’t put a foot wrong this campaign, so why should he be left out, purely because he’s “an accident waiting to happen”. If mankind had thought like that, we never would have achieved anything. In fact, Kevin Kilbane would’ve racked up over 100 appearances for the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland by now.
Here here Ronan, ultimate pro is kilbane and as long as he is being selected and asked to play he will always turn up. I admire him more than any player in the last ten year in terms of his commitment. Its up to the Manager to decide when another player is ready to step in. Until then we should always get behind a player who shows the new generation what commitment and desire mean.
It’s up to the manager to stop picking Kilbane, not down to the player to retire himself (and I generally dislike the trend of players who still have a few years left removing themselves from the international scene, unless they have chronic injury reasons etc). Killer is undoubtedly past his sell-by date in a position he was really only a stopgap in anyway but he’ll give it his all and we should respect him for that. Trapattoni has tried several other options at left full back and injuries have prevented them from getting the time they need to get established in the team (Cunningham, Clark).
Stephen Ward is worth a shout there after his 3 solid appearances in May and probably should have been brought into the squad sooner but having seen him at left full numerous times for Wolves he’s not a whole lot less error-prone than Kilbane and I’d be reluctant to throw an inexperienced player in for starts against Slovakia or Russia.
Last campaign, Kilbane made 2-3 dreadful mistakes that arguably cost us qualification. I was initially a fan of seeing him on the bench for this campaign. But when Trap tried out Clark in Kilbane’s position, it was obvious he was not quite ready yet. So far Kilbane has not put a foot wrong this campaign as stated above. Ward has played well too, but I would say he needs a bit more experience with the international set up. Its a 50/50 call between Ward and Kilbane, tough call to make but I respect Trap’s judgement either way. When Cunningham is healthy, it will be interesting to see how he does. Kilbane has a great attitude, he should be on team as long as he’s able. Wish you could put his heart into S. Ireland or Stokes body.
Very impressed. Great strength and depth that is perfectable capable of playing in major tournaments. C’mon bhoys!
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