Giovanni Trapattoni names Ireland team to face Serbia
Giovanni Trapattoni has named his starting eleven for Republic of Ireland’s international friendly with Serbia.
Trapattoni has made eight changes to the side that faced Italy in Poznan during Euro 2012, with Keiren Westwood starting in goal in place of the retired Shay Given. John O’Shea is set to make his 80th Irish appearance and will captain the side. Trapattoni has went with the most experienced backline of the players available, while being riskier in midfield with James McCarthy and James McClean both set to win their fourth caps.
Shane Long and Jon Walters are due to start up front after Kevin Doyle was forced to withdraw through injury. Despite the retirement of Shay Given, Trapattoni is more positive that Richard Dunne and Robbie Keane will stay on, telling reporters: “Richard sent me a message recently saying he would not be ready for the game with Kazakhstan because he needs a few weeks to recover from his injury, that the game was too soon.
“I answered him and said after this friendly, after he has recovered from his injury, we would review the situation, but I’ve told him we need him, it’s true. He will let us know. As for Robbie, I’ve also sent him a text, but he’s not answered me. I’ve checked my mobile. I will speak with him before I announce my next squad. He needs to tell me whether he wants to come back or what he wants to do.
“We can decide after this game because it’s important for us to look at the other players. We have Long, Cox and Walters. After this game, and before the one with Kazakhstan, we can think about this situation.”
Ireland team v Serbia:
Keiren Westwood, Paul McShane, John O’Shea (c), Darren O’Dea, Stephen Kelly, Aiden McGeady, James McCarthy, Glenn Whelan, James McClean, Jonathan Walters, Shane Long.
Related posts:
Westwood
Clarke, o’shea, o’dea, Kelly
McGeady, McCarthy, Ireland, Mclean
Long, Walters
Would have been better.
I JUST CAN’T UNDERSTAND THE INCLUSION OF WHELAN!!!!
SERIOUSLY, WHAT AM I MISSING, HE CAN’T PASS, SHOOT, CONTROL THE BALL, READ THE GAME OR TACKLE.
It is baffling how Whelan has been guaranteed a place in the Ireland engine room for 4 years now. He has desire. That’s the best thing I can say about him. As Mikeire said, he can’t pass, tackle, shoot, control the ball… he simply doesn’t have the physique or ability to play in defensive midfield in a 4-4-2.
He has regressed, if anything, since the 2010 campaign, becoming quite the liability. He is always making mistakes. They often lead to opposition goals but Trapattoni likes him anyway. He also likes McShane, Green and Cox. Talent or ability obviously aren’t important to Trapattoni. If you turn up for every squad, do what you’re told and work hard – those are seemingly the traits he looks for in Irish players, since he obviously thinks we are completely incapable of producing good footballers.
At least McCarthy is playing instead of Green. If that joker gets on the pitch against Kazakhstan or God forbid Germany, we have serious problems.
Yawn! All very boring. I’d rather watch cricket than another Trapattoni Ireland game.
Jaysus!!! Did he send a text to Keane to see if hes going to continue playing??? No wonder Shay retired
We are talking about somebody that left Marc Wilson out of squads because he confused him with another player.
@IrishRI
cricket is not a bad sport, at least that team plays to their potential most of the time and picks the best players available!
We need a passer in CM, Stephen Ireland is needed, Clark has to be picked….guys like Dicker are better than green. We are a small nation with a small playing pool, you cant exclude people or not pick ur best players
Positives: O’Shea Cb, Stephen Kelly, James McCarthy, McClean & Long.
Negatives: No sign of Clarke, McShane inexplicably in the team, I’d prefer Stokes to Walters, no sign of Ireland. Whelan, our worst player arguably in the Euros, in the team. Sigh.
Hopefully we will lose our next few games and Delaney will be forced to give Trap the boot especially when he sees that no one is turning up at the Aviva to watch the games. For someone like Delaney who in my opinion knows jack sh*t about football to become head of an FA is beyond me.
Delaney encapsulates all the negative stereotypes American people and English people used to (mostly) have about Irish people.
He is some caricature, the thick looking bastard.
Positives: more football, more international football, more Irish football, another qualifying campaign and a load of fresh faces to liven the team up.
McCarthy and McClean to score either side of half time 0:2 Ireland!
1-1
Late equaliser to paper over the usual cracks.
Again we’re playing a 4-4-2 versus a 4-3-3 which gives the Serbs 5 in midfield versus Ireland’s 4 (or 3 if you don’t count Whelan) so it’ll be the same old crap. Why not just stick Long up front by himself? He’s is quick enough and does enough running to handle the lone striker role. Tooo bad because I thought I’d head down to Brazil for the WC but not with this manager in charge. The Brazilians know football and will not warm to our style of play at their tournament.
I think we should give Brian Kerr another stint in charge. He was so unlucky during his last campaign.
I kinda want us to lose this and our next couple of games (never thought I’d ever say that) just so we can kick the idiot out and start afresh with a new manager. I really get the feeling that the players feel the same (but obviously can’t really say) yes, we are all happy to see McLean and McCarthy get a run out but that doesn’t excuse his soul destroying lack of tactical knowledge. (I’m aware that he’s been in the game a hundred years but the game has changed so much in the last 7 years that it renders his experience useless) no team in Europe plays the “defend at all costs and a hopefully steal a goal to win” tactic anymore because teams can’t defend for 90 minutes and not concede a goal. Players have improved too much to miss chances and if you keep handing possession back to the opposition, they’re going to get chances.
Trapattoni would have been okay in the 70s or 80s but he is too old and the game has passed him by.
We are playing at a disadvantage before we even step onto the pitch because of him.
exactly Prop!! how come only me, you and IrishRI can see that?
Typical. Long ruled out just before kick off. Cox comes in beside Walters. Jesus Christ.
He played McClean in Center Midfield and Cox on the wing. The man has seriously lost his marbles.
ye cox shudn be in the sqaud but mcclean at centre mid?oh dear.in fairness the formation looked good but the personell and the selection of player HORRIBLY out of position eg mcclean,cox,o’brien when he camke on(although did well)needs to be corrected sooner rather than later
Hopefully Trap will have more time for McCarthy now that he has shown ability in the middle of the park. All we have to do now is resurrect Stevie Ireland, ingratiate Gibson with the Trap familia and find a booster seat on the bench for little Wesley Hoolahan. We might be a team yet.
Shane Long should start every game – I would keep Cox as a squad player and I think Keane should be left to retire in pease in LA.
It is a total disgrace that Trapattoni has communication problems with his players every game. Surely he can do better than a text!!!
Are there any new player going to declare for us this season!!!
Yeah, I’d like to know of any possible players that could declare for us this year!
Better performance yesterday in the 4-1-4-1 formation (although trap says it was 4-3-3 but there really wasn’t any evidence of that.
Yes – is there any players about declare for us
Another feud underway between Trap and Long. It can’t always be the player’s fault. We’ve never had anyway near this amount of squabbles with other managers. It’s obviously the language barrier. A player says one thing and Trap interprets it as something else.
What the hell is all this between Trap and Long? We can’t afford to lose Long. As my favorite Irish player I’m not happy at all
RI: Rose tinted glass there. Every week there seemed to be a feud between Roy and Mick long before Saipan.
I don’t think it’s a big deal at all, papers blowing it out of proportion once again. Just like McCarthy going back to Scotland. The quotes seem straight-forward.
Trap didn’t feel Long was fit, so didn’t play him. After all the fuss over Keane and Given’s fitness at Euro 2012, you can hardly blame him. Especially when further injury to Long would not go down well with West Brom.
McCarthy and Keane had hard ons for each other. We all know that but that was only one player. Trap seems to have either fallen out with, had beefs or misunderstandings or actually even excommunicated a whole slew of players. Stepher Reid, Andy Reid, Stephen Ireland, Marc Wilson, James McCarthy, Kevin Foley, Ciaran Clark, Jonathan Walters, Andy Keogh, Anthony Stokes, Leon Best, Darron Gibson. I’m sure I’m missing a bunch more.
Now that is not normal for any Manager. In fact it’s unheard of especially for a small country like Ireland. He is notorious for airing his dirty laundry in public and half the time he gets his wires crossed and makes false accusations or assumptions. He never rescinds his statements or apologizes when he has wronged players.
He’s bacially a cancer upon our country that needs to be eradicated.
Westwood
kelly, o’shea, clark,wilson
McGeady, McCarthy, gibson, Mclean
Long, stokes, subs randolph/henderson coleman,hoolahan,hendrick,ward,brady,duffy,gunning,doyle, now thats a good team not one championship player in that squad and not one player over the age of 33 i would love to see a team like that for the WC 2014 qualifiers i am sick of seeing players like green st ledger o’dea mcshane and cox in the first team i dont even want to see them on the bench we have a great under 21 team with player like duffy,white,cunningham,carruthers,hendrick,murray,clifford,brady,scannell, ect its time to start giving them a chance in the senior team. and crap would want to call up ciaran clark for the oman game before he gets fed up and stars listen to offers from england and scotland he is after all one of most promising and technically gifted young players in the epl and he doesn’t deserve to be constantly over looked by the likes of sean st ledger darren o’dea paul mcshane a joey o’brien
Careful there Ronan. It almost sounds like you are defending Trap. That is not allowed on this site apparently
I am defending him
I don’t think it’s allowed anywhere any more actually!
A lot of idiots on here!!! “keane should retire in pease in la”
“give Brian Kerr another stint in charge” “Hopefully we will lose our next few games ” ???
They are not the statements of real fans.
We are all allowed to piss and moan, but we have the weakest squad available to us over the past two/three decades.
We qualified for the Euros with a lot of average players, granted we got found out.
What other outcome did we expect??? Do a Greece and win the thing?
in my opinion duff dunne andrews amd keane should all retire with given no disrespect to them there all legands but we need to look to the future and if they all stayed on by 2014 duff would be 34 dunne would be 34 andrew would be 33 and keane would be 33 and we dont need a team full of 30 somethings it didn’t work in euros we need a team full of good young players mixed in with experienced players like o’shea(at cb) mcgeady whelan kelly doyle long ect given can retire in peace knowing that westwood can be irelands no1 for years to come westwood was outstanding against serbia he was a breath of fresh air to the ireland team hes only 27 wich is young for a keeper he can only get better in the years to come but he needs to get away from sunderland fast we cant have irelands no1 sitting on sunderlands bench. duff can retire in peace knowing that theres three great wingers to take hes place and panther mcgeady on the wings in mclean coleman and brady dunne can retire in peace nowing that were not short of quality at cb with john o’shea ciaran clark shane duffy and young prospects like mark o,brien perice sweeney mark connolly sean mcginty tommie hoban richard bryan daniel devine ect coming true and andrews can retire in peace knowing that theres james mccarthy darren gibson glenn whelan wes hoolahan jeff hendrick conor clifford are there to play at cm and not to mention prospects like samir carruthers sean murray conor henderson adam barton ect and keane can retire in hes little la mansion playing micky mouse football for la galaxy while shane long anthony stokes kevin doyle and jon walters battle it out it out to be irelands two strikers and we have decent prospects lik grham burke micheal drennan ronan murray ect
Trap deserves detractors as much as he deserves his defenders. He has achieved a lot with a sub par Ireland team, but by the same token he also seems to be ignoring our best performers. He has always said that he picks a system that beat suits the players that we have available, but he seems to be shoehorning his preferred players into a 4-4-2 while ignoring those that players that play his system week in week out. McCarthy and Gibson sit deep in a 4-4-2 at club level but cant get a game. Cox can’t get a game upfront for west brom and yet can claim a spot on the wing ahead of pilklington. Trap needs a player to fill the hole between midfield and attack but doesn’t choose hoolahan or Ireland, instead shoehorning in a player like cox or McCarthy who would more suitable elsewhere. How can he seriously prefer to play cox ahead of long as a lone front man! Cox is underrated but doesn’t have the kind of athletic and aggressive style to thrive in that role. The mind boggles. Alright, haven’t done it do a while, so here is my current line up.
Westwood
Kelly Oshea dunne Cunningham
Gibson McCarthy
Mcgeady Ireland / hoolahan mcclean
Long
Plenty of room there for our best performers, plenty of flexibility and many different types of players that are both physical and creative. Three behind the striker can play wide or through the middle, with Mcclean a threat in the air or supplying crosses for long. Cunningham or current best bet for left back and the best hope for the future. Here’s hoping he enjoys a great season in the championship. And yes, I would take Stevie Ireland back in an instant.
Westwood
Coleman Dunne Clark O’Shea
McCarthy Gibson
Brady McGeady/McClean
Ireland/Hoolahan
Long
It really is absurd that Cox and Walters are getting in the team ahead of Long. Is it any wonder that Long is pissed off that he can’t get in the team with his goalscoring record? He looks like a threat and scores against Bosnia and is subsequently dropped for the Euro 2012 games. Cox can’t get in to the same team at club level and has a laughable track record in the Premier League. Walters is also not up to this level of football. 3 goals from open play in 38 PL starts and one of them (last day of the season) shouldn’t even have counted because he fouled the goalkeeper. He also has 1 goal in 11 games for Ireland. So that adds up to 4 goals from open play in 49 games. He’s a striker. Gary Doherty, Clinton Morrison and David Connolly were more of a goalscoring threat.
Walters is also a vastly overrated player. His hold up play is decent, no more. Doyle and Long are better at holding the ball up and are far better at everything else. Walters can’t pass, can’t cross, isn’t intelligent and can’t shoot. He missed two sitters against Serbia, fluffing his lines and scuffing the ball wide. Not good enough, I’m sorry. We need goals in this campaign and after Keane, Long is our best option.
Why does Trapattoni play McClean in central midfield and Cox on the wing? Would it not make much more sense to play Hoolahan, Ireland or Andy Reid in the centre? And if you’re remiss (too lazy/stubborn/out of touch) to integrate new players into the squad, play McGeady or Duff there BUT McClean? The guy is a winger through and through.
Continuing tactical ineptitude, wrong player selection and burning bridges with more important players (Long).
Very worrying times.
Shane Long having a great game against Liverpool, winning two penalties and getting Agger sent off. He did miss the first penalty but he showed amazing mental strength to dust himself and win another one, literally seconds later.
Walters continues to do his best impression of a striker against Reading. What he would do to for one of his teammates to win a penalty, it’s the only way he is going to score this season.
Cox on the bench for Notts Forest in the Championship…
Irish goalscorers:
Damien Duff
Owen Garvan (2)
David McAllister
Darren Potter
Karl Sheppard
Jonny Hayes
Conor Pepper
Sheppard and Pepper scored on their debuts for Accrington and Inverness. Duff scored his 13th PL goal for Fulham which makes him more prolific than Walters. Garvan has an impressive 8 in 49 for Palace as he becomes a first team regular. McAllister has 2 in 7 for Sheffield United, after scoring against former team Shrewsbury.
Long won 2 penalties for Reading. Joey O’Brien made his PL return. Meyler came on against Arsenal. Richie Foran was sent off for Inverness against Hearts but the aforementioned Conor Pepper netted a last minute equaliser.
Prop some of your points are just farcical really!!
Walters is hardly the most prolific player but he hasn’t been playing as an out and out striker since he moved to Stoke. As a result his stats obviously will show him not being as prolific as other players. But he plays a similar role to Kevin Doyle. He helps to hold up the ball, relieves pressure, wins free kicks and gets other players involved in the game. From last season’s figures Walters got 7 goals in 38 appearances (inc penalties) while Kevin Doyle only got 4 in 31 games. It takes some bottle for players to step up to take penalties and put them away. These figures clearly indicates that he has a better goal scoring ratio then Doyle too (Duff got 2 in 28 games BTW). Up to last year Doyle would have been first choice striker beside Keane but he has been terrible these last 12 months and I see no reason why Walters should not have been chosen. To say he can’t pass, shoot, cross and isn’t intelligent is another example of your childish behaviour – I am surprised you didn’t wish him to die too!! However I would like to see Long play more often but I don’t belittle Walters for being chosen ahead of him.
Furthermore, it sounds as if you are calling for Andy Reid to be reinstated into the squad? Maybe if he was tearing it up in the premiership perhaps, but he’s hardly setting the world alight in the Championship. Trap played McClean in the centre to see what he would be like but switched him after about half an hour as he saw that it was the wrong position for him. Is this not an example of Trap trying out something new but it’s no surprise to see you slating him for it? Give it a few weeks and you will be demanding David McAllister or Conor Pepper to be called up to the squad and then subsequently give out when they are selected ahead of Premiership players.
Come on Choco, you’re being an idiot.
Walters started 38 games and scored 3 goals from open play. It would have been 2 goals if his goal on the last day of the season was ruled out for a foul like it should have been. That’s a pretty pathetic goalscoring record. Granted, he takes penalties well but then so do Keane, Long, Doyle, Hunt and Andrews so we don’t need him for that.
I don’t know if you watched the games against Bosnia, Hungary, Euro 2012 and Serbia but he missed two sitters against Bosnia (one was a carbon copy of the header Long buried). He was crap against Hungary. He was anonymous in Poland and he missed several sitters against Serbia. For all the abuse he gets, Doyle played very well against Croatia but is ironically maligned for his lack of goals, even though he got more goals from open play and created more assists/chances for his teammates than Walters did. Allied to this, Doyle was crocked all season and was playing in a crap team. What’s Walters excuse?
Walters runs a lot but he is extremely limited and as a striker, offers next to no goal threat. Folan, Best, Doyle, Long… even Sheridan, Sammon and Murphy could hold the ball up as good as or better than Walters. He has next to no technique, is a poor passer, can’t cross or head the ball.
I would have Long ahead of Walters AND Doyle because he is a bonafide goal threat, wins penalties, has a great leap, is pacier and more dynamic.
One last point, Walters and Cox can protest their Irishness and play the media game all they want to try and benefit their Ireland careers and bank accounts but I sincerely doubt they would stick around or be good for team morale if they sat on the bench as long as Anthony Stokes or Shane Long have in their Ireland careers.
As for David McAllister, Conor Pepper and Andy Reid, no I wouldn’t have any of them in the team.
I would have McCarthy, Hoolahan, Pilkington, Ireland, McCann and Clark ahead of Whelan, Andrews and Green on ability and merit though.
I suppose you’re happy with the mercenary Green playing are you. He comes on against Serbia and the first thing he does is pass it to them under no pressure. Useless…
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