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who do you blame?
flying post as I'm off to the pub for a pub quiz (no, that's not a euphemism):
Ireland's defeat last night amounted to a complete inability to take advantage of any chances they made for themselves. They played the "drop back ten yards and punt" game that got us to the quarter-finals in 1990, with two crucial differences: there was frequently noone to receive the punted ball, and when there was, it was a (relatively) short guy surrounded by generally taller players. Add to that the fact that Robbie Keane is a 50-50 player at best; as noted by one of the commentators, every other ball that came at him he didn't get under control, and let's face it, at an International level that makes him a bad choice. He's Ireland's top goal-scorer, but those goals of his I can claim any memory of are all more luck than skill. He tried an overhead kick in the Swiss game when smart money would have been on him bringing the ball to ground either for himself or the other Irish striker standing next to him. At the back, Stephen Carr twice almost handed goals to the opposition by trying to be overly clever about clearing the ball; as a defender, your best bet should, IMHO, be to pick one of your midfielders or strikers and punt the ball up to him - dribbling past the opposing forwards is bound to end in tears eventually. There were other stupid mistakes, such as fouls committed unnecessarily[1] either opening us to attack or losing us momentum in an attack of our own, and wild shots on goal that never had a chance of even hitting the crossbar. Ultimately, it looked like a somewhat incoherent and unskilled middle-of-the-road team, whose only truly skillful player and saviour from actual defeat was the goalkeeper (g'wan Shay Given, ye lad, ye!)
So I'd blame the team, or the lack of team-like behaviour, for the defeat. But I'm pretty sure there are people calling, instead, for the resignation of the manager; in fact, it may already have happened and I've missed the headlines announcing it. And I think this is, to some extent, unfair. Brian Kerr has to work with the players available to him, but they're contracted to English Premiership teams who seem to get the best of their skills. When they're playing together for Ireland, you have people who might recently have been facing each other as opponents but are now supposed to work as a cohesive unit, and for Ireland at least, it just doesn't seem to work. I can't see how this is the manager's fault; the players are beholden to their contracts and have to be explicitly released by their teams in order to train and practice for the Irish squad, and there have been a few high-profile cases where that's caused some friction - particularly where the "unimportant" friendlies are involved.
But I'm only an armchair pundit. Maybe Kerr should have made a better selection (put the taller guys out and up front against Switzerland; don't play Robbie Keane like he's some sort of talisman, because frankly the 50% bad part of him makes him more of a waste of a position than anything else) or maybe he should have come up with some better tactics, but you'd imagine that a bunch of guys who get payed insane salaries to play soccer might have a few workable tactics of their own to contribute, either with or without the manager's approval - after all, he can't exactly run on the pitch and stop you mid-game. I just don't know. Maybe![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ronebofh or some other more fanatical soccer person can enlighten me. Really, though, I'll be sorry if Kerr loses the job.
Ireland's defeat last night amounted to a complete inability to take advantage of any chances they made for themselves. They played the "drop back ten yards and punt" game that got us to the quarter-finals in 1990, with two crucial differences: there was frequently noone to receive the punted ball, and when there was, it was a (relatively) short guy surrounded by generally taller players. Add to that the fact that Robbie Keane is a 50-50 player at best; as noted by one of the commentators, every other ball that came at him he didn't get under control, and let's face it, at an International level that makes him a bad choice. He's Ireland's top goal-scorer, but those goals of his I can claim any memory of are all more luck than skill. He tried an overhead kick in the Swiss game when smart money would have been on him bringing the ball to ground either for himself or the other Irish striker standing next to him. At the back, Stephen Carr twice almost handed goals to the opposition by trying to be overly clever about clearing the ball; as a defender, your best bet should, IMHO, be to pick one of your midfielders or strikers and punt the ball up to him - dribbling past the opposing forwards is bound to end in tears eventually. There were other stupid mistakes, such as fouls committed unnecessarily[1] either opening us to attack or losing us momentum in an attack of our own, and wild shots on goal that never had a chance of even hitting the crossbar. Ultimately, it looked like a somewhat incoherent and unskilled middle-of-the-road team, whose only truly skillful player and saviour from actual defeat was the goalkeeper (g'wan Shay Given, ye lad, ye!)
So I'd blame the team, or the lack of team-like behaviour, for the defeat. But I'm pretty sure there are people calling, instead, for the resignation of the manager; in fact, it may already have happened and I've missed the headlines announcing it. And I think this is, to some extent, unfair. Brian Kerr has to work with the players available to him, but they're contracted to English Premiership teams who seem to get the best of their skills. When they're playing together for Ireland, you have people who might recently have been facing each other as opponents but are now supposed to work as a cohesive unit, and for Ireland at least, it just doesn't seem to work. I can't see how this is the manager's fault; the players are beholden to their contracts and have to be explicitly released by their teams in order to train and practice for the Irish squad, and there have been a few high-profile cases where that's caused some friction - particularly where the "unimportant" friendlies are involved.
But I'm only an armchair pundit. Maybe Kerr should have made a better selection (put the taller guys out and up front against Switzerland; don't play Robbie Keane like he's some sort of talisman, because frankly the 50% bad part of him makes him more of a waste of a position than anything else) or maybe he should have come up with some better tactics, but you'd imagine that a bunch of guys who get payed insane salaries to play soccer might have a few workable tactics of their own to contribute, either with or without the manager's approval - after all, he can't exactly run on the pitch and stop you mid-game. I just don't know. Maybe
ronebofh or some other more fanatical soccer person can enlighten me. Really, though, I'll be sorry if Kerr loses the job.
Footnote
no subject
International managers can and sometimes do make a difference. Witness the improvement in Scotland's performances and results since Walter Smith took over from Berti Vogts. As you say, they often don't have long to work with the players, so keeping it simple (giving each player a clear, understandable set of duties) is often the best approach if they don't have outrageously talented individuals at their disposal. Of course, those plans can fall apart pretty quickly when your best player is ruled out of the game, and "Just give the feckin' ball to Damien" is no longer a valid instruction.
I don't really feel qualified to comment specifically on Ireland's performances in this campaign, but I get the impression that, over the last 10 years, there has been a heightened level of expectation, as a result of the successes under Charlton. Sure, there have been some very good Irish players during that time (Roy Keane, Niall Quinn, Paul Mcgrath, Shay Given and now Damien Duff all spring to mind), but the team has usually included some players from lower divisions in the English leagues, or players who don't start many games for Premiership teams (not a million miles from the days when Liam Brady was one of the best footballers in Europe, but Ireland never qualified for anything). To me, that means it's realistic to expect the team to challenge for qualification, but expecting them to qualify every time is perhaps excessive.
If the BBC is to be believed, Kerr is still in the job tonight, but Martin O'Neil is being touted as favourite to succeed him. Frankly, I'd be surprised if the FAI could afford him...
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As far as the playoffs go, i'm rooting for Slovakia to dump perennial choker Spain (and qualify for the first time as Slovakia), and for Australia to dump Uruguay, whose ugly `02 performance left a sour taste in my mouth. T&T-Bahrain will guarantee another newcomer to the Cup, so that's good, too.