Completely forgot about the game today, far too engrossed in the Cricket.How did Ireland play?
The team that started today will not start again. If we're looking for the side against Fulham then i think we can make some assumptions. The back 5 pick themselves. The midfield 2 will most likely be Petrov and Makoun who impressed against Backburn. N'Zogba will play wide, Bent up front. The other 2 places are up for grabs but on current form Albrighton will not be one of them, he was poor again today. So most likely from Gabby, Ireland, Bannan or Heskey - my guess would be the first 2.
ireland was shite... not sure whether it was the tactics, or just him... although most were shite too...i understand it was only a friendly, but it was poor... very poor...given kept it to a respectful scoreline... he was excellent...and he needed to be with that c*** warnock following on from his shite form from last year, petrov offering all the protection and mobility of the statue of david, and the chuckle brothers trying to fuck up at every opportunity when they werent booting it half the length of the pitch back to chelsea... thought we looked better when makoun and gardner came on... gardner in particular looked very lively in both defending and going forward... nice to see a young lad actively look for the ball and want to do something with it...although not sure if thats due to chelsea taking their foot off the pedal and we had some fresh face in difficult conditions, or whether it was him actually having some influence... having seen the lad for many years from the academy, i would think its the a mixture of the two, more leaning towards the latter...i understand its only a friendly, however, from what i have seen, it was worst than i actually thought it was going to be with ginge in charge... still, we will be within the guidelines for the so called "financial fair play" rules, so woopdidoo for that... wont be making europe any time soon, so it wont matter, but hey, the books are balanced and at least we arent small heath!every cloud and all that...
How did Ireland play?
while understanding it was a friendly, i was not impressed overall with the team performance, and some of the tactics, ie, a right footed striker out at left wing, sticking everyone behind the ball and hoofing it up to the lone striker, (and im not impressed that if we take the manager at face value when he contradicts what general krulak has said on here that we wont be backing him financially to improve the current squad), but was impressed with given, gardner and makoun...
About the midfield... I think it's VERY important to get Scotty Parker ASAP.I just don't understand the logic behind not spending money on a player like Parker we need and only doing so in January if it's an 'emergancy' signing... we probably wouldn't struggle and put ourselves in the position to make an 'emergancy' signing if we had that player to begin with...Going into the new season with the best team possible makes more sense than going into the new season where we need a couple of upgrages and struggling in those positions only to make those upgrades 6 months down the line when those upgrades could of been made this summer.
From the evidence of those two games I would say that Bannan is our best midfielder and the Fonz will struggle.