Comments on: Trapattoni – The indefensible

By: Happy Third Birthday To Me | Never Felt Better

Happy Third Birthday To Me | Never Felt Better — Fri, 10 May 2013 10:26:12 +0000

[...] Trapattoni the Indefensible [...]

By: Football Round-Up (LOI Week 25, Internationals) | Never Felt Better

Football Round-Up (LOI Week 25, Internationals) | Never Felt Better — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 12:27:59 +0000

[...] Ireland then. My thoughts on the situation in the international camp generally can be found on Back Page Football. PO nth actual game itself I have little to add to the sea of complaining voices. The formation was [...]

By: David

David — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 14:20:41 +0000

The point about Brian Kerr was to emphasize how deceiving statistics can be, not to claim he was a better manager. No one would call Brian Kerr a success, but he has a better win record than Trapattoni right now.

By: Alan Moore

Alan Moore — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 03:50:08 +0000

Well written and posited article David, some obvious flaws (lauding the genii left at home like Andy Reid?) though overall well constructed. You do, however, overlook the most serious problems in Irish football and watching the game on Friday carefully it was painfully obvious what they were. Almost none of the Irish players could control, move with and pass the ball cleanly, basic skills that are bred into footballers from an early age. By contrast the Kazakhs, who were greatly underestimated by players, fans and media alike, were cohesive and controlled. The failure that is the British academy system and the need for Irish football to prostrate itself at the altar of football in Britain, means that our players are incomplete, lacking in basic ability and therefore self-belief when they come up against better tooled opponents.

Irish football is done a great disservice at home by it’s almost complete lack of vision. The insular nature of the Irish footballing media and public is handed down from generations watching a “foreign” game. The FAI have not moved on with the times, are wasting the opportunity to learn from one of football’s greats and our players will continue to under perform so long as there is no development available at home.

The Kazakhs are investing heavily in sports and youth development, they have the oil and gas money, from top down. In Ireland we squandered ours on botox and 3rd cars.

By: Cooney

Cooney — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 16:20:07 +0000

I’m not one of those wanting “Trap Out”, that’s a fact ok, but still I can agree with this article on some points, especially about the tactics and style of play. Trap is a bit “old” tactically, in some ways, and I certainly criticizes him for not being able of changing the gameplan during a match. He’s still too much linked with the man-man substition. If a winger doesn’t perform, he’ll put on another winger. He doesn’t try to change the formation and sometimes we simply can’t change the result of the match.

But, when I hear about the fact we could have some football genius left at home, I seriously cannot hold a laugh. I agree Coleman and Gibson should be in the team, but then?
Wes Hoolahan? Foley? Andy Reid? Come on, they can’t be better than Whelan or McGeady.
Hoolahan is almost 30 and someone call for his name just because of a good EPL season with Norwich. Andy Reid? I’ve been a fan of him, but he was class 5 years ago, not now. Foley? Wilson? Please. Cox? Come on..
We can’t talk of these players like they were Redondo or Gazza. We must face the reality, imho.
Our player base is small and certainly poorer than 10 years ago. But still Trap gave the team an organization we didn’t have before.
We probably had our best team of the last 20 years at the WC2002 and still we played long balls to Niall Quinn.
Now I can see the lads trying to pass the ball everytime, even when under pressure. Is this not an improvement?
Then Trap is too stubborn on some aspects, I certainly agree on that, but I also can’t see other great managers unemployed and ready to come.
We need to be serious, we just put too much expectations on our Euros campaign this summer. And now many people think that with another manager and 3 or 4 different players (who cannot find a place in their own clubs) we could have done what, winning our group? Reaching the semis?

Too easy to criticize Trap now.
And to hear that even Brian Kerr did a better job, sorry, but it’s almost ridicoulous.

By: Trapattoni The Indefensible (Back Page Football) | Never Felt Better

Trapattoni The Indefensible (Back Page Football) | Never Felt Better — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 13:46:50 +0000

[...] read the rest of this guest post, click here to go to Back Page Football. Share this:FacebookTwitterStumbleUponDiggRedditLike this:LikeBe the first to like this. This [...]