View from the far side....

bonkey

Living in Switzerland, (as I do), and having watched the match (as I did), I must say that the commentators over here are even more biased in terms of their opinions on referee decisions than the Irish are.

That said, it was pretty obvious that they were massively surprised and bloody damn proud to have beaten the Irish.

Why am I saying this? Well - our team were terrible from what I saw, and I'm pretty sure that there's going to be mounds of disgust over this loss. However, the impression over here was that we were still giants to beat, and the only two things in their favour were our nervousness from our "shock" defeat in the last game, and the effort their team were willing to make.

Yes it was disappointing, but the team is still highly regarded by the outside world. It does show a small ray of hope.

Should McCarthy go? Perhaps. But I wouldnt rule him out just yet.

jc

mike65

the impression over here was that we were still giants to beat

Not any longer methinks, McCarthy is destroying Irelands reputation at double quick speed. Albania will fancy thier chances.

Mike.

PiE

He may be destroying it, but he also built it.

He's made a lot of mistakes in the recent games, but lets not jump ahead of ourselves. If we lose to Albania... well...

qwertyup

In all fairness, you cannot place all the blame on McCarthy, unless you are also willing to give him all the credit for hauling Ireland from 65th place in the world rankings up to a respectable 13th in his tenure.

Just as that is a falsehood, so too is it to say that it is solely down to the players, and their fault alone for the recent results. It is a two-fold thing, and it would be good if people would recognise that from time to time.

However, I would agree that McCarthy's recent choices in terms of players has been off the mark.

Johnny_the_fox

Originally posted by PiE
He may be destroying it, but he also built it.

He's made a lot of mistakes in the recent games, but lets not jump ahead of ourselves. If we lose to Albania... well...

well said....

its really down to the players to perform...dont blame McCarthy

Mountjoy Mugger

I think McCarthy and the rest of us have to accept that another rebuilding period lies ahead of us.

Apart from the Roy Keane factor, we are now also without two very influential players - Quinny and Stan. We've got nobody to take control of the players on the park.

We need to start rebuilding now, and not wait for the entire team to go down the Swannee. With a bit of luck we might have the makings of a team in time for Germany 2006, but we got to get on it soon.

If it means Mccarthy swallowing some pride and blooding the likes of O'Shea, Butler and a few other of our U21s, so be it, but there's no point in waiting until we're mathematically out of the group.

mike65

I don't think McCarthy is entirely to blame - just about 75%. He selects the players and thier positions and the formation, it maybe that he'll learn something from the last two games, but doubtful.

He proberly won't get the time anyway...

Mike.