Trapattoni slams absent Best

Best not good enough for Ireland
Leon Best has been left out of the Republic of Ireland squad for the matches against Andorra and Armenia.

To me the move is puzzling considering that Best has managed to bag himself more Premier League goals this season than the rest of the ROI strikers aside from Shane Long, but perhaps the most puzzling thing is Trapattoni’s explanation as to why Best has been left out.

To me Best has improved an awful lot this season, and I don’t mean simply his goals. Best can actually contribute without getting on the scoresheet, which is something I can’t say about Peter Lovenkrands. His all round play has improved, he battles hard, and he links up play. All in all I’ve been impressed with the improvements to his game the most, which is why I find Trapattoni’s words confusing.

“Leon is not here because we have other three four strikers with other qualities. Leon knows why. I don’t forget him but he knows why I need other attitudes,” Trapattoni told the Daily Mail.

“But on the there is only one ball. And winning football is about 11 players running for 90 minutes, or 94 minutes, with a winning mentality. I cannot have players who just wait for the ball.”

Trapattoni continued: “We need a team, we need work and commitment. That is football. We need this mentality because with our mentality anything is possible. We cannot afford to have players standing there waiting for the ball.”

“Leon knows why he is not here. We are also missing Keith Treacy and he knows. The players understand why. I tell them to their face, not through the newspapers.”

So he tells them to their face eh? And doesn’t say stuff about players through the press? Not what I’ve just read.

Personally I think the fact that Best is absent from the Republic of Ireland squad is criminal, and for his international manager to criticise Best for the very things that, in my view, he has improved upon is harsh in the extreme.

The simple fact is that Leon Best has outscored every other striker in their squad so far this season apart from Shane Long who he is level pegging with. He has scored more than Robbie Keane, Simon Cox, Jonathan Walters, Kevin Doyle and Andy Keogh so to not even warrant a space in the squad is baffling in the extreme.

Do you share my view?

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

41 thoughts on “Trapattoni slams absent Best

  1. Just as well really, want as few call ups as possible for now. Still trapatonni clearly doesn’t know what the **** he’s talking about.

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  2. Agree with all of that, Trapattoni comes across as a bit of an idiot to me. From a selfish point of view though I am not that fussed, would rather see Leon get a 2 week rest before the Spuds game.

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  3. Bizarre comments!

    Seems to be questioning his attitude, which, for me is top notch.

    Besty gives his all in every game and looks to help the team, an unselfish player, not the most gifted in the world, but would rather him than Keane any day.

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  4. He makes a statement like that after Best had IMHO one of his best all round games for us at wolves, Showing theres more to his game than just getting caught offside and scoring, His link up with Ba is getting better every match and very nearly got a couple of assists on saturday to go with the one against blackburn, Along with his goal ratio in the premier league he should have been a shoe in for them.

    I suppose its hard to get a chance when your competing with the likes of Keogh, Walters and Cox like… 🙄

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  5. The last couple of games Best has put himself on the line and really worked hard for the team, so I cant understand this explanation at all.

    By the way I’ve changed my avatar 🙂

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  6. Obviously hasn’t watched him this season. Good though i hate players playing for their international team, just waiting for them to get injured or to travel all over the world for games that don’t matter.

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  7. CC October 4, 2011 at 10:32

    “He makes a statement like that after Best had IMHO one of his best all round games for us at wolves, Showing theres more to his game than just getting caught offside and scoring”

    Exactly.

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  8. There she is 😀 Think the other one has had its time for a few months at least.

    Andy Keogh over Best… Really?!

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  9. I hope Besty doesn’t become too disheartned. All the effort he put in lately – I hope it was for newcastle and not just to get a country call up.

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  10. Would have to agree his work rate could be better. There is so much more to modern day football than just being an old style ‘poacher’. Agree his work rate has improved dramatically this season but that could be because it has been so poor in the past.
    Look at Demba Ba, he chases verything, never gives defenders a minute. Would agree that Best still has to up his work rate a bit but would have to say he he works a hundred thousand tomes harder than Ameobi. But that wouldn’t be difficult would it 🙂

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  11. Just mentioned this on the Maiga thread but Mark Douglas is having a bet with another journalist that Maiga WILL be our player come the end of the January and he said he’s ‘almost certain’.

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  12. M hard to get to a match when it’s a struggle to get out of bed 😈

    Like I said last night I think it’d e a good idea to at least include him in the squad to recognise the improvement, even if he doesn’t play. I do feel he still has work to do but has made significant improvements

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  13. I get the feeling we’ll definatelu be in aain but maybe sochaux will up their demands again and put us off after his six goals in four games or whatever it is

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  14. Dubtoon, the thing is the balls in Maigas and any potential buyers court because he’s a free come the summer and you can guarantee if they don’t want to accept our offer in January Llambias will say fine, the teams doing well, we’ll just get him on a pre-contract for the summer.

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  15. A quote from Sochaux on the BBC website:

    A statement on the club’s official website said: “FC Sochaux-Montbeliard sent a referral to Fifa with the aim of obtaining [assurances] on the part of Newcastle United that they will stop their contacts with Modibo Maiga, who is under contract until 2014.

    “This [contact] is in violation of Article 18 of the current international regulations.

    “This measure comes after Sochaux demanded without success, in an official manner and on two occasions, that the English club put a stop to their actions.”

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  16. My bad lads 😀

    Don’t know why I thought he was a free…

    Interesting for Mark Douglas to say he’s almost certain though!

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  17. Maybe a deal has been close, who knows? Either way we have just got rid of one loud mouth. Why would we want another? Personally, I really would rather we looked at other targets…

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  18. Dan – Probably because the lad so clearly wants away. I wouldn’t be too happy about keeping a player about who so clearly doesn’t want to be at the club.

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  19. SSN stating Shearer has ruled himself out of the running for the England job. How did his name ever get linked to it in the first place? He rightly dismisses the idea as ridiculous himself.

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  20. To be fair, we were fine with Ben Arfa when he signed and he kicked up more of a fuss than Maiga has 😆

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  21. Good Point, however there is a difference. Maiga is regarded as a key player for his club. Deschamps did not particulalry rate Ben Arfa and did not play him that often due to inconsistent form. Benny was kicking up a fuss because a club that did not rate him was not letting him go.

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  22. I like the versatility we have up front, even if we lack on quality or depth we could see some really interesting tactical play come in to this side that we never saw with carroll/nolan. Demba Ba played very effectively in West Ham’s 4-3-3 on the wing, Bestie is showing that he has good running and dribbling skills as well as some brilliant crossing, and we all know what Benny can do.

    We might even start looking like Barca with their floating winger/forwards :mrgreen:

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  23. “We cannot afford to have players standing there waiting for the ball.”
    ————————
    Obviosuly Trapattoni hasn’t watched a minute of Best this season. As you say it’s criminal he’s not included…

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  24. Didnt Best miss an international game because of injury in February and turned up playing for us 3 days later….
    After the Arsenal 4-4 game, that could be the reason…. He hasnt been called since….

    Any way good for us, we dont need an injury on international week

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  25. Dan@30….we won’t know if we’re fine with Benny when/if a bigger club comes in for him, there’s a chance that he would do the same to us. Not worth having 2 players with the potential to do that imo, Benny has the potential to be special so worth the risk, not so sure about Maigi.

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  26. It’s to our advantage in 2 ways.

    1. As already mentioned, it’s less likely he will be injured and should be chomping at the bit for the spurs game.

    2. Everyone told him he wasn’t good enough for the Newcastle starting 11, look at how hard he’s worked to prove everyone wrong.
    Let’s hope that he everytime he pulls his toon top on he goes out there with fire in his belly to give the dopey old italian the 2 fingered salute.

    He deserves to be in the ROI squad and I truely hope he gets his call up. But I hope he bangs a bucket load of toon goals in in the meantime

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  27. Regarding the argument about HBA and Maigas attitudes, it’s great to see quality players wanting to come and play for Newcastle.
    Don’t condone players going on strike but HBA has been brilliant since returning from injury. He’s sat on the bench and waited for his opportunity without spitting his dummy, and seems part of a great team spirit and winning team.
    As for Maiga, he shouldn’t have refused to play, but since then he’s worked hard and proved his worth, banging the goals in, whilst the fans boo him week in week out.
    Why shouldn’t his club want to keep him???, but he has again said recently that he wants to play for a bigger team and in the EPL.
    So that makes things fairly simple… I we want him THAT badly, folk out the money!!!
    Liverpool did for a striker they desperately wanted and we pocketed 35m for it, so if we want this lad, and he wants to come… stop f’ing about and do it!
    Then while the wallet is open, get us a centre back and full back and let the good times keep on rolling!!!

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  28. I’m an Irish man and obviously a Rep of Ireland supporter, this statement does seem odd, but one thing ill say about Trap is he is not senile and has method in his madness more than he gets credit for by the media. He rarely makes drastic changes to his squad(especially during a qualifying campaign) and really does seem to fancy Andy Keogh as I don’t know why he is in our squad. Best is easily better.

    But our team(Ireland) is not the best in the world and he has gotten us some great results from team performances….much like some of Newcastle’s results this season. Best doesn’t have the work rate of Doyle, Long and Keane imo and they really put a shift in for the team but Best is not too far off these days as i have seen a big improvement in his work rate.

    I think Trap hasn’t really seen Best of late and has formed an opinion of sorts on previous matches and Irish squads he has been in, as he has tried out Best a couple of times. He may also be putting the gauntlet down a little as i’m sure Best will get another chance. Its just Trap is not much a risk taker and he is probably unwilling to change the group of players he has while he goes through the qualifiers unless there is a vast prolonged improvement in a player on the fringes of the squad or injury and i know that he wont be allowed to be pressured by media to jump a player up that pecking order…I think if he keeps showing the work rate he is showing for us and Keogh and Cox continue to be average then Best will be back in and could even get a game or two and eventually stay there providing he scores and/or shows that he can be a valuable team player.

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  29. Trap is an idiot ,

    He doesn’t go to watch players play ,

    He wouldn’t play Coleman when it was plain to see the lad is quality ,

    Last year he played Paul green on a reg basis WTF ,

    He continues to play Keith Andrews , and whelan ahead of the much more talented James mc carthy ,

    He plays a terrible brand of football , terrible it is ( but he has got a few results ) the Russia match was the most one sided game I’ve ever seen ,

    He’s a stubborn little foker I’ll say that

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