Options.
Whatever Martin O'Neill thinks of his chances in June, the man is facing a selection headache to cut his tournament squad to 23.
Injuries are clearing up, players are hitting form, scoring goals and everything is building gloriously now in the final stretch of club action.
Jon Walters got another 25 minutes under his belt at the weekend. Harry Arter is back and starting for Bournemouth. Darren Randolph was in goals for West Ham's last league games and even Darron Gibson and David McGoldrick are featuring regularly and performing regularly. As bolters go, O'Neill is seeing a number of players put their hands up at the right time.
Then there's this guy.
https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/729568582489800706
It is Gibson and McGoldrick who are really shaking things up.
With Daryl Murphy and Kevin Doyle still lacking game time, McGoldrick is back and firing for Ipswich. Three 90 minutes in succession to end the season, two goals in his last two games, the classy attacker is an option no doubt for France.
And Darron Gibson has emerged from nowhere. Roberto Martinez's potential final acts as an Everton manager is to resurrect the Derry man's Toffees season and it is showing as the midfielder barges into the top 10 of the power rankings.
A reminder of the stipulations:
- Only league games are considered (based on the WhoScored rating each player receives).
- Stats only include Premier League and Championship performances.
- Each player's last three league games constitutes their form rating.
- 0.5 will be deducted for each match a player misses in his own 'Last Three Games' period.
- To account for standard, Championship players will be rated at 80% of their form.
It means that, if Martin O'Neill were to trust the stats and go with his best team based on the numbers, his starting XI would look like this - granted he went for a 'keeper of course.
However, no team - never mind an Ireland team - are going to play three at the back (especially one including Christie and Brady) in a major tournament. If you wanted an extra defender in, the next available player who could play in the centre just so happens to have had an award-winning season.
https://twitter.com/pnefc/status/727474303957086208
So to use Martin O'Neill's formation with Ireland and allow the stats to dictate which players play in each role, here is what you would have.
Gibson takes the place of Jeff Hendrick who hasn't featured since leaving the Ireland camp in March injured. James McClean is in the Jon Walters role up top, out wide, basically everywhere and he played that position well against Slovakia.
Despite all the changes, the bolters, the team still looks well.
Options.
A reminder of the stipulations:
