Republic of Ireland V Bulgaria- 10th September 2019 - Friendly

[Stuttgart88]

I'm not a fan myself. If new midfielders and forwards are to be tried I'd prefer if they were played with their likely partners in a real game. That way a forward like Hogan for example and Hourihane can get to learn each other's movements and get on the same wavelength. That said, I do want to see Browne and Byrne playing, probably also Cullen and O'Dowda could do with another outing. So if that requires Hourihane making way that's fine. We'll at least have his set pieces still, and it may even be a revelation - though I agree with livehead about pegs and holes.

[backstothewall]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-middle-east-49646879?__twitter_impression=true

I know it's mid afternoon on matchday but is there way we can show support for this woman at tonights game? We have minutes silence for every Tom, Dick or Harry who ever sat on a county committee. Someone who has sacrificed her life for the right to watch football seems somewhat more deserving.

Shocking that this sort of thing is going on yet as I type this (literally) Iran are playing in a World Cup qualifier against Hong Kong as if they are any other normal country (they are 2-0 up after 59 mins).

[Diggs246]

I dion't think he is. In The Indo he is quoted as saying that he hopes Doherty will be fit again. He also says very specifically that if the U21s didn't have an important match he'd call some of them up.
I'm not sure he cares about the u 21s if I'm honest. I guess he has his players and he isn't moving outside his 16 or so guys he likes.

[elatedscum]

Confirmed that Egan will captain. I guess that means that Coleman Duffy and McClean won’t start. You’d imagine Keogh and Randolph and Hendrick would captain be ahead of him...

So maybe:

Travers

Christie
Egan
Long
Hourihane

Cullen
Browne
Byrne

Judge
O’Dowda

Hogan / Collins

[SwanVsDalton]

Confirmed that Egan will captain. I guess that means that Coleman Duffy and McClean won’t start. You’d imagine Keogh and Randolph and Hendrick would captain be ahead of him...

So maybe:

Travers

Christie
Egan
Long
Hourihane

Cullen
Browne
Byrne

Judge
O’Dowda

Hogan / Collins

Pretty close. This is the team, bar Ronan Curtis in for Jack Byrne and Hogan over Collins (FAI graphic has Judge in behind Hogan).

[SkStu]

Ye UCD lads must be awful embarrassed now, eh? Eh? ;)

[samhaydenjr]

Confirmed that Egan will captain. I guess that means that Coleman Duffy and McClean won’t start. You’d imagine Keogh and Randolph and Hendrick would captain be ahead of him...

So maybe:

Travers

Christie
Egan
Long
Hourihane

Cullen
Browne
Byrne

Judge
O’Dowda

Hogan / Collins


Pretty close. This is the team, bar Ronan Curtis in for Jack Byrne and Hogan over Collins (FAI graphic has Judge in behind Hogan).

And now it's a B international... the one thing we all didn't want it to be... Ah Mick, I think you're great, but seriously... is this the best use of a single friendly in the middle of some vital qualifiers, when your main team is still pretty makeshift? Watch now, Travers will save a penalty, Long and Egan will be rocks in defence, Hourihane will be a revelation, Browne and Cullen will dominate midfield, O'Dowda will torment the Bulgarian defence and Hogan will get a brace in a 3-0 win:D

[pineapple stu]

Ye UCD lads must be awful embarrassed now, eh? Eh? ;)
Ha! We were just talking about you in the ground :)

[tricky_colour]

Time for a 4th!

[pineapple stu]

Great debut for Byrne here. Seriously impressive, even if it is a poor Bulgarian team with a wojus keeper

[tommy_c12000]

Easy game to come into, but Byrne did well. I like Jack, good player and may have sorted his attitude out as he matured. But I wouldn’t take him seriously as an international prospect until he has proved himself outside of the league of Ireland.

I have high hopes for the LOI standard to improve with the right backing and mgt structure as FAI sorts itself out, especially with so many great people working hard at the grass roots level. But objectively, there has been minimal improvement in my life time. There’s no reason why the league can’t get close to the standard of the Scandinavian leagues, if that happens then I’d have no qualms with LOI players being selected for senior team on a more regular basis. Now, I view the selection of LOI players as a barometer of the poor strength in depth of our national team.

[tricky_colour]

First time we have scored 3 since St Patrick's hattrick v the devil, if I recall correctly.

I think we are entering a new era of high scoring high possession high trophy football.

[SkStu]

First time we have scored 3 since St Patrick's hattrick v the devil, if I recall correctly.

I think we are entering a new era of high scoring high possession high trophy football.

Someone is high again anyway! :D

[Diggs246]

First time we have scored 3 since St Patrick's hattrick v the devil, if I recall correctly.

I think we are entering a new era of high scoring high possession high trophy football.

Is that Grass or Moroccan black hash? It's good it's very good whatever it is

[backstothewall]

I'm home.

The first half was terrible. Bulgaria were terrible throughout apart from that lad with the hair.

For once in one of these games the flurry of subs after 60 mins brought things to life rather than killing things off.

I'd say Browne, Cullen, Collins & Byrne moved up the queue after tonight. Hogan & Curtis went the other way. The others were treading water.

[seanfhear]

Except that Cullen was playing in central midfield I thought he had a touch of the Ray Houghton about him. Certainly looked like him .

[samhaydenjr]

And now it's a B international... the one thing we all didn't want it to be... Ah Mick, I think you're great, but seriously... is this the best use of a single friendly in the middle of some vital qualifiers, when your main team is still pretty makeshift? Watch now, Travers will save a penalty, Long and Egan will be rocks in defence, Hourihane will be a revelation, Browne and Cullen will dominate midfield, O'Dowda will torment the Bulgarian defence and Hogan will get a brace in a 3-0 win:D

Sorry Mick, for ever doubting you... this turned out to be a really worthwhile exercise - first cap for Cullen, who got MOTM, Collins, who scored, and Byrne, who gave added impetus in the second half and showed that he may yet prove to be the player we hoped he'd be. First goal for Alan Browne and Kevin Long (and assists for Stevens, Byrne and, er, Hogan). OK, Travers didn't save a penalty but, in fairness, it was a really good penalty. And as for Hourihane... well, he asked Mick for minutes and got them. On this performance there's definitely no need to raid the U21s for added depth... from 'keeper to striker, we now have a bunch of lads that are ready to go if called upon.

[Olé Olé]

https://twitter.com/FAIreland/status/1171545229058551808?s=19

There were murmurs his attitude wasn't up to scratch but this interview shows a very grounded and humble young player commenting on his senior debut. I like the look of Byrne. I wonder where he will go next.

[tricky_colour]

https://twitter.com/FAIreland/status/1171545229058551808?s=19

There were murmurs his attitude wasn't up to scratch but this interview shows a very grounded and humble young player commenting on his senior debut. I like the look of Byrne. I wonder where he will go next.

Barcelona perhaps.

[Eminence Grise]

Byrne's 23 now, so a lot of the behaviour attributed to him was when he was in his late teens. There’s research lately that suggests adolescence lasts up to about 24 years (https://www.bbc.com/news/health-42732442), and I’d swear that later maturity is more common among my students now than when I started lecturing around 2001, or when I was in my early 20s a few years further back.

Go back 30 years, a player’s career was about 18-31. Now it’s taking off around 21 and lasting till about 34/5. It can’t be just the physical development that’s taking longer.

[osarusan]

First half was grim, second half we improved and Bulgaria looked grim instead.

Not too much can be read into a friendly against a mediocre team - usually you can only learn who's not up to the level, or at least, not up to it in a particular position, but we learned that Byrne didn't look out of place at all against opposition of a much higher level than LOI.

[paul_oshea]

Fully agree with that assessment Osarusan. Can't read anything into it, and though Cullen and Byrne looked good at that level, they wont find the space or time on the ball against the swiss or even the georgians. Physicality will play a big part too for those players. Lets wait and see, hopefully they get a chance against Georgia though.

[pineapple stu]

Worth noting that their keeper was one of the worst I've seen in a while. The Gibraltar keeper who scored that og a couple of years back, and the infamous Turkish keeper (Omer Catkin) who was subbed on and off again, are the two comparable ones. Unusually, he was a 37-year-old making his international debut. But he was all over the shop for the first two goals. Would we even have won the game without him? How strong was that Bulgaria team overall?

But they're the standard caveats in games of this nature. Happy to take the positives, such as they are, with Byrne being first among them, and a style of play that wasn't eye-gaugingly bad.

[seanfhear]

Worth noting that their keeper was one of the worst I've seen in a while. The Gibraltar keeper who scored that og a couple of years back, and the infamous Turkish keeper (Omer Catkin) who was subbed on and off again, are the two comparable ones. Unusually, he was a 37-year-old making his international debut. But he was all over the shop for the first two goals. Would we even have won the game without him? How strong was that Bulgaria team overall?

But they're the standard caveats in games of this nature. Happy to take the positives, such as they are, with Byrne being first among them, and a style of play that wasn't eye-gaugingly bad.
Don’t knock over the half full glass !

[Diggs246]

Is Mick serious about bringing Stephen Ward back from retirement? or did I pick that up balls ways

[DeLorean]

Is Mick serious about bringing Stephen Ward back from retirement? or did I pick that up balls ways

Seemed pretty serious to me. He said similar about bringing back Daryl Murphy though, and that never happened.

[Razors left peg]

For people saying that Byrne only did it against poor opposition, the rest of the players were playing against the same opposition and didnt look as good! Judge was on the pitch a lot longer than Byrne and was pretty poor I thought. That would be the position that Byrne would be targeting since Judge was the one that Mick turned to off the bench against the Swiss.

[pineapple stu]

Don’t knock over the half full glass !
The keeper has spent a good chunk of his career in the Bulgarian lower leagues! :p

[backstothewall]

For people saying that Byrne only did it against poor opposition, the rest of the players were playing against the same opposition and didnt look as good! Judge was on the pitch a lot longer than Byrne and was pretty poor I thought. That would be the position that Byrne would be targeting since Judge was the one that Mick turned to off the bench against the Swiss.

I was fairly underwhelmed by Judge over the 2 games. To me it looked like this level is maybe beyond him.

[IsMiseSean]

I was fairly underwhelmed by Judge over the 2 games. To me it looked like this level is maybe beyond him.

Have to agree. The Indo gave him a player rating of 8 - I don't know what they saw to rate him that high.

[TrapAPony]

Have to agree. The Indo gave him a player rating of 8 - I don't know what they saw to rate him that high.

The article writer should have gone to specsavers. A truly bizarre rating indeed. Judge shouldn't even be in the squad. He is currently only a sub for Ipswich. I think he is to Mick what Paul Green or Andy Keogh was to Trapattoni.

[Razors left peg]

Have to agree. The Indo gave him a player rating of 8 - I don't know what they saw to rate him that high.

Yeah that was madness, I think there were a few weird player ratings in the Indo to be honest

[tommy_c12000]

Like everything else in the technology age it’s getting harder and harder to separate the wheat from the chaff, with all these other website resources such as punditarena, sportsjoe, and whatever else. The standard of journalism has plummeted. Judge was given a 4 (by punditarena) and 8 by some guy Brennan who I’ve never heard of in the independent, that is some disparity. Judge should not be in the squad, I’ve said this long ago. A rating of 5 is a fairer reflection. I thought O’Dowda was very unimpressive, he was given a 7 by punditarena (and was thought to have impressed), the indo gave him a 6 which was more accurate. Anyways, I take the ratings and assessment of these resources with a grain of salt, I am confident in my own assessment, and will consider the opinions of thoughtful, knowledgeable and articulate journalists, who are few and far between these days

[Stuttgart88]

Meaningless low key match for sure but I think a few players have done their reputations no harm whatsoever. Collins has elevated himself above Hogan and Byrne above Judge. Travers looks the part. Browne was quietly efficient – not a bad thing. Cullen looks to be Whelan’s heir apparent. I loved the simplicity of his “receive-give-receive” style of play.

O’Dowda and Curtis both did well. Brady might be nervous.

I think Arter and Hogan are the biggest losers. Christie was only ever 3rd choice RB anyway so his mistake won’t hurt his chances.

I think this game had its benefits in sorting out the pecking order a bit. I expect Mick’s first XI won’t change without any injuries (Stevens needs replacing obviously – but that’ll surely be Doherty if fit) but I think his choice of deputies / tactical substitutions has changed quite a bit.

[jbyrne]

Meaningless low key match for sure but I think a few players have done their reputations no harm whatsoever. Collins has elevated himself above Hogan and Byrne above Judge. Travers looks the part. Browne was quietly efficient – not a bad thing. Cullen looks to be Whelan’s heir apparent. I loved the simplicity of his “receive-give-receive” style of play.

O’Dowda and Curtis both did well. Brady might be nervous.

I think Arter and Hogan are the biggest losers. Christie was only ever 3rd choice RB anyway so his mistake won’t hurt his chances.

I think this game had its benefits in sorting out the pecking order a bit. I expect Mick’s first XI won’t change without any injuries (Stevens needs replacing obviously – but that’ll surely be Doherty if fit) but I think his choice of deputies / tactical substitutions has changed quite a bit.

so.... all in all not that meaningless really? :)

usually if we get one additional option from a friendly its a good nights work but this week i thought cullen, byrne and collins put their hands up as good options. travers getting a first cap also is important too.

[Stuttgart88]

so.... all in all not that meaningless really? :)

True!

I guess I was trying to say "not too much can really be read into it, but on the evidence of a match that lacked competitive intensity we can learn that..."

[jbyrne]

True!

I guess I was trying to say "not too much can really be read into it, but on the evidence of a match that lacked competitive intensity we can learn that..."

yes but the three players i mentioned have good club form to back up their performances on Tuesday

[Razors left peg]

O’Dowda and Curtis both did well. Brady might be nervous.


.

Would disagree with this, I though Curtis was terrible and looked way out of his depth

[seanfhear]

Would disagree with this, I though Curtis was terrible and looked way out of his depthI agree ( well a bit raw and somewhat out of his debt ) but his saving grace was that he was willing to have a shot . Did Browne's goal come from a Curtis shot ( have I got that right ) . Anyway he can still improve but on that showing looks like he needs to .

[Charlie Darwin]

Browne's goal was from Curtis' shot, yeah. Reminds me of McClean at his age.

[irishfan86]

I missed this match — if anybody knows of any way of me being able to watch the full game online could you send me a private message? I have avoided the score & am just interested in seeing how some of our new/fringe players did.

[SkStu]

IF86 - reddit (r/footballhighlights) is an amazing resource for the likes of us. I watched the full 2nd half (I skipped the first half based on advice) and extended highlights a few hours after the final whistle.

Links here (can’t speak to which are still working etc): https://www.reddit.com/r/footballhighlights/comments/d2c4vn/republic_of_ireland_vs_bulgaria_friendly/

[SkStu]

FWIW - here’s what I shared with others in terms of the game I saw.


Watched the second half. And highlights of the first. Took notes but they’re on my other phone. My biggest takeaway from the second half was how good Alan Browne looks. Lovely on the ball, classy and always gave an out to the defenders in possession. Did brilliantly in the build up to our first goal, as did O’Dowda who is just a lovely player with the ball. I really enjoy watching him play. I thought Curtis looked good to be honest. He tried a few passes that turned the ball over but I thought they were the right passes and that those on the overlap or whatever just hadn’t seen it. Judge seems almost too eager to please and overcooks everything as a result. Cullen didn’t really stand out as much for me. Definitely tidy though. Byrne did well. Collins is the type of 9 that the team needs. Stays high, can win the ball and lay it off and his finish from Stevens cross was decent enough too. Egan didn’t do much wrong and Long was decent too. I actually didn’t mind Hourihane at lb as much as I thought I would. Christie is frustrating - does some things well (nice cross with his left for a Cullen header that was flicked just over the bar) but then completely switches off (penalty, poor 3-4 yard passes). Overall a decent run out and performance from what I saw. Mick will have learnt plenty about all the players from last night which I think is mission accomplished from this game.

[tricky_colour]

IF86 - reddit (r/footballhighlights) is an amazing resource for the likes of us. I watched the full 2nd half (I skipped the first half based on advice) and extended highlights a few hours after the final whistle.

Links here (can’t speak to which are still working etc): https://www.reddit.com/r/footballhighlights/comments/d2c4vn/republic_of_ireland_vs_bulgaria_friendly/

Thanks the iptvsurge? Links seem to work fine. As do the sportsshow, well.. maybe not a lot of redirection on the second half, iptvsurge seems best. Reddit seems to be the go to place for games now.

I would avoid the MEGA links, I managed to download the first half but second half is a run around of popups and on one occasion lead to an executable to download,
something you do not want to be doing as you do not know what it does.

[tricky_colour]

Managed to download both halfs from the mega links not sure how though, but I got there in the end somehow after millions of pop ups.

[irishfan86]

Thanks a lot SkStu — was able to watch full match & never learned score until watching.

Really positive for a friendly. Honestly thought many of our players put in performances that will impress Mick.

Too bad about Christie. I like him so much going forward but he is consistently a defensive liability. Would be very concerned to see him involved in a competitive match.

Nice to see Browne, Cullen and Byrne assert themselves as midfield options. I love Curtis’ attitude but he’s basically McClean 2.0. I don’t think there’s room for both on the field but they both have ability to unsettle defences and generally rattle the opposition. There is value to that and they both have the bravery to take on shots, which can lead to goals or direct rebounds.

Mixed feelings about the Hourihane left fullback experiment. Would prob go with Doherty if fit for Georgia but perhaps go with Hourihane if that isn’t possible. I think Browne would be the natural replacement centrally if Hourihane is deployed at left back.

Nice to see Collins score. I have a feeling he’s going to score at least one big goal for us in the final three matches.

[tetsujin1979]

Thread bumped and locked.
Can't find highlights of the game online