Georgia V Republic of Ireland - Tbilisi - 12th October 2019 - Euro 2020 Qualifier

[Olé Olé]

Set up to attack. Use the wings as much as possible. The tone of this game is important. If we sit back they'll control 80 per cent of possession.
Would like to see Byrne in the starting eleven to control the play in midfield, but it will never happen.

Randolph

Coleman Egan Cunningham

Doherty Hendrick Browne/Cullen McClean


Maguire Collins Robinson

Propose Byrne being midfield is one of the more realistic suggestions you've made in that post. The formation, Cunningham ahead of Long, Doherty right wing back ahead of Coleman, Browne or Cullen ahead of Whelan and no Hourihane would be less likely than Byrne starting, in my view.

[mark12345]

Propose Byrne being midfield is one of the more realistic suggestions you've made in that post. The formation, Cunningham ahead of Long, Doherty right wing back ahead of Coleman, Browne or Cullen ahead of Whelan and no Hourihane would be less likely than Byrne starting, in my view.

Cheers Ole, I picked Cunningham simply because he has quite a few games under his belt this season as opposed to Long who really hasn't kicked a ball for Burnley. I would hope that Coleman and Doherty slightly ahead of him on the right, would have that side of the pitch pretty well covered. And likewise on the left with McClean and Cunningham. My feeling is that we are overmatched in the middle of the park, so keeping the play on the wings would be more beneficial to us

[elatedscum]

Set up to attack. Use the wings as much as possible. The tone of this game is important. If we sit back they'll control 80 per cent of possession.
Would like to see Byrne in the starting eleven to control the play in midfield, but it will never happen.

Randolph

Coleman Egan Cunningham

Doherty Hendrick Browne/Cullen McClean


Maguire Collins Robinson

He'll never start with only one natural centre half in the side.

If I were guessing I would say:

Randolph

Coleman-Egan-Long-Cunningham

Hendrick-Cullen-Hourihane

Robinson McClean
Collins

With Duffy to replace Long and McGoldrick to replace Collins if fit. Don't think he'll ask Whelan to play 2 games in a week.

[geysir]

He's been playing there all season. Mick referencing that Connolly wouldn't get in ahead of McClean implies to me that he still sees McClean as a valuable asset on the left wing though.

What did Mick say?

[DannyInvincible]

What did Mick say?

1179021512227135490

[irishfan86]

Yeah Mick messed up the team name but he did scout Connolly in person........I suspect Mick is basically saying he views Connolly as a wide forward in our system (let's face it he's not going to play as the focal point a la McGoldrick at this point) -- and in that role doesn't offer the all-round game McClean does (possibly fair).

I have no doubt Connolly is among our most talented finishers but Mick has favoured "battle hardened" over "promising but unproven" in this campaign and it has worked for us so far.

Given these are two crucial away games where the atmosphere is going to be incredibly tense and challenging, I back Mick's approach. I wouldn't mind having Connolly on the bench as an option if we needed a goal, but is he definitively a better option than an experienced pro like Hogan?

Mick has been relatively unimaginative with his selections but I've been impressed with his ability to put together a cohesive and functional group despite no friendlies to prepare before the competitive fixtures for this campaign. He's also used his judgment to integrate players who other coaches perhaps wouldn't have selected.

He's used McGoldrick in a key role -- and he's used guys like Judge -- who despite not being everyone's cup of tea has been involved in some key moments (free kick for Duffy goal.....goal line clearing header).

The Tweet implies Mick is a clueless idiot. If anyone actually believes that, they haven't been paying attention to what has been IMO a very savvy use of limited resources.

[geysir]

Would Cunningham start ahead of Doherty? i think he's just back up.

[IsMiseSean]

Would Cunningham start ahead of Doherty? i think he's just back up.

Cunningham went off injured against QPR.

[tommy_c12000]

Huge momentum for our squad going into game: clean sheet for Egan and Stevens. Robinson with another prem start. Another start for Coleman before deciding to rest himself ahead of Georgia with a second yellow. Starts and goals for our midfielders Hourihane and Hendrick. A full 90 minutes for Cullen and Whelan. Long returns to the bench after a brief exodus. Last minute winner from Hogan. Hopefully our Southampton contingent and Doherty can do something tomorrow. All on the back of the Connolly “feel good factor”, be it that he remains with 21s or gets promoted.

The squad will be brimming with confidence

[Closed Account]

Thought it would be interesting to compare Senior .and U21 squads as we head into international break.

Green shoots.
https://i.imgur.com/pa1QyIO.png

[Razors left peg]

Alan Judge an unused sub for Ipswich today. Hard to see how he is getting a call up.

[tommy_c12000]

In addition to Connolly replacing one of our injured league 1 players, Williams replaces the injured Cunningham and Lenihan. Still no news on Duffy

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/sport/connolly-added-to-ireland-squad-for-euro-2020-qualifiers-955189.html

[ColourfulPeanut]

What about Ryan Manning? The rigidity in Mick's squad selection is infuriating.

[elatedscum]

At what point is Ciarán Clark an option. Even without the game time, if an injury occurs, I’d trust him more than Williams if he was called upon.

As for Shane Long and James McCarthy, should be able to find a slot for them as well. I hope Long scores tomorrow to emphasise his quality

[liamoo11]

With the 3 day turnaround and all the travelling to and from Georgia this double header really will need changes for 2nd game.

I would leave Duffy and mcgoldrick out of Georgia to fly to Switzerland along with Steven's and I'd add McCarthy to that as well to give you 4 fresh players to come into the side with no unnecessary travelling.

Be very difficult to see how mcgoldrick or Duffy could play 2 games in that time span with all the travelling coming back from injuries.

Whelan was left out of the givraltar game to play in the Georgia game a few days later so really cant see how now he could play in both with all that flying in between

[elatedscum]

Long starting for Southampton. Let’s see how Zouma and Tomori handle him

[Eirambler]

If he scores two he might get called up!

[tetsujin1979]

If he scores two he might get called up! if he scores two he'll overtake Damien Duff on the list of all time Premier League Irish goalscorers

[ColourfulPeanut]

Clark starting for Newcastle against Man United today. Given his ability to play left back, it's strange he wasn't considered for this squad.

Mick's nonsense of not playing regularly for their club doesn't cut it here either because Kevin Long doesn't have a single minute of league football this year.

[elatedscum]

Battled without any real service for 70 minutes. Won a fair few free kicks. Was moved from right to left to centre about every 10 minutes.

Maybe lacked a little confidence in passing to Redmond when a shot was on but led to a freekick on the the of the area, so can’t really complain with the result. Apart from the goal, I thought Ings was pretty poor.

Obafemi replaces Long now. See how he gets on. Meanwhile fellow exile Ciaran Clark is starting for Newcastle. Maybe he’ll score 2 and get called up ;)

[Olé Olé]

I referred to Long, Obafemi, Connolly, McCarthy and Brady as making appearances last weekend and didn't get a call up. It's one out and one in with Clark taking Connolly's place in this list.

[CraftyToePoke]

What was lovely this weekend I thought was having a reason to bother watching MOTD again, between Connolly / Hendrick / Hourihane / Coleman / McCarthy & the Sheff U lads there was someone in most games to give interest, it has been a while since we had that, Clarke playing today too, Doherty involved in a win V Man City, Obafemi got some minutes and Idah was on the bench yesterday.

[Olé Olé]

Great point. It does feel like we are turning a corner.

[Eirambler]

Obafemi hardly got a touch in the 20 minutes he was on. Southampton were awful.

[CraftyToePoke]

Obafemi hardly got a touch in the 20 minutes he was on. Southampton were awful.

Was a thankless game to be thrown into alright.

[TrapAPony]

Long, McCarthy, Clark all started and should be in the Irish squad. Robbie Brady should also be there. Instead an unused sub for Ipswich constantly gets a call-up. Makes little sense.

[tetsujin1979]

Harsh on Judge, he's only been an unused sub in two of the games he's been involved with Ipswich this season

[TrapAPony]

Harsh on Judge, he's only been an unused sub in two of the games he's been involved with Ipswich this season

That is fine but more often than not he is not starting in League 1 and shouldn't be in the Irish squad if that's the level he is at.

[third policeman]

Harsh on Judge, he's only been an unused sub in two of the games he's been involved with Ipswich this season

He’s playing in the third tier when selected. He’s over 30, had a career ravaged by serious and debilitating injury, and has made only a marginal impact internationally. His selection is entirely down to the fact that he played for Mick at club level. Picking players because he knows them is a major weakness of Mick’s and perhaps a dereliction of a manager’s job description.

[tetsujin1979]

That is fine but more often than not he is not starting in League 1 and shouldn't be in the Irish squad if that's the level he is at.
Ipswich have had ten games in league one this season, Judge has started in five of them, and come off the bench in four of the others


He’s playing in the third tier when selected. He’s over 30, had a career ravaged by serious and debilitating injury, and has made only a marginal impact internationally. His selection is entirely down to the fact that he played for Mick at club level. Picking players because he knows them is a major weakness of Mick’s and perhaps a dereliction of a manager’s job description.
I wouldn't describe the assist for the equaliser in Denmark as marginal

[TrapAPony]

Ipswich have had ten games in league one this season, Judge has started in five of them, and come off the bench in four of the others

He shouldn't be in the Irish squad. We haven't sank so low that we need to be picking players from League 1 especially when there are better options who are overlooked.

[Olé Olé]

https://www.fai.ie/ireland/news/mccarthy-monitoring-duffy-and-mcgoldrick-progress

Hope for Duffy and Didsy. Didn't realise Cunningham was out with injury. Williams has been centre back most recently. Is it far more likely now that it will be Doherty or McClean? Connolly starting would be fabulous if McClean is left back.

[third policeman]

Ipswich have had ten games in league one this season, Judge has started in five of them, and come off the bench in four of the others


I wouldn't describe the assist for the equaliser in Denmark as marginal

One assist is marginal in my book.

[third policeman]

https://www.fai.ie/ireland/news/mccarthy-monitoring-duffy-and-mcgoldrick-progress

Hope for Duffy and Didsy. Didn't realise Cunningham was out with injury. Williams has been centre back most recently. Is it far more likely now that it will be Doherty or McClean? Connolly starting would be fabulous if McClean is left back.

Left back in Stoke ideally.

[elatedscum]

He’s playing in the third tier when selected. He’s over 30, had a career ravaged by serious and debilitating injury, and has made only a marginal impact internationally. His selection is entirely down to the fact that he played for Mick at club level. Picking players because he knows them is a major weakness of Mick’s and perhaps a dereliction of a manager’s job description.


I think a lot of these decision are really a consequence of not having any time to work with the squad and to see players. He went straight into real competitive games. Had to create a squad on the fly and has had little time to experiment or try out different players and different positions. So guys who were initially injured like Long and McCarthy or out of favour at their clubs like Clark were left out in the cold in a way they wouldn't have been if he had worked with them previously.


It's difficult circumstances to work under and considering where we were under O'Neill in terms of performances and results, and in terms of the underage set up, things are so much better than they were 10 months ago. Nonetheless, it all feels kind of reactive to a certain extent. Like, had Clark played against United a week earlier, he would have been called up over Williams, maybe even one day earlier. Maybe the same is true of McCarthy. The Connolly call up was a little similar.


Ultimately to me, it comes down to, who would i trust more if there was an early injury against Switzerland - McCarthy or Cullen and that's McCarthy. Clarke or Williams and that's Clarke. Browne or Arter and that's Arter. Long or Hogan and that's Long. If you're 2-0 up against Georgia, feel free to try embed a Browne or a Cullen if you believe in them and see how they do, step by step, but honestly if end up counting on those lads to contribute to the Swiss game, we could be taking a serious and unnecessary chance....

[tricky_colour]

If he scores two he might get called up!


Two this year you mean?

[Kingdom]

It would be time well spent in Tiblisi to put a man marker on their playmaker (forget his name but he's a small Hagi type player in the middle of the park who controls everything for them).
To my mind it would be a job for Alan Browne or Josh Cullen.

That's Jano at Spartak

[tetsujin1979]

Switzerland squad named last Friday
1180098902298640384

[samhaydenjr]

You've got to feel for Mick - he looks at our experienced and up-and-coming players and thinks "well, McCarthy and Connolly have only made cameo appearances this season, while Long and Clark are barely in their squads" so he leaves them out of the squad, only for them all to start on Saturday and for Connolly to bang in two goals and must have thought "dammit! why couldn't this have happened two weeks ago?!"

[Diggs246]

You've got to feel for Mick - he looks at our experienced and up-and-coming players and thinks "well, McCarthy and Connolly have only made cameo appearances this season, while Long and Clark are barely in their squads" so he leaves them out of the squad, only for them all to start on Saturday and for Connolly to bang in two goals and must have thought "dammit! why couldn't this have happened two weeks ago?!"
Connolly and parrot should have played against Bulgaria. McCarthy is our best midfielder by a mile and should be drafted in. Clark I understand not being involved

[geysir]

Didn't Clark play the 'full 90' for Newcastle the other day?

[samhaydenjr]

Connolly and parrot should have played against Bulgaria. McCarthy is our best midfielder by a mile and should be drafted in. Clark I understand not being involved

No, No, No!
1. Connolly had 30 minutes of senior League football and 1 game in the League Cup under his belt, while Parrott had no senior competitive experience
2. Both were involved in the U21 victory over Sweden
3. The Bulgaria game was, at the time, a surprisingly worthwhile exercise, with James Collins and Alan Browne getting their first goals, Josh Cullen and Jack Byrne getting the chance to impress in midfield, an inexperienced central defensive partnership being used that we may now have to depend on, and even the Conor Hourihane left-back experiment having had an effect, as he seems to have built on those minutes he begged Mick for and re-established himself in the Villa midfield.

Connolly's gamechanging performances came after that - it would have been irresponsible of Mick to give them caps at that point. Also, if he was to have given one of them a cap, it would most likely have been Parrott, based on his pre-season.

Things are moving quickly, with regards to the young players, but Mick's timeline is short, so they have to do something special at club level to justify being thrown into the middle of a international qualifying campaign - last Saturday, Aaron Connolly managed that

[Diggs246]

No, No, No!
1. Connolly had 30 minutes of senior League football and 1 game in the League Cup under his belt, while Parrott had no senior competitive experience
2. Both were involved in the U21 victory over Sweden
3. The Bulgaria game was, at the time, a surprisingly worthwhile exercise, with James Collins and Alan Browne getting their first goals, Josh Cullen and Jack Byrne getting the chance to impress in midfield, an inexperienced central defensive partnership being used that we may now have to depend on, and even the Conor Hourihane left-back experiment having had an effect, as he seems to have built on those minutes he begged Mick for and re-established himself in the Villa midfield.

Connolly's gamechanging performances came after that - it would have been irresponsible of Mick to give them caps at that point. Also, if he was to have given one of them a cap, it would most likely have been Parrott, based on his pre-season.pppppppp0ppppppppp

Things are moving quickly, with regards to the young players, but Mick's timeline is short, so they have to do something special at club level to justify being thrown into the middle of a international qualifying campaign - last Saturday, Aaron Connolly managed that

But if we are on hot water in Georgia connolly is now making his debut? Are u saying the Bulgaria game wouldn't have helped. Tbc I posted that I wanted him and parrot called up at the time for Bulgaria

[TerryPhelan]

Would anyone happen to know of any pub in Fukuoka that will be showing the Georgia match this weekend?! I'm heading over for the rugby but am desperate to see the qualifiers. Any Irish bar I have contacted in Fukuoka so far has said they won't be broadcasting it, even though kick-off is 23:00 Japan time.

If anyone happened to know of a place showing Switzerland v Ireland in Kyoto (K.O. 04:45am Wednesday 16th!), I would likewise be really grateful for any tips!

[jbyrne]

Would anyone happen to know of any pub in Fukuoka that will be showing the Georgia match this weekend?! I'm heading over for the rugby but am desperate to see the qualifiers. Any Irish bar I have contacted in Fukuoka so far has said they won't be broadcasting it, even though kick-off is 23:00 Japan time.

If anyone happened to know of a place showing Switzerland v Ireland in Kyoto (K.O. 04:45am Wednesday 16th!), I would likewise be really grateful for any tips!

you might find it difficult. i was in Japan in 2006 and even the Irish bars were not showing the infamous 5-2 cyprus match..... lucky so!

[Stuttgart88]

Aren't our games on Sky Sports? That'd increase the number of bars likely to have access to the games. It won't clash with the rugby times.

There'll be live streams too.

[tetsujin1979]

Aren't our games on Sky Sports? That'd increase the number of bars likely to have access to the games. It won't clash with the rugby times.

There'll be live streams too.It was tough enough to find pubs in Japan that were playing the rugby games too!

[TerryPhelan]

Would anyone happen to know of any pub in Fukuoka that will be showing the Georgia match this weekend?! I'm heading over for the rugby but am desperate to see the qualifiers. Any Irish bar I have contacted in Fukuoka so far has said they won't be broadcasting it, even though kick-off is 23:00 Japan time.

If anyone happened to know of a place showing Switzerland v Ireland in Kyoto (K.O. 04:45am Wednesday 16th!), I would likewise be really grateful for any tips!

Thanks a lot lads. In the end I heard back from the International Bar in Fukuoka which confirmed they'll be showing the Georgia match! https://www.facebook.com/InternationalBarFukuoka/

No such luck so far for the Swiss game which kicks off around 4:45am... needless to say I'll still be up and scouring the internet for viable streams!

[tricky_colour]

Thanks a lot lads. In the end I heard back from the International Bar in Fukuoka which confirmed they'll be showing the Georgia match! https://www.facebook.com/InternationalBarFukuoka/

No such luck so far for the Swiss game which kicks off around 4:45am... needless to say I'll still be up and scouring the internet for viable streams!

Good luck with that, I find I can usually find a decent steam these days the situation seems to have improved on that front.

[elatedscum]

Thanks a lot lads. In the end I heard back from the International Bar in Fukuoka which confirmed they'll be showing the Georgia match! https://www.facebook.com/InternationalBarFukuoka/

No such luck so far for the Swiss game which kicks off around 4:45am... needless to say I'll still be up and scouring the internet for viable streams!

Could you use a proxy to access RTE Player? I can't imagine they've installed netflix style anti-proxy systems