Serbia V Republic of Ireland - Wednesday, 24th March 2021 - World Cup 2022 Qualifier

[pineapple stu]

Super finish, though can't help but wonder if that's the League One keeper effect. Not a howler, but maybe a better keeper mightn't have been caught out.

[NeverFeltBetter]

Unfortunately that's something that can happen when you're forced to play a keeper with this lack of experience. Very disappointing all the same.

[placid casual]

I'm probably biased, but there's no way Bazuna would have been caught like that. That's a schoolboy football error from Travers.

[backstothewall]

He'll learn from that. He was tempted to come clear it but he was never getting there, and the few steps forward allowed Mitrovic to do that. Super finish all the same.

[centre mid]

Disappointing to concede a goal like that. We'll create another chance or two here though. Portugal will get a 100% record in this group.

[backstothewall]

Time to get Jimbo McClean on there

[centre mid]

Collapsing now far too easy

[pineapple stu]

Can't be having two centre-halves beaten in the air like that. Disappointing.

[backstothewall]

That's that.

[shakermaker1982]

Things went downhill fast.

I’d love a player like Tadic in green.

[sbgawa]

Bazuna in for the Lux match. Travers is poorer than i even worried about

[NeverFeltBetter]

Two defenders can't deal with that one, Travers helpless. That's rage-inducing, that one. Back up the other end, trying to pass the ball into the net. It's not working.

We've been decent in stretches here, but Serbia have pretty definitively shown why they are a level above us. Got to be prepared for Luxembourg now, who are going to be no pushovers on recent form.

[centre mid]

Mistake to take Molumby off for Hendrick.

[tommy_c12000]

We’ve a poor pool of players. Certainly the poorest squad since early 1980s. Gradually the youngsters will come through over the next 2 years. 2024 is a more realistic aim. I haven’t seen much of the “football” Kenny promised though apart from 10 minutes in second half. Bleak times, but green shoots will blossom in near future. The focus now should be on developing the squad for 2024

[tommy_c12000]

Mistake to take Molumby off for Hendrick.

Molumby has been poor. He should not start again until he’s starting regularly at club level

[Bielsa´s irish]

Travers the blame awful. They are winning without anything their 2 came from a long kick tiki taka...and the lob amateur stuff by the keeper.

[Bielsa´s irish]

Travers out vs Luxemburg he ate two tonight....the 3rd bad positioning. GK cost us a point and gave them 3. Amateurism stuff

[boovidge]

I think the fact that they're a much better team than us probably gave them 3 points.

[pineapple stu]

Game back on?

Well done there Long.

[centre mid]

Great stuff from Long there

[paul_oshea]

Shane long and Collins old school footballers get the goal

[Bielsa´s irish]

now you have the forwards for Lux. Long got us one with Collins

[backstothewall]

Big 5 minutes all of a sudden

[Bielsa´s irish]

I play Long Collins vs Lux

[centre mid]

O'Shea is so raw but there's potential there

[NeverFeltBetter]

Ugh.

Positives
Scored twice
Controlled the game for brief periods against a higher seed
Midfield was decent up to 60 minutes (I know, I know)
Kept defensive shape well for most of the game
Limited Serbia quite well in the first half
Had a bit of a go in the second half, and responded as well you can expect after going two down

Negatives
Three poor goals to concede
Travers exposed
Toothless in the attacking third in most respects
Poor offensive set-pieces
Sub strategy wasn't great
After our second we made no more chances
Already having to scrap to get back to zero

[Bielsa´s irish]

they gave away one we gave away two. Stevens has been enormous. They didnt do anything of value but to score. Shame on gk selection. even Rob Elliot could have been better. We now depend on Portugal next match

[paul_oshea]

All in all we've had about 10 good minutes of possession football where we looked decent. And with shaky individual defensive battles then you are never going to come out with anything other than a loss 9 times out of 10.

I feel sorry for Kenny it seemed to go well at times, and he was ballsy with the selection and formation. But I didn't see enough tonight from them, and I'm not one for stats but they didn't help him here either.

Unfortunately it will be very difficult to recover from this but there are a few positives.

[osarusan]

Solid first half, actually had a threat for once.

Fell apart in the second half though, Travers woeful for the second, defenders woeful for the third. got a bit of luck for our 2nd, but didn't deserve anything.

Poor subs I thought, Hendrick and McClean offered nothing.

Deliveries into the box, from corners and crosses, were horrendous in the second half.

[zero]

some positives but difficult to argue the case that we deserved anything from the game. speculation but i think playing old school o'neill/mccarthy ball we would have got a draw.

set pieces poor. doherty did nothing. hendrick awful when he came on bar one give and go. cullen and the defence (keeper aside) did fairly well until the 2nd went in when there was a bit of panic for a spell. connolly and robinson looked bright at times.

[passinginterest]

Hugely frustrating to score two and defend really well for long spells and lose. Inexperienced keeper has proved costly, I think the first and third goals both showed one of the big weaknesses of a back three. Good strikers find that space off the shoulder of the centre back much easier than they do against a flat back four.

I think we again created quite a few chances/half chances that if we had an inform centre forward we could have converted. Add to that a possible penalty what could have put us 2-1 up. They’re the positives. The teamwork was excellent for the most part.

Sadly midfield did seem to falter when Hendrick came on. Some of the crosses from McLean and Brady (especially the Brady corners) were dreadful.

There’s enough there to think we’ll beat Luxembourg at least.

[lofty9]

Unfortunately it will be very difficult to recover from this.

That's just nonsense.

[Real ale Madrid]

Too many players not playing enough football. Lots of injuries. Goalkeeping error crucial. Not a bad effort all told.

[seanfhear]

Serbia have better players than us = = A Better team.

Serbia have more experience, and Vlahovic looks a very good forward. Some of our younger players did well so hope for the future.

We just have to hope for the future that our young players develop, and that they become better international players than we have now.

[Bielsa´s irish]

Ugh.

Positives
Scored twice
Controlled the game for brief periods against a higher seed
Midfield was decent up to 60 minutes (I know, I know)
Kept defensive shape well for most of the game
Limited Serbia quite well in the first half
Had a bit of a go in the second half, and responded as well you can expect after going two down

Negatives
Three poor goals to concede
Travers exposed
Toothless in the attacking third in most respects
Poor offensive set-pieces
Sub strategy wasn't great
After our second we made no more chances
Already having to scrap to get back to zero


Positives
the system worked better than 4-3-3
Controlled the pace of the game we dictated the match
Stevens is very comfortable playing for Eire.
O'Shea looked composed on the ball in his last man position
Midfield looked strong and ready to bite.
Robinson looked a good replacment for McGoldrick
Shane Long flair and streetwise footie

Negatives
Travers shouldnt have played
They won without doing anything important
We couldnt cope with their counterattacks
We lost a key match.
We made an ordinary team look world class at least in attack
their first two goals were a bit similar

in the end we must beat them iin Ireland.

[Insidetherock]

Hugely frustrating to score two and defend really well for long spells and lose. Inexperienced keeper has proved costly, I think the first and third goals both showed one of the big weaknesses of a back three. Good strikers find that space off the shoulder of the centre back much easier than they do against a flat back four.

I think we again created quite a few chances/half chances that if we had an inform centre forward we could have converted. Add to that a possible penalty what could have put us 2-1 up. They’re the positives. The teamwork was excellent for the most part.

Sadly midfield did seem to falter when Hendrick came on. Some of the crosses from McLean and Brady (especially the Brady corners) were dreadful.

There’s enough there to think we’ll beat Luxembourg at least.

Brady would break your melt.. he's like a child on the street who owns the ball.. wants to take frees, corners, throws.. my ball Brady

And some of the crossing is, and has for years.. been woeful

I've been saying this for months.. I honestly couldn't care much about this campaign. I'm not expecting to get to Qatar. We're not ready.

But we've ten games here.. another 12 NL games over the next two years.. and no doubt a few friendlies thrown in.. 25-30 games.. to build a new team, introduce new players, find a style etc... all before the Euro qualifiers in 23

Loads of chances to develop this team

[Razors left peg]

Im too p1ssed off to write much. We were great at times and sloppiness killed us. Anyone who still pines for the days of McCarthy and doesnt see that Kenny is making progress with a very limited bunch of players is just being ridiculous.

[pineapple stu]

Serbia have better players than us = = A Better team.
I think that's it in the end of the day. Tadic was quality and we had no-one could touch him. Then they bring Mitrovic and Jovic off the bench.

So for all that, I was actually a bit disappointed with Serbia because it wasn't backs to the wall stuff from us, though we were clearly second best.

So overall, that was probably as good as we could have hoped for. Some goals (plural). Not the hammering some of us had feared at the start. Some new players coming in and playing ok. Yeah, there's still issues, particularly up front, and the keeper issue is still a concern. But in a way, I'm happier now than before the match.

[Eirambler]

Honestly I would take more positives from that than any of the games last autumn. There was something there, not near enough to realistically deserve to get anything from the game tonight with them having the likes of Tadic, Vlahovic and Mitrovic on the field, but enough to convince me that there will be better days ahead for some of these players.

Unfortunately Travers wasn't ready for this level of football, to be fair I'm not convinced Bazunu is either, we were stuck with what we had available in goal unfortunately. But for an hour we matched up well against a team that, being honest, are significantly better than we are at the moment.

Then we voluntarily reduced ourselves to 10 men by bringing on Jeff Hendrick and it fell apart a bit from there.

Personally I would stick with the 3-5-2 for now, and I'd stick with a lot of those players as well. Browne, Cullen, Connolly and Robinson (moreso in the first half) came out of that game in credit. Hendrick and McClean when they came on showed why we have to move on from them. I know we're missing players but I was particularly disappointed to see Hendrick preferred to Knight off the bench.

We obviously need to get a win against Luxembourg now, and probably another against Qatar, just to keep everyone behind the team at this point. I never thought world cup qualification was realistic for this team in terms of where we are currently at, but I'm more hopeful for the future now than I was after the autumn games.

[Bielsa´s irish]

Serbia have better players than us = = A Better team.

Serbia have more experience, and Vlahovic looks a very good forward. Some of our younger players did well so hope for the future.

We just have to hope for the future that our young players develop, and that they become better international players than we have now.

Yes but Travers cant play. Kenny's goalkeeping selection were wrong. Sean McDermott, Colin Doyle and one kid

[shakermaker1982]

I feel sorry for the keeper. His positioning let him down and it has cost us. I would take him out of the firing line this weekend.

O’Shea was a bit suspect tonight. Doherty was quiet.

At the end of the day we are turning up to a gun fight with a rusty old knife every time we line up against a half decent side. The quality in the final third needs a big improvement.....and when the defence/keeper concede soft goals then we don’t stand a chance. McClean’s effort at crossing in the last 10 minutes was extremely frustrating. Bread and butter stuff.

I thought Cullen had a good game and hope he stays in the team.

If we had held on to HT I think we’d be looking at a different 2nd half.

[ontheotherhand]

Not terrible outside of Doherty, Hendrick and possibly Travers but I'd want to watch his positioning again.

Don't think the 3 at the back will work unless Doherty decides he wants to play football. He offers 0 on or off the ball. Stevens on the other side was great in comparison but we had no balance.

Midfield did ok. They all had patches where they looked like they will become the players we need them to but we are missing a player in there getting on the ball and spreading the play a bit. They are all very one dimensional in their passing. We are also missing an enforcer. Tadic should've been nursing at least a dead leg by the second half....

We don't have a center forward and it's glaring. Serbia had Tadic running the show and had a few natural center forwards for him to pick out and that got them the win. Connolly has something but didn't look sharp.

We would have been delighted with a point and we almost got it. 2 goals scored which would have been enough if we could've stopped Tadic.

[Bielsa´s irish]

Im too p1ssed off to write much. We were great at times and sloppiness killed us. Anyone who still pines for the days of McCarthy and doesnt see that Kenny is making progress with a very limited bunch of players is just being ridiculous.

of course he is making progress we were the better passing team, his GK selection wasnt correct and costs. That was Kenny to blame

[Fixer82]

I would take a lot of positives from that game. Especially with the players at Kenny’s disposal

[pineapple stu]

I feel sorry for the keeper. His positioning let him down and it has cost us. I would take him out of the firing line this weekend.
Danger with that is it could hit the guy's confidence if he's dropped for what was really only one error. Maybe he could have done better for the third, but Mitrovic beat two centre-backs to get a good header in and that's the bigger issue.

On the basis that the three keepers are all League One level at the moment, you could make a case for Bazunu against Luxembourg and O'Hara against Qatar. But I'd be inclined to keep Travers there for continuity, and give the other two a half each on Tuesday.

[osarusan]

Time to say goodbye to McClean.

He has one trick - slow steopover, slow sprint with head down to the endline, and either balloon an aimless cross into the box or his the first defender.

[Bielsa´s irish]

Travers was responsable of this team result, 1st goal you have the doubt but an experience keeper would have rushed to block the guy he got stranded, 2nd amateur stuff, and the 3rd was him going nowhere he was watching the centering instead of his place.

[tetsujin1979]

I'd take the calls for Bazunu to start against Luxembourg a lot more seriously if his name was spelt correctly

[backstothewall]

People being far to hard on Travers here. He made a very minor mistake and was punished by an incredible finish by Mitrovic. 99 times out of hundred he gets away with that and nobody even notices it happened.

Result aside that was much better. On another night Mitrovic knocks that over the bar or we nick another one from a set piece in injury time and everyone is raving about a brave away performance and a great point.

People need to chill out.

[zero]

serbia had 4 shots on target... 3 went in. i don't remember the save to be honest. luxembourg will have noted the performance and it's too high risk to play travers again as he will be targetted.

cruel perhaps but sport can be like that.