2023 UEFA Under-21 Championship

[elatedscum]

Did anyone impress? Dunno. Don?t think anyone played better than you would have expected. Evan Ferguson was pretty good. Coventry was pretty good. Redmond did well considering his debut I guess.

Poor team selection by Crawford. Mistake to go 5-3-2. Midfield lacked penetration. Hodge was fine. Would have been better to have played Smallbone deeper like against Bosnia or whoever it was. Coventry and Smallbone together and Tierney off a striker. Connolly had good moments and I think hit the post twice but his legs look shattered, not sure if he?s unfit or if he?s overworked in Italy but he was getting a toe on balls you?d expect him to reach in his stride.

Lee O?Connor was defensively strong but didn?t offer anything going forward. Wright on the far side offered a bit more going forward but was wasteful.

Mad that it took so long to get Ebosele on the pitch. With 11 v 10, could easily have replaced either a centre back or Lee O?Connor with Ollie O?Neill to add some penetration on the other side was well.

Very disappointing overall. Israel were big and strong but they were very limited and we really struggled to turn our dominance into anything meaningful

[tommy_c12000]

Nice summary thanks!

[passinginterest]

Overall I though it was two fairly well matched sides. For Israel, their keeper and number11 were excellent. First half was even enough but Israel had a good spell leading into taking the lead. Maher will obviously be disappointed with it but he did make a couple of outstanding saves on the counter balance.

I?d agree it was a bit slow at times from Ireland, but that?s been a criticism with this group in most of the games. For two lads making debuts I thought the Joes were both very good. The back three all had good moments. In the middle, Coventry had his standard solid game, Smallbone wasn?t at the level of the previous window, but maybe Israel made stopping him a priority. As mentioned, Hodge is a lovely heads up player and was the one most likely to make things happen.

Wright gets a hard time sometimes but I still like him and understand why he gets picked. He?s get real pace and when it does work for him it causes panic for defending teams, he?s solid enough in his defensive work too. He offer something different to anyone else out there (maybe a bit of the Mageady?s about him in that he?s flaky but will probably still create more than most around him). O?Connor is the one who must be under pressure, hard to say he does anything really poorly but he doesn?t do anything particularly well either. Doesn?t get forward a huge amount and when he does his final ball is not good. He?s just there because of experience at this stage.

Up front, Ferguson reminds me of Coleman when he was under 21. I always got the impression it meant so much to Coleman that he tried way too hard, tensed up and didn?t perform well. I know Ferguson is still extremely young, but he?s looked tense every time he?s played, then his touch lets him down a bit. He improved second half and took the goal very well so maybe now he?ll be able to relax more from the start, his potential is huge. Connolly worked hard, looked by far the most likely to score and was overall pretty decent. It wouldn?t be Connolly if he didn?t frustrate at times and the fact he missed a few chances again won?t have helped his confidence hugely, he desperately needs a few goals for club or country but attitude was good.

Shouldn?t be anything to be feared in the away leg but it?ll be a difficult game. They had some very dangerous attacking player and I think they?ll score again at home, they also had a very good keeper, so difficult to score against. I?d normally be optimistic but I can see Israel winning 2-1 and going through.

[Jd2793]

wright and o'connor aren't good enough when push comes to shove. think last night showed why o'connor plays where he plays and why celtic didnt fancy him. cant see him ever adding to his senior caps.

[Eirambler]

O'Connor's under 21 career is fairly incredible looking back on it. Should have been second choice to McNamara in his first campaign and should have been second choice to Ebosele or even Lyons in his second campaign. Instead he's ended up becoming one of our all time highest cap winners at that level. He's fine defensively but offers nothing at all going forward and even his club doesn't play him on the right any more.

I'd say he'll be back in Ireland in a couple of years to be honest.

[CSAD]

O'Connor's under 21 career is fairly incredible looking back on it. Should have been second choice to McNamara in his first campaign and should have been second choice to Ebosele or even Lyons in his second campaign. Instead he's ended up becoming one of our all time highest cap winners at that level. He's fine defensively but offers nothing at all going forward and even his club doesn't play him on the right any more.

I'd say he'll be back in Ireland in a couple of years to be honest.

It was going so well until he made the same mistake many Irish make and signed for Celtic?hopefully other youth players look at him and use him as an example of what a made career decision can lead to (ideally Lawal and Kenny look also and learn to gtfo of Celtic asap.).

[elatedscum]

if people are quick, they'll see Jonny Evans has aged well

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football

[tetsujin1979]

play off will be shown on the big screen in Aviva stadium tonight
1574700385347969029

[JR89]

Is it just the big screen or will it also be shown on the smaller TV's around the stadium?

[zero]

two changes - ross tierney in for ferguson, presumably over his fitness concerns. he is on the bench though.

andy lyons in for tyreik wright, i'm guessing as he's more defensively sound.

[tetsujin1979]

Team announced
1574794745469054976

[tommy_c12000]

Disappointing on Ferguson being out. I?ve never been that impressed with Tierney, and he has struggled to establish himself at Motherwell. Whats the game plan, Tierney playing off Connolly? Seems like an odd choice by Crawford. Why not just put in Obubeko?

[tetsujin1979]

is it a 5-3-2, or 3-5-2?
I guess O'Connor and Lyons will push up to support midfield and drop back into defence as needed

O'Connor-Cashin-O'Brien-Redmond-Lyons
Coventry-Hodge-Smallbone
Connolly-Tierney

[elatedscum]

5-4-1?

Trust Crawford to out defence himself - always incredibly defensive... Basically removed a winger and replaced with a fullback and replaced a striker with an attacking midfield... He's gonna hope to nick a goal on the counter (but he's removed all the pace from the team, except Connolly)

They'll probably win now that I've said that but ultra ultra defensive stuff

[JR89]

Yup more 5-4-1 and hope for a result like Sweden away.

[MylesNotMiley]

Lucky to be level at HT. Israel are far better than us. Connolly completely isolated up front.

[tommy_c12000]

Looking like Crawford showing he is out of his depth again? Poor selection and tactics, let?s hope we get extremely lucky, or he changes tactics in second half

[MichaelCherrito]

It's penaty shoot-out in Israel.

Ireland did well defensively in 2nd half & in ET to keep the scores level.

[Insidetherock]

Terrible penalties..

[sbgawa]

awful penos , desperate stuff

[culloty82]

3-1 to Israel on penalties - Wright, Ferguson and Devoy all fail to score in the shootout.

[Calcio Jack]

Terrible penalties..

Dreadful is being kind. Such a pity and a huge wasted opportunity

[NeverFeltBetter]

Kept on eye on this game tonight, thought Ireland were set-up way too defensively in the first half, when they came out of their shell in the second Israel looked really vulnerable, they were there for the taking with a bit more of a forward-thinking mindset. Azaz an exciting looking player. Never like teams accepting a shoot-out during ET, that what it seemed like to me tonight. Penalties dreadful, suspect little work was done on the training ground before hand to prepare for them, and you can't get away with that in 2022.

[CSAD]

3-1 to Israel on penalties - Wright, Ferguson and Devoy all fail to score in the shootout.

Got exactly what we deserve for atrocious game management for 2 legs, made a bang average Israel team look like a top team tonight and for that alone we deserve to go out tonight, if anything it was a miracle we got to pens.

[tommy_c12000]

Shocking penalties. Maher needed to save the first one, could have set a different tone. Poor selection and tactics from Crawford. Time for a managerial change. Big missed opportunity.

[joey B]

Wilson and Fergusons particularly bad,hate just hitting and hope penalties….

[centre mid]

Desperately disappointing way to go out.

[NeverFeltBetter]

In fairness there's nothing wrong with choosing to go down the middle, but I think when you do so you really have to hit them with power, get a good bit of speed so that if the keeper gets a foot to them they might just go in anyway. Israeli keeper looked well drilled for the shoot out.

[elatedscum]

Didn?t see much of the game cause I was travelling to Lansdowne road - but i think Crawford has to go, pretty sure he?s out of contract.

Team selections were incredibly negative in both games against a very average side. We could easily have ended the tie in Dublin.

Shambles that Ebosele only got 5 mins or whatever it was across the 2 ties. How many minutes did he get across the 12 competitive games?

Connolly isn?t someone who?s ever really played as a lone striker. He was always going to be isolated without one of Ferguson, Odubeko or Kayode up with him?

Over the past couple of years, we?ve forgiven poor performances cause some important results have arrived but I think all the conservative decisions have really come back to haunt him.

- Playing Maher when injured, never really developing a credible alternative.
- selecting Lee O?Connor no matter what, sometimes ahead of Lyons when LOC was really really struggling, sometimes ahead of Ebosele in a 5-3-2
-Playing a midfielder out of position as a winger repeatedly when we were loaded with talented wingers (Smallbone, Tierney, Noss, Watson)

So on, so on. He talks a decent game but I think it?s time to go?

[elatedscum]

Decent squad available for the next campaign:

These lads have already been called up to the 21s

1. Danny Rose
2. Sam Blair
3. Festy Ebosele
4. Anselmo Garcia McNulty
5. Bosun Lawal
6. Sean Roughan
7. Tayo Adaramola
8. Joe Hodge
9. Killian Phillips
10. Andy Moran
11. Ollie O?Neill
12. Darragh Burns
13. Dara Costelloe
14. Armstrong Okoflex
15. Evan Ferguson
16. Mipo Odubeko
17. Sinclair Armstrong
18. Jonny Kenny
19. Ronan Boyce
20. Josh Keeley

Plus a interesting bunch of lads who were called up the 20s:

1. Mazeed Ogungbo
2. James Furlong
3. Kian Leavy
4. Tom Hill
5. Dej Sotona
6. Tom Cannon

Plus some other lads who look like they could be good:

1. Arlo Doherty
2. Jack Henry-Francis
3. Tony Springett
4. Cian Hayes

Plus anyone from 2004 or 2005 (Abankwah seems an obvious one)

The likes of Paul Nebel, Louie Barry and Liam Delap would be incredible additions to the selection pool if possible

[Eirambler]

That looks a much weaker squad than what we had this time. Very little senior football played across that group. Will be a big challenge to get back to the playoffs again next time.

[tetsujin1979]

Delap scored for England's U20s last week so I don't see him changing international allegiance at the moment

[JR89]

Delap scored for England's U20s last week so I don't see him changing international allegiance at the moment

Doubt he'll change until he's overage for the underage. See how his senior career is going at club level and see how the rest of the young CFs his age are developing.

[JR89]

Got exactly what we deserve for atrocious game management for 2 legs, made a bang average Israel team look like a top team tonight and for that alone we deserve to go out tonight, if anything it was a miracle we got to pens.

That playoff was lost in Dublin. We really should have beaten them at home.

[jbyrne]

we lost this tie at home and i knew that walking away from tallaght last Friday.
we were far too conservative in the first leg particularly when they went down to 10 men. we should have thrown the kitchen sink at them for the last 10 minutes as going over there with the scores level was far too big a risk in itself. instead we were still passing it across the pitch when we needed to be a lot more direct. their keeper was very good in the first leg and it was just so obvious that they would do better in the pen shootout as a result. we just shouldn't have let it get to the penalty shootout scenario though.

very disappointing as a number of those players involved have put their heart into it over the last two campaigns.

[JR89]

Decent squad available for the next campaign:

These lads have already been called up to the 21s

1. Danny Rose
2. Sam Blair
3. Festy Ebosele
4. Anselmo Garcia McNulty
5. Bosun Lawal
6. Sean Roughan
7. Tayo Adaramola
8. Joe Hodge
9. Killian Phillips
10. Andy Moran
11. Ollie O?Neill
12. Darragh Burns
13. Dara Costelloe
14. Armstrong Okoflex
15. Evan Ferguson
16. Mipo Odubeko
17. Sinclair Armstrong
18. Jonny Kenny
19. Ronan Boyce
20. Josh Keeley

Plus a interesting bunch of lads who were called up the 20s:

1. Mazeed Ogungbo
2. James Furlong
3. Kian Leavy
4. Tom Hill
5. Dej Sotona
6. Tom Cannon

Plus some other lads who look like they could be good:

1. Arlo Doherty
2. Jack Henry-Francis
3. Tony Springett
4. Cian Hayes

Plus anyone from 2004 or 2005 (Abankwah seems an obvious one)

The likes of Paul Nebel, Louie Barry and Liam Delap would be incredible additions to the selection pool if possible

If Crawford doesn't get a new contract, though he likely will because he got to the playoff but promoting Tom Mohan from the U19s would be a better option. The U21s won't play another game for around 12 months and the current U19s finish next July at the latest.

He's already worked with all those players listed above and the only window he'd be unable to fully take the U21s would be next March because of the qualifiers for the U19s but U21s last year played a double header against Wales which might happen again. Someone could step in and take the training camp in March and there'd be no clash between U21s and U19s for June.

[CSAD]

That playoff was lost in Dublin. We really should have beaten them at home.

And the difference in tactics was shown in the 2 legs, even when Israel came to Dublin playing for draw they clearly had a game plan to do so, we had no game plan last night, this was a MON style of defensive performance where we just put everyone behind the ball and hope for the best. It was a cowardly approach that got the result it deserved at the end.

[Trequartista20]

A suggestion.

Give Kenny the U-21 coaching job within a wider, overarching developmental role in which all the underage sides are made play a progressive possession-based brand of football, all using a similar system as set out by Kenny, who'd also have a say on grassroots improvement etc.

[JR89]

With a bit of luck Crawford gets the Bohs job.

[CSAD]

With a bit of luck Crawford gets the Bohs job.

Hope to god.

Crawford is a good enough manager to just about get the minimum you?d expect from this squad but don?t expect him to deliver against a similar or better side.

[Stuttgart88]

Kept on eye on this game tonight, thought Ireland were set-up way too defensively in the first half, when they came out of their shell in the second Israel looked really vulnerable, they were there for the taking with a bit more of a forward-thinking mindset. Azaz an exciting looking player. Never like teams accepting a shoot-out during ET, that what it seemed like to me tonight. Penalties dreadful, suspect little work was done on the training ground before hand to prepare for them, and you can't get away with that in 2022.I think Crawford said they practiced them in Ireland but not since they went to Israel, in case spies were watching.

[zero]

Despite whatever 'practice' was undertaken they were up there with the worst set of pens I've ever seen.

Crawford didn't back the players over these two legs, playing safety first defensive ball. It worked away to Sweden but to me at least Israel looked suspect at the back (keeper aside) so the conservative tactics were the wrong call for me.

[CSAD]

Hopefully Mohan comes in, I have my criticisms of the way he selects squads (a bit of Noel King about him in this regard imo) but as a coach he would easily be the 2nd best u21 coach we?ve had behind Stephen Kenny.

[tetsujin1979]

Thread locked and archived