Hungary v Republic of Ireland - Tuesday, 8th June 2021 - Friendly

[Bielsa´s irish]

Coleman out

[Bielsa´s irish]

I would play 3 guys a 10 plus parrott roaming and a 9

[seanfhear]

Coleman out
Where is he in ?

[Bielsa´s irish]

I would blood that kid in Switzerland as a 10 or this McGrath. 3 mids and 4 at a back. I like 3 at the back bit it needs a lot of práctice any tiny mistake as in serbia and u get a goal down or a one on one chsnce

[Bielsa´s irish]

Dont know but i sense he will be a great football coach once he gets 40. He is coaching football matherial brains and work ethic

[Bielsa´s irish]

Where is he in ? I blame Trap for not giving him more chances

[tetsujin1979]

Spinning discussion on the Hungary game off into its own thread

[seanfhear]

I blame Trap for not giving him more chances
On this you are right. Trap wasted a few years of Coleman at international level.

[Diggs246]

On this you are right. Trap wasted a few years of Coleman at international level.

And james McCarthy

[Diggs246]

I would blood that kid in Switzerland as a 10 or this McGrath. 3 mids and 4 at a back. I like 3 at the back bit it needs a lot of práctice any tiny mistake as in serbia and u get a goal down or a one on one chsnce

It wont happen, but McGrath at 10 and troy 9. Is absolutely worth a shot
. 4-5-1

[seanfhear]

It wont happen, but McGrath at 10 and troy 9. Is absolutely worth a shot
. 4-5-1
I like it. 4-4-1-1 ideally with one of the midfielders ( at least ) being able to get down the wing and cross the ball. O’Dowda can do that but he is always injured / unavailable.

Brian Clough’s whole career was based on 4-4-2 with at least one midfielder / winger able to get down the wing and cross a ball. He done very well, very well indeed.

[tetsujin1979]

That kid in Switzerland is 23, four years older than Parrott, and has a broken bone in his foot

[Trequartista20]

When you're a small nation, like we are, with limited playing resources, I think the players available to you more or less dictate the formation and the way you play, or at least it should do.

Given our surfeit of centre-backs, the availability to us of players capable of playing as a wingback (Coleman, Doherty, McNamara, Christie, Manning, Stevens, McClean) and shortage of wingers of adequate standard, allied to our obvious weaknesses in midfield and toothless attack I think this more or less demands we play a 3-5-2, or at least a variation on this theme.

It offers us defensive solidity, the ability to play our best players, and in their natural positions, numbers in midfield and, importantly, allows us to play two strikers.

Kenny and his seemingly dwindling number of devotees seem to believe this in fact should be reversed, that based entirely on ideological dogma we ought to play a certain predetermined way, regardless of the players we actually have and with a system and style of play often at odds with those players' capabilities.

It would obviously take some work to make a back-3 system work effectively, and I understand it has been tried a couple of times before to little effect under McCarthy and Kenny, but a number of our players are used to this formation at club level and I think it would be well worth persisting with.

My team for Hungary would be something along the lines of...

Kelleher;

O'Shea, Duffy, Omobamidele;

Doherty, Knight, Cullen, Manning;

McGrath;

Parrott, Idah.

It gives some of the players who didn't start in the poor performance against Andorra game-time. Manning provides reasonable set-piece delivery in the absence of Brady/Hourihane and in-form McGrath gets a chance to show what he can do. Omobamidele and O'Shea are both good in possession and should be comfortable in this system. Doherty plays in his best position and Idah and Parrott should provide a complementary partnership.

[seanfhear]

With 4-3-3 the front 6 need to be of very good quality to worry the opposition enough to basically keep them defending a lot. We don’t have a front 6 of that quality.

[Exgrad]

Stephen Kenny, welded to his dogmatic preference for 4 at the back....played 3 5 2 for our last two compettive games.

He is due a lot of critisism, but i dont get having a go at him for not trying something that he has tried (with minimal success) in our most recent compeitive games.

[Trequartista20]

I accept that Kenny has used a back three and and made reference to this in my post. And clearly our problems run a great deal deeper than simply individual systems. I think my point was more to do with the logic of persisting with the formation based on the players available to us and, more importantly, allowing the players available to us to determine our style of play and formation rather than the other way round. We need to be consistent with what we are trying to do. We reverted to a 4-4-2 against Andorra and, taking into account the standard of opposition, it was as bad as we've seen under Kenny.

For what it's worth I thought the 3-5-2 as used in the away game with Serbia showed some promise, with a penalty call going against us and an iffy goalkeeping performance serving to undermine us. Set against that, the way we played against Luxembourg at home was horrific. It's about finding the correct balance.

[Bielsa´s irish]

A quasi-irishman got the pirates out if the gaol

[seanfhear]

Are we playing a match tomorrow ~ ~ Tis very quiet in here !

[CraftyToePoke]

Are we playing a match tomorrow ~ ~ Tis very quiet in here !

Pro SK are busy reinforcing their shields and the anti crew are busy sharpening their knives seanfhear. There are no neutrals :)

[pineapple stu]

I think many of us are quietly worried about it tbh. Hungary aren't going to tire like Andorra did.

I'll tweak my suggested team from the tail end of the Andorra thread (assuming still playing 4-3-3) as Coleman's out, which means -

Kelleher

Doherty
Egan
O'Shea
Manning

Cullen
Knight
Molumby

Parrott
Idah
Horgan

[Razors left peg]

I think many of us are quietly worried about it tbh. Hungary aren't going to tire like Andorra did.

I'll tweak my suggested team from the tail end of the Andorra thread (assuming still playing 4-3-3) as Coleman's out, which means -

Kelleher

Doherty
Egan
O'Shea
Manning

Cullen
Knight
Molumby

Parrott
Idah
Horgan

I like that team, but Id change Molumby for McGrath, Id like to see if hes up to it at International level

[osarusan]

This is on sky, yeah?

If anybody wants to PM me a link I'd appreciate it.

[Diggs246]

This is on sky, yeah?

If anybody wants to PM me a link I'd appreciate it.

It's on RTE

[osarusan]

It's on RTE
Jaysis! Nice one.

Thought it was tonight, checked RTE and the other FTA channels and saw nothing.

[pineapple stu]

I like that team, but Id change Molumby for McGrath, Id like to see if hes up to it at International level
Is McGrath not more an attacking player? Would be more a switch for Horgan I'd have thought. Could be wrong though. I don't think SPL is really international level, but then we're playing third tier players and they're not really international level, so I guess what's the worst that could happen giving him a run.

[Razors left peg]

Is McGrath not more an attacking player? Would be more a switch for Horgan I'd have thought. Could be wrong though. I don't think SPL is really international level, but then we're playing third tier players and they're not really international level, so I guess what's the worst that could happen giving him a run.

I thought he was an attacking midfielder. Ive seen very little of him so I'd just like to see him to get more than 10 minutes, but away from home we might might need 2 more defensive minded midfielders.

[paul_oshea]

At the start of his tenure the worry was about holding onto the ball and finding scoring opportunities, we were more than blunt up top.

Now 12 games in the bigger worry for me is how poor we are defensively , conceding against all sorts of opposition and more than stoppable goals. It's a big worry because defensively is where we are strongest. I want to see a few clean sheets, it wouldn't be progress as such but at least we'd be back at the start again.

[Bielsa´s irish]

Yeah. We are there. A Crystal jaw. Jamie McGrath to start today and Horgan. Gk Kelleher. Bazunu made more mistakes than Travérs atm

[Bielsa´s irish]

I would go with 3-6-1

Kelleher

Duffy
Egan
O'Shea

Doherty
Molumby
McGrath
McClean

Horgan
Parrot

Collins

Manning as midfielder woud be very good though. But if I playa Mc Grath I would go with McClean to bring some experience.

[tetsujin1979]

A crystal jaw is unbreakable

[Bielsa´s irish]

A crystal jaw is unbreakable
Sorry it is an argetine boxing expression you call it glass jaw de and the uruguayans call it quijada de cristal when a boxer has a flaw

[Bielsa´s irish]

A crystal jaw is ....unbreakable
"Anyway... We delivered the bomb"
Back to topic... Whats the team like today?

I see Hourihane starting. I Would love Hourihane and McGrath together on the pitch with a "bite player" in midfield.

[seanfhear]

"Anyway... We delivered the bomb"
Back to topic... Whats the team like today?

I see Hourihane starting. I Would love Hourihane and McGrath together on the pitch with a "bite player" in midfield.
A Suarez type !

[pineapple stu]

1402153104624209920

Gotta say, this concerns me no end. Bazunu has made far too many mistakes for us so far to be in the running for the game in Lisbon. Yes, he's young and improving, but he's an academy player who was dropped by Rochdale, whereas Kelleher has played (and done well) in front of the sort of crowd that we would hope (in a way) will be at the Portugal game.

[tetsujin1979]

I've mentioned this on twitter, does giving a player who didn't play against Andorra a run out against Hungary send a strange message? Say Kelleher does come on tonight - does that mean he's not good enough to face Andorra, but he is good enough for Hungary? Maybe Omobamidele is a better example - he wasn't in the matchday squad to play against the part timers in Andorra, but he is able to play against Euro 2020-bound Hungary?
It's nit picking, I know, but thought it was something that deserved a mention

[pineapple stu]

Keepers are a bit different I guess - it would have been fine (for me) to give Bazunu the Andorra game and Kelleher the Hungary one as both keepers need time, but (for me) Kelleher is ahead of Bazunu and needs the better test.

Is there anyone else strongly rumoured to be featuring tonight?

I do think being 1-0 down against Andorra after an hour may well have stymied sub plans.

[paul_oshea]

1402153104624209920

Gotta say, this concerns me no end. Bazunu has made far too many mistakes for us so far to be in the running for the game in Lisbon. Yes, he's young and improving, but he's an academy player who was dropped by Rochdale, whereas Kelleher has played (and done well) in front of the sort of crowd that we would hope (in a way) will be at the Portugal game.

I really dont think there is much difference, neither of them are ready yet, and I'm not sure either of them will be anyway. I can't open the link but I'm guessing its about him potentially starting the Portugal game? Does he offer us anymore than Randolph from a building attacking play? Not sure he does, he certainly doesn't offer us more security in goals, so I'd stick with Randolph personally.

[elatedscum]

I’d certainly be in favour of giving Kelleher a game. Like if you were curious about how Bazunu would handle a crowd or wanted him to adapt to a crowd, you’d have started Kelleher against Andorra and Bazunu against Hungary. Anyway, maybe Kelleher isn’t at 100% due to that injury or something...

Personally I’d like to see a new boy or two get a bit of game time. Couldn’t really tell much from McGrath on Thursday. Ogbene for example.

[ColourfulPeanut]

Ogbene was carrying a knock on Thursday, I reckon he would played otherwise.

Should hopefully see him get a run tonight. We're very short of right-footed wingers.

[pineapple stu]

I really dont think there is much difference, neither of them are ready yet, and I'm not sure either of them will be anyway. I can't open the link but I'm guessing its about him potentially starting the Portugal game?
Yeah, agree neither of them can really be said to be ready at the moment. And yep, Hungary want to get as many people into the game tonight (15k capacity ground), and it seems a good way to prep a keeper for Portugal in the event that Randolph isn't fit or has dropped back (cos he's not getting games either at the moment of course).

Quote from Kenny is - "I’m Caoimhín’s biggest fan, he played in the under-21 team ten times and had he been fit in March (v Serbia) he would have started, it’s fair to say. Gavin Bazunu has come in and just been absolutely excellent. Sometimes you take your chance" - but Bazunu hasn't been "absolutely excellent". His decision-making has been really poor at times, and this in games against not-great sides who haven't put us under a huge amount of pressure. Unless Kenny is seeing something else in training that we're not (such as, as elatedscum suggests, Kelleher not being match fit because he's just back from four months injured) then that's the kind of comment that would really cause me to question the manager to be brutally honest.

[John83]

I think you can take comments like that with a pinch of salt. What's he going to say, "Yeah, Caoimhín's still a bit knackered so I've no choice really but stick with this useless greenhorn"? Not every manager is like that, but Kenny will talk up Bazunu if he's playing him, not least because he can't really afford to be negative in front of the media at the moment. Maybe he rates him, maybe he doesn't. Things would be clearer if Kelleher was playing recently.

[pineapple stu]

I think there has to be a better way of saying it though. It depends what the question was of course; if it was a generic team selection question, you just don't mention the keeper issue. If it was specifically about whether Kelleher was going to make his debut, then surely an answer which doesn't put the Liverpool sub keeper behind the Rochdale sub keeper for a game in September is preferable?

Though if Kelleher is in line for a run-out this evening as Kenny says, then he's probably not injured? I don't think you can't really say a keeper's not really fit enough for a full 90 minutes. They're either injured or they're not.

[ifk101]

Is there a question mark about Randolph and the future? Reading between the lines and the way our current goalkeeping options have been talked up, it doesn't feel like he'll be available in September.

[pineapple stu]

It read to me like preparing a Plan B - which makes sense given Randolph is 34 and not playing regular first-team football and isn't available tonight. All the article says is "with doubts still persisting around the fitness and standing of Darren Randolph", and that's McDonnell saying it, not a quote from Kenny.

[ColourfulPeanut]

Randolph took the money and lifestyle choice rather than football choice and at this age, I don't blame him. Trade-off is that he's going to be sitting on a bench for the rest of his career.

Both Kelleher and Bazunu will likely be playing every week next year at a decent level. Makes every sense in the world for them to play in September seeing as we're not going to qualify anyway.

[seanfhear]

I don’t think Randolph is to fond of this playing out from the back, and if he had not played that much of that in his career, who could blame him ? ?

[pineapple stu]

Yeah, he reminds me a bit of Packie Bonner when the backpass rule came in.

Thing is, Bazunu can play out from the back, but the rest of his game is suspect still, so we're damned if we do and damned if we don't in a way.

Not that keeper is the only position we have that problem of course.

[Fixer82]

Hopefully more entertaining than when we played them just before Euro 2012

[Olé Olé]

I haven't seen much (informed) speculation around Twitter for tonight's team. Kenny has made some comments regarding Parrott and the goalkeepers (as set out above). The Times also carried a possible team in their piece of: Bazunu; Doherty, Egan, O’Shea, Manning; Arter, Cullen, Knight; Horgan, Parrott, Idah.

I'm not sure if Manning is going to get the nod at left back. I don't think I could trust him there, personally. I also can't see Arter forcing his way in ahead of Molumby and Hourihane who both have plenty minutes under their belts for Kenny.

I can definitely see Horgan coming in for Curtis and Idah for Collins. with regards to Parrott, I think there is a little tinkering to do with the formation here. I found that against Andorra, we played something close to a 4-4-2. It was more like a 4-2-2, flexing into a 4-2-3-1 depending on where Troy was picking up space. We suffered from Cullen and Hourihane sitting too deep. Curtis and Knight were quite wide, which worked better for Knight than Curtis.

There is the potential for Kenny to shift into a 4-3-3 or maybe a 4-2-3-1 with a 10 that is more of a midfielder than a striker. I'm thinking of someone like Knight or McGrath. Troy could even shift out to the wing if it were Knight that moved into the 10 spot.

[Charlie Darwin]

Kenny's comments on Bazunu certainly suggest he sees him as number one for the games in September. Or, at least, is concerned enough about Randolph's fitness that he's preparing him for it.