LOI in Europe 2022

[EalingGreen]

That is currently the case in the Moldovan league. The team that played our opponents Mura in the first round was Sfintul Gheorghe from Moldova who finished fourth in their eight team league last season.
Good spot, though those four teams qualified from what was a ten team league in season 2021/22.

For season 2022/23 it will be an 8 team league, because after last season, only one team was promoted from their "A" league, while two teams were relegated and a third (the team who had finished 9th) were expelled from the league (no idea why).

It will be interesting to see whether they will restore the division to 10 teams after this, or if not, whether UEFA will still permit 4 European entries for 2023/24.

[legendz]

That is currently the case in the Moldovan league. The team that played our opponents Mura in the first round was Sfintul Gheorghe from Moldova who finished fourth in their eight team league last season. Sensible Moldovans cutting their cloth. The League of Ireland seems to care more about the optics of 10 teams than they do about scaling back in numbers in favour of quality and more stringent professional criteria.

[sadloserkid]

Sensible Moldovans cutting their cloth. The League of Ireland seems to care more about the optics of 10 teams than they do about scaling back in numbers in favour of quality and more stringent professional criteria.


The Premier Division should reduce to 8 with stricter grounds criteria for promotion. Not ideal for sure but some of the grounds being permitted access to the Premier Division are damaging the League of Ireland brand.

Who exactly is talking about optics? "Damaging the League of Ireland brand"... the average Irish person couldn't tell you the name of the town that Finn Harps play in to say nothing of the fact that they and UCD are probably replaced by Cork and Galway next season anyway. It's pretty close to irrelevant who the bottom couple of teams are in terms of the brand and that's not just an Irish thing.

Have you decided to populate your Super National League Tier 3 from the top down? Eight teams in each of the top two divisions gives you a headstart of three for the next level. :)

[EatYerGreens]

Sensible Moldovans cutting their cloth. The League of Ireland seems to care more about the optics of 10 teams than they do about scaling back in numbers in favour of quality and more stringent professional criteria.

Says the guy who keeps redesigning the League of Ireland to include new teams from random counties like Carlow :D

[Nesta99]

It a little unusual that someone who is hoping for a team of theirs to join the senior setup, wants a better geographical spread but then also suggest that numbers be cut, even if its just for the top division. For arguments sake, the PL based on support and financial clout would probably most often be Pats, Rovers, Bohs, Dundalk, Derry, Cork Sligo, Galway, give or take a few eg Waterford/Shels. Aside from the drudgery of playing the same sides so often + cup fixtures, its more likely to favour established or traditional power bases than invigorate a league.

[EalingGreen]

That is currently the case in the Moldovan league. The team that played our opponents Mura in the first round was Sfintul Gheorghe from Moldova who finished fourth in their eight team league last season.
Actually you're quite correct: contrary to my post #611, last season the league was only 8 teams.

Now for all the European exploits of league perennial winners Sherif Tiraspol, it is ridiculous (imo) that an 8 team league of that standard should be allocated 4 European places.

Especially when one of them, Floresti, were convicted of match-fixing in January and docked 6 points, with all of their 9 remaining matches awarded as a 3-0 win against them. Indeed it seems as if they hadn't won, or even drawn, a single one of their 19 games before then, since the final table had them finishing on -6 points and a GD of -76!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021%E2%80%9322_Moldovan_National_Division

Now that's what I call "The Greatest League in the World"! :D

[nigel-harps1954]

Sensible Moldovans cutting their cloth. The League of Ireland seems to care more about the optics of 10 teams than they do about scaling back in numbers in favour of quality and more stringent professional criteria.

What?

[sbgawa]

couple of hours to kick off and the nerves are kicking in,
I'm going with

Manus
Hoare, Pico, Grace 3 centre backs
Finn and Lyons as wing backs

O Neill and Watts in the middle

Byrne, Burke

Gaffney

according to the weather app it will be around 30 degrees at kick off so i am shocked to my core that they are allowing football to take place in this heat-........i have a part time job in Met Eireann ;)

If bradser is going more defensive and with memories of Talinn maybe dropping Burke and bringing in McCann might make sense especially as burke and Byrne haven't started a match in 5 or 6 weeks at least....impact sub maybe

[EatYerGreens]

according to the weather app it will be around 30 degrees at kick off so i am shocked to my core that they are allowing football to take place in this heat-........i have a part time job in Met Eireann ;)

Bring back Winter football ! :D No to global warming !

[EatYerGreens]

It a little unusual that someone who is hoping for a team of theirs to join the senior setup, wants a better geographical spread but then also suggest that numbers be cut, even if its just for the top division. For arguments sake, the PL based on support and financial clout would probably most often be Pats, Rovers, Bohs, Dundalk, Derry, Cork Sligo, Galway, give or take a few eg Waterford/Shels. Aside from the drudgery of playing the same sides so often + cup fixtures, its more likely to favour established or traditional power bases than invigorate a league.

I personaly would favour a 12 team PD and a 10 team FD. I appreciate that we're currenrly 3 teams light of that, but a 10 team Premier with everyone playing each other 4 times gets a bit tedious (I know that playing each other 3 times brings its own challenges). I also think that a 12 team Premier spreads what limited wealth and support there is within the league around a bit more. The whole idea of going to 10 teams was meant to be to improve the quality of the top tier and make every game more competitive etc etc - but we still have 2 teams who are much weaker than the rest. You usually get 1-2 weak teams regardless of whether its a 10 or 12 team tier, so personally I'd go with 12 and help spread the love around a bit more.

As a aside - if Cork and Galway both come up this year and go all out to stay there, the 2023 PD could be genuinely competitive. If only one come up, then you'd expect whichever of Harps and UCD survive to be odds-on for the drop the next year. Probably along with Drogheda.

[joey B]

https://twitter.com/PremierSportsTV/status/1549379353426989056

Sligo/Motherwell live on Premier sports next week,lets hope its not a dead rubber......

[ger121]

One thing about Ludogorets that I noticed looking at their recent results, is they don’t concede. It will be hard to break them down.
The other thing I saw was that they have been playing 2 games a week. They have another one this weekend and then they have to travel to Dublin, which from the sounds of it was not straight forward for Rovers going the other way. That just might be a positive for Rovers in the 2nd leg.
I like a bet so if I was putting money on this one, I’d go for a tight enough performance from Rovers based on lessons learned in Bratislava but Ludogorets to edge it 1-0. Then all to play for in Tallaght.

[placid casual]

Ludogrets have a direct charter for Dublin so won't be impacted by the circuitous route Rovers had to take to get to Razgrad. As long as we don't get hammered I'll be content enough.
If I was betting I'd say 2:0 to them.

[ontheotherhand]

Not holding out much hope here. Hopefully keep them at bay or at least within striking distance for this leg. We will create a few chances but it depends who they fall to. I got weirdly confident last night but woke up with a reality check. These are miles ahead of anything we've played in a long time and they aren't really in pre-season. They are up and running and undefeated domestically albeit it after only 2 games. But they won't be as rusty or unfit as Hibernians. Not sure we will be ready for the change in pace. Should be better defensively than last year with Grace fully fit and everybody training at least but we really needed Jack to be at the top of his game for this sort of game.

But Rovers to win 1-0. Why not.

[joey B]

Rovers team for tonight:Mannus; Hoare, Lopes, Grace; Finn, McCann, O'Neill, Lyons; Towell, Watts; Gaffney

Is Towell a suprise starter?

[ontheotherhand]

Maybe a little bit Joey but looks like we are going with only Gaffney up top so he's the obvious pick to add in midfield if we are setting up to contain.

[Nesta99]

Ludogrets have a direct charter for Dublin so won't be impacted by the circuitous route Rovers had to take to get to Razgrad. As long as we don't get hammered I'll be content enough.
If I was betting I'd say 2:0 to them.

and Ive been accused of trying to lower the bar for Dundalk in the past!

[CorribsideSteve]

I hope they're not sliced apart at will like Qarabag did to Dundalk a few years back, but I fear they will. Here we go.

[TonyD]

Rovers under the cosh a little bi already. They need to try to keep a hold of the ball when they get it. Great run by Gaffney just there though.

[Philosophizer]

Rovers are just 5-10 yards too deep here at times. It would be very difficult to last a whole match at that. I'd rather them be slightly braver and move the line up a little bit. Easy to say from my location of n the couch I know.

[ger121]

Diddelang winning away in Armenia and one foot maybe in a group stage, yet we hammered them over 2 legs last year. European Results Maths!

[joey B]

Gaffney will be playing in League 1 soon!!!!

[passinginterest]

That’s a poor one to concede. Lopes seems very jittery tonight. Himself and Hore lost the man too easily between them.

[CorribsideSteve]

They did well to keep them out as long as they did. Long evening now though.

[pineapple stu]

Diddelang winning away in Armenia and one foot maybe in a group stage, yet we hammered them over 2 legs last year. European Results Maths!
Didn't ye catch them in a bit of turmoil and with a lot of squad changes (including a 41-year-old in nets)?

An often overlooked benefit of summer soccer

Anyway, Rovers losing and it sounded it was coming from posts here unfortunately

[ger121]

Didn't ye catch them in a bit of turmoil and with a lot of squad changes (including a 41-year-old in nets)?

An often overlooked benefit of summer soccer

Anyway, Rovers losing and it sounded it was coming from posts here unfortunately

No idea and who knows how good or bad they are set-up this season. Just pointing out the variances even one season apart.

[passinginterest]

Actually thought they’d been fine apart from some shaky moments on the ball. The deeper line is pretty justified because they look vulnerable in behind but being deeper there’s not really anywhere to go when they do get through. Gaffney doing very well. Better from Towell than games I’ve seen him recently too. Needs Watts and Lyons more involved.

[nigel-harps1954]

Rovers will do incredibly well to keep the score down in this game.

Few poor performers so far. I think Watts and Finn have struggled in particular.

[pineapple stu]

No idea and who knows how good or bad they are set-up this season. Just pointing out the variances even one season apart.
For sure. Football's not a stable game outside the top few leagues alright

[joey B]

This could be a massacre…

[ontheotherhand]

Rovers will do incredibly well to keep the score down in this game.

Few poor performers so far. I think Watts and Finn have struggled in particular.

Watts isn't really up to this level. Very good LoI player but Jack was needed at this level.

[CorribsideSteve]

The dam is creaking now

[passinginterest]

That’s a killer. Striker seems to be a real finisher for them. League of Ireland clubs would kill for that.

[paul_oshea]

I was going to say on 20mins if they can sort out the left side of the defence they should be ok. Nightmares of Stephen ward and Ian Harte. That area of the pitch aside they've actually don't pretty decent. But it could get embarrassing now.

[D24Saint]

The champions league is a bridge too far for LOI clubs. The Europa Conference group stages should be our champions aim now and in the seasons ahead.

[ontheotherhand]

I was going to say on 20mins if they can sort out the left side of the defence they should be ok. Nightmares of Stephen ward and Ian Harte. That area of the pitch aside they've actually don't pretty decent. But it could get embarrassing now.

That's fair. Lyons is grand at LWB at our level but he's getting exposed here.

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

Lopes been awful

[sbgawa]

Was hoping we could keep it to 1 or 2 for 60 mins and introduce the quality of Burke and byrne.
Be lucky if it isnt 4 by then.

We will be able to rest a few players in the second leg ahead of our match with UCD.

[passinginterest]

When Rovers do have the ball they really miss Byrne’s quality on the ball. Just lose it too easily up there too often. Ludo look a little bit open when Rovers do get at them but they’ve been far too sloppy.

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

Most teams struggle to get hold of the ball against Shams in our league. They’re on the receiving end of that tonight.

[TonyD]

Stuey Byrnes pre match comment that Ludogorets are beatable looking pretty funny now.

[ontheotherhand]

Most teams struggle to get hold of the ball against Shams in our league. They’re on the receiving end of that tonight.

Exactly what I was thinking - this is on all of you!

[joey B]

Stuey Byrnes pre match comment that Ludogorets are beatable looking pretty funny now.

Par for the course with Stuey,an absolute dose….

[brendy_éire]

Ludogrets have a direct charter for Dublin so won't be impacted by the circuitous route Rovers had to take to get to Razgrad. As long as we don't get hammered I'll be content enough.
If I was betting I'd say 2:0 to them.

It's one thing for a team to have to get a commercial flight, but when lads are going all different routes, it's bound to affect their preparation.

Seems to be a Europe-wide issue at present. From what I gathered, Derry had to bid for a charter against other customers (or it was a raffle of some sort), which they won, but then they couldn't get a crew for the plane, so ended up having to go with Air Baltic at silly times in the morning.
Riga got a direct charter, albeit into Dublin (and their owner came in his own plane into Derry).

There's an obvious gulf in class in this game, but if Rovers managed to keep it scoreless for the rest of the game (big ask, admittedly) it's certainly not over.
Should be a wee bit cooler in the second half too, so that'll help.

[D24Saint]

Stuey Byrnes pre match comment that Ludogorets are beatable looking pretty funny now.

Shows the research he did for tonight. Chancer just rolled up tonight and dished out the same aul drivel.

[ontheotherhand]

He's gushing about their press now. As if he didn't expect a team with their record to be willing to work for it.

[CorribsideSteve]

The champions league is a bridge too far for LOI clubs. The Europa Conference group stages should be our champions aim now and in the seasons ahead.
A tournament below the Conference would be ideal. Jokes aside, it's all that we can aim for really. There will still be the odd massive side in it no matter what you do, but a better stage of existence for clubs of our capabilities here.

[ontheotherhand]

200k for Andy Lyons starting to look alright all the same.

[pineapple stu]

Do Rovers not have a kit that'd be less of a colour clash?

[Calcio Jack]

Lopes been awful

Surely you mean Hoare ?