Ryan Manning D Southampton b.1996

[pineapple stu]

Right now, even allowing for him still only being 23, it's very hard to see him ever laying down a meaningful challenge to Kelleher for the Ireland jersey. Unless maybe towards the end of Kelleher's career. Caoimhin just looks to have kicked well clesr of the pack. An interesting battle for second choice though between him, Keeley, O'Leary and Travers. Any of those five would likely be the first choice keeper for some other mid rank European teams.

I see O'Leary has been dropped in favour of Conor Noß' goalkeeper teammate from last year. Which is a pity.

I think we're a different team if either Parrott or Kelleher get injured. Which isn't necessarily a criticism of us - there's plenty of international teams who have a couple of very good players in a squad of otherwise mediocrity. Hungary with Szoboszlai being a prime example we've seen recently. Even Norway struggled when Haaland was injured in a recent qualifying campaign (though they've now a few more very good players and I think they'll go far in the World Cup)

[elatedscum]

Great to see so many Irish players play well. Manning and Azaz both looked very good. Emakhu looked really lively and impressive, so did Danny McNamara who missed 10 months with a knee injury (ACL I think) and is just back now, playing left back and has plenty of ability.

I'd agree with Stu re the third goal, as in Manning is just trying to defend it but he makes it impossible for Bazunu.

Re the first though, i think it's a bit harsh maybe, he cuts the ball slightly so that it moves a touch away from Bazunu - maybe he hesitates for a milisecond because of the potential deflection from the on-rushing defender and the ball is bouncing ever so slightly and he gets to within an inch of the ball. so unlike the second, it's not unsaveable and you'd hope he'd save it - but i don't think it's an error and if you say that from the deflected shot at 0-0, the narrow Emakhu shot and the first goal combined that he conceded one goal, I don't think that's bad going.

i do think in general we view all of Bazunu, Travers and Kelleher in a hypercritical way. If you remember all the Kelleher v Bazunu stuff a few years ago where every goal Kelleher conceded was considered proof that he was a kid who hadn't played enough football and didn't have enough minutes to understand the fundamentals of goalkeeping. obviously, he's almost beyond reproach but we had years of it. i watched the Liverpool-West Ham game yesterday and didn't think anything at all of the keepers, no one commented at all on West Ham's keeper Areola at any point. But I just watched with those same critical eyes and for the first goal, he gets beaten at his near post and he's quite close to it. The counter argument is it took a shot just inside the post to beat him. The second goal, he comes out of his goal, doesn't get the ball, Szoboszlai does, and him leaving the goal empty causes disaray regarding defenders positions where they're covering the goal for a second which means there's more space in the box. Suddenly both goals are his fault if we're hyper-analysing and looking for mistakes.