back to a 2 man midfield tomorrow with cullen suspended? id drop knight i think thought he was poor saturday. keep the rest the same with hendrick for knight and an extra forward for cullen. prefer when we use 3 in midfield but kenny seems to like going with the extra forward v lesser opponents.
I'd replace Cullen with Hendrick, keep 3 in the middle. Didn't we play 2 in Yerevan?Quote:
Originally Posted by Jd2793
I don't think the shape should change. If he wants to make it more attacking maybe Ogbene for Doherty at wing back and Brady for McClean on the other side. If Cullen is suspended probably just drop Hendrick in there. Front two is probably the big call, does he stick with Parrot and Obafemi or change it up? I thought they linked pretty well again and their work rate was excellent. I have a feeling they'll get another go. Barring injuries, I wouldn't be overly surprised if the only change is Hendrick for Cullen (if Cullen is suspended, still not sure I've seen that confirmed anywhere).
keep the same shape and 8 or 9 of the same team, struggle to a 1 or 2 nil win and keep the wolf from the door until we blow up in the euro qualifiers within the first 3 games.
Cullen is suspended I heard. Brady for McClean should be considered.Quote:
Originally Posted by passinginterest
May as well jack it all in right now sureQuote:
Originally Posted by zero
If we?re gonna keep Kenny we might as well write off Euro 2024 now, you?re correct.Quote:
Originally Posted by EAFC_rdfl
Tomorrow team
Bazunu
Collins
Duffy
Egan
Coleman
Molumby
Hendrick
McClean
Ogbene
Hogan
Obafemi
I'd be surprised if Kenny went back to 3-4-3 after the turgid performances against Armenia and Ukraine earlier on in the group.
We looked far too narrow and kept trying to play the ball into players' feet in congested areas. It didn't work.
Kenny stumbled onto a far more effective formula against Scotland and it seems to suit the players much better. We've looked more competitive and harder to play through since moving to a midfield three, and we've also looked more dangerous in attack in having two strikers.
Surely it'll be a simple case of swapping Cullen out for Hendrick, who's generally played well since Kenny has come in and has seen regular action at club level this season. There might be a change at wing back too, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Ogbene start given his form.
Slightly worringly, Kenny's Kids has Hourihane starting in his 'preferred team'. I hope he doesn't know something I don't.
Has Hendrick ever played a holding role? We might be able to play a more ambitious midfield against Armenia but we were pretty dire before Cullen showed he could stabilise things from that deeper role, which makes me a little nervous. I shouldn't be nervous - it's Armenia for feck's sake - but you never know whether you're getting Stephen Jeckyll or Mr Hyde.
Someones crunched the numbers over on Twitter.. trying to find the tweet again.. and reckons that after tonights NL results, a win v Armenia tomorrow, pretty much guarantees a play off spot.
Trying to figure it out, a win will put us 26th in the NL at worst, and if Sweden win or draw at home to Slovenia, 25th
Assuming only 12 of the Group A teams qualify directly, the A play off route will have the 4 unqualified in the play offs
That would mean 8 teams to qualify coming from the B,C, D groups.
If more than 5 of those come from the B group, then we'll get into the B play off group (as team 9 in B)
If more than 12 qualify from A, and 4 or more come from B, then worst case would be moving up to the A path play off
So a win is extra vital tomorrow night to give us a second chance of qualification via the play offs
And, while tomorrow night might not be the game for it, maybe wait till the friendlies in the Autumn.. but would anyone think we should have a look at pushing Nathan Collins into the holding midfielder role, a la Paul Mc Grath of old..
He can read a game, pass the ball, and likes to get forward from time to time.. and is much more of a physical presence than Josh Cullen
yeah Collins in midfield is a good very good valid option but alongside cullen or hendric atm
Results against 4th placed teams don't count so as long as Armenia don't win we finish 26th as the second best runner up. Sweden have to beat Slovenia for us to finish as the best ranked third placed team. We've both played our four games and they're a point ahead of us on 5 after beating Norway the other day. If Sweden beat Slovenia they move to third but all six points will be against Slovenia so makes them the worst ranked third placed team once those results don't count for the overall ranking.Quote:
Originally Posted by Insidetherock
Only thing you?re missing is that Germany qualify directly, as the 21st team as hosts, so there?s only 15 group A teams trying to qualify. So basically we move up one space in the rankingsQuote:
Originally Posted by Insidetherock
As I said when certain posters were getting very ott, we were always very likely that we go to playoffs. We?re 24th or 25th of qualifying teams and there are up to 28 slots available to A and B teams.
So we?d need 4 or 5 teams beneath us to qualify directly for us to have a problem
??????-
For arguments sake, 13 of 15 qualify directly,
2 go to playoffs A
In group B, we?d be 9th or 10th slot depending on Sweden result. Let?s imagine 4 of the 8 or 9 ahead of us in B qualify directly. 2 behind us in B qualify and 1 from C (or 1 behind us and 2 C)
So the 4 ahead of us in B that don?t qualify go to the B playoff and the 9th and 10th teams to go the A playoff.
????
You can sometimes have weird scenarios where the A playoff is weaker than the B playoff. For example, our playoff last time involved 4 B teams (Bosnia, Slovakia, Ireland, N.Iron). Meanwhile in A, it was one A team and 3 C teams (Iceland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria). Hungary, a C team beat another C team to make the final where they played Iceland as the A team. For arguments sake, if no A team had failed to qualify, another C team would have been moved up and the C teams which failed to make the C playoff would have made up the A playoff.
Meanwhile the C playoff was 4 C teams - so weirdly, the B playoff was the toughest path to get through.
It's actually the most likely outome, no?Quote:
Originally Posted by elatedscum
The best ranked team in League D gets the first available playoff spot in League A so we wouldn't really move up a spot when you cross Germany off from the overall rankings I'd assume. Could replace them with the League D team in the overall rankings.Quote:
Originally Posted by elatedscum
Do you mean League C?
Last time League D got in but this time it's the real dreck (Liechtenstein, San Marino, etc) that you wouldn't let near a play-off.
No League D. League D has no official play off path like last time so this campaign UEFA have decided whoever the best ranked league D team is the first team allocated a play off spot. That's gonna be Estonia.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA...ying_play-offs
Oh right. Is it only one League D team that gets the chance?