You could tell early in the game that they were playing for draw, Randolph was so slow in taking kick outs.
Quote from Kevin Doyle who played for McCarthy for 3 years talking about Connolly...
“Knowing Mick, and knowing the more people clamour for him to start, the more stubborn Mick will become and won’t play him,”
The man is getting a million a year to do what's best for Irish football, if Connolly is behind Collins again on Tuesday it's just the manager being a total tool
Connolly should definitely have got 10 or 15 minutes more than he got . Otherwise have we actually got much better players than were on the field .
Attitude makes a big difference. When they are sent out to play for a draw we played down to their level.
If the Georgia players were all at same clubs as the Irish lads how many would be picked ahead of the Irish player?
That's on the manager.
I genuinely believe that if Stephen Kenny took the u21s to play that Georgia team we'd win the game comfortably
Away match against Holland in Amsterdam in 2000. We drew 2-2 after being 2-0 up. I remember Mick congratulating the players on a great result at the final whistle. I remember Roy Keane being upset that we had dropped two points.Quote:
Originally Posted by mark12345
mccarthy has started one game in 18 months?Quote:
Originally Posted by liamoo11
odowda, i am a fan, but is hardly playing either. brady has likewise hardly kicked a ball since last autumn and hasnt played well for us since 2016. very poor performance but please offer realistic alternatives that will actually improve things
Here"s a realistic alternative. That Whelan was playing today is on Mick (having said that he played quite well). But should a 35 year old with a horrible track record be in the picture at this point? Jack Byrne was a better option than any of our midfielders but that says something that a Shamrock Rovers player has more creativity than Premier League players. My frustration is compounded by the fact that if Hourihane, Hendrick or Doherty are having no effect on the proceedings, the urgency is not there to bring on someone who will ( and at least show you are trying to win the game)Quote:
Originally Posted by jbyrne
Denmark lead late on.
Means we now must win one of the last two to qualify. Two draws no longer enough
Time to pay the Piper for another camping full of garbage footballQuote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2019...ngs-v-georgia/
They forget the zero and the decimal point in front of these lunatic asylum ratings
Abysmal performance and disgraceful (mis)management. You could have predicted it from the off, seeing how we were set up. We created nothing over the entire first-half, yet McCarthy persisted with trying the same failed methods until beyond 70 minutes. Criminal stuff, especially with Connolly - who, fair play to him, did actually make a difference when he came on (far too late, of course) - sitting wasted on the bench for 80 minutes. What was bringing Williams on for Hourihane all about? Settling for the draw? F**king hell, like. There's not really much else to add to what's already been said. Frustrating and disappointing. Really put me on a downer. Can't wait for Kenny to take over.
Other concern watching the Denmark v Switzerland game is that Schmeichel pulled off four stunning saves to earn Denmark the win. I'd worry that a similar Swiss performance on Tuesday will give them a comfortable win. Then it comes down to needing to beat Denmark at home in the last game - and that worked well the last time out...
How do you solve a problem like Georgia?
tldr: We should have lumped it forward more often
I’ve been thinking about this for a few hours now, and I’ve done a bit of a volte-face. It can’t be denied that we struggle against these lads. We’ve played them 7 times in as many years and the results speak for themselves.
02/06/13 Ireland 4-0 Georgia
07/09/14 Georgia 1-2 Ireland
07/09/15 Ireland 1-0 Georgia
06/10/16 Ireland 1-0 Georgia
02/09/17 Georgia 1-1 Ireland
26/03/19 Ireland 1-0 Georgia
12/10/19 Georgia 0-0 Ireland
3 different managers. God knows how many players. We’ve changed all the personnel there is to change, yet nothing ever changes. It’s the same game played over and over again. The only convincing win was in a friendly. It feels like Groundhog day but the fact that it’s been Georgia over and over again is a random quirk of the groups we have been drawn in to. The truth is we’ve struggled against sides like Georgia for decades.
We are at our very best as slight underdogs. We have always been able to compensate for a deficit in quality by digging in and working hard for each other. But other teams find it far too easy to do the same thing to us. Georgia know us inside out at this stage and have done a number on us the last two times we’ve been to Tbilisi.
You often get a boxer who is known as a bit of a street fighter. They can be incredibly successful (with no better example than Steve Collins of this parish), but that style of fighter can struggle against an inferior opponent who stubbornly refuses to go on the offensive because they won’t take the risk of dropping their guard to do so. How many times have you seen a fight where one boxer is happy to take the glory of going the distance against the champ?
That’s Georgia. They’ve gone the distance with Denmark and ourselves and that makes this a successful campaign already.
They showed no ambition at all. I think they had 57% possession today because they were interested in possession above almost anything else. If they were going to score it would have been through a set piece or us making a mistake. Having 57% possession meant there was only 40 minutes when we had the ball and could actually score. They were holding the ball with pointless passes because it was running down the clock. In contrast we were willing to take risks with the ball trying to create things and we gave the ball away more often as a result.
For me today's game was summed up by 2 incidents. The first was Jeff Hendrick unnecessarily losing the ball after about 20 seconds. The second was Hourihane attempting a flick to McClean who was about 10 yards away from where he thought he was. Both were the victims of an opposition who just weren’t going to let them play. The first incident set the tone for the match. By the time of the Hourihane incident the frustration on his face was there for all to see.
Now Hourihane is an excellent player. Aston Villa have looked at their best when he has been in the team this season. He is tremendous with a dead ball. But he needs a bit of space to work in. He gets that at Aston Villa because teams in the Premier League don’t tend to play like Georgia, and even if they did the opposition inevitably focus on frustrating yer man who’s name rhythms with Back Reel Fish
Most of today was summed up with Duffy, Whelan and Egan knocking the ball between themselves for a bit, then sending it long in the absence of a better option presenting itself. They had all the Georgians ahead of them meaning a long ball was being contested by our remaining 7 outfielder players against 11 Georgians.
Georgia are a tough nut to crack and what we were doing was never going to get the job done. When Duffy Whelan and Egan were playing it between themselves it was giving Georgia a chance to get organised. Typically they formed 2 banks of 4 with the 2 forwards sitting just ahead of the 2 central midfielders. We didn’t do a lot of it but I've no doubt that if we attempted to go wide one of the forwards would have gone over to the wing we were trying to go down to give them an overload.
What they were doing is completely legitimate and there are 2 ways to deal with this. One is to have somebody in the middle of the park who is comfortable having the ball played to them with 3 or 4 of the opposition around them and can pick the lock. I guess this would be an excellent technical boxer in the metaphor i used above. But those sort of players are thin on the ground and we don’t currently have anyone like that. From the perspective of Hourihane or Hendrick there is no point showing for the ball in the middle of the park because if they get it they are likely to be immediately set upon by superior numbers, lose the ball and set up a counter attack.
So the ball had to go long. Our limitations combined with the way Georgia are played meant that it was the only option available. With that being the case the problem came from allowing Georgia to set themselves and get that 11 v 7 advantage. The other way to handle this sort of opponent is to simply overwhelm them. Swarm them with punches in the boxing analogy. Hit them on the gloves and shoulders and anywhere else you can hit and plain old push them over if you have to. If we had embraced the fact that the ball had to go long and sent it up early they wouldn’t have had time to get organised and we could probably have nicked something while they were still at 6s & 7s. By delaying we gave Georgia time to set themselves and it was easy for them.
That was the option available to us. We’re a team of street fighters. We don’t have a David Silva or even a Wes Hoolahan. The ball should have been played long as the first option rather than when we couldn’t think of anything better to do. Hoof Early, Hoof Often. Then we should have pressed all over the park. Their players who just weren’t as good as ours and had mistakes in them if we had got on top of them. Our biggest failing today was not recognising that.
McCarthy is a dinosaur and was shown up tonight. No balls, afraid to lose instead of changing things to win a game we should be winning. Irish football will never get anywhere with the likes of Trappatoni, O'Neill and McCarthy - all Delaney appointments, all purveyors of woeful football that belongs in the 80s/90s. Can't wait for Kenny to take over and end this nonsense. Just woeful, and we're not qualifying after tonight either, even via the Nations League route. Not playing that ****e anyway.
Good assessment backstothewall. I don’t really blame McCarthy for anything on the personnel side apart from not bringing on Connolly sooner. Collins showed well vs Bulgaria and I understand why Mick went with him. I hear the criticism of McClean and Whelan but not a lot of better alternatives. I am very curious about how Mick approaches Tuesday’s match.
Have to say Robinson has been a let down so far. He is a better player than he has shown for us.
Maybe I was dropped on the head too many times as a child but I have a positive feeling about the Switzerland game. Connolly is a total unknown to them and has the capability of doing real damage. Just hope Mick starts him and sees what he can do.
I'd say my lack of sanity has been slowly self-inflicted by various different things but I also feel positive about the Suisse game. We know how much it would mean for Mick to beat them and I don't believe he'll be trying to just nick a win.....and with Aaron Connolly playing as he is, that can't be the case because the lad has zero nerves, plenty of footballing ability and can create danger for the opposition out of nothing. This is not a player that needs time to get up to the pace of the game. He sets the pace. I watched the Brighton game last week and told anyone who'd listen that he had to start today. I think he will start on Tuesday. Would you bet against him scoring? I sure wouldn't. Our other strikers, I can't say the same (although I do think they all have ability.....but nothing like Connolly). Hat-trick for Connolly, qualification and Mick tells us he only got ten minutes as he wanted to keep him under wraps from the Swiss as much as possible. (3 assists from Byrne, same reasoning).Quote:
Originally Posted by irishfan86
Seriously questioning if I want this team to qualify at this rate. We'll just go to the euros and stink the place out. There's no enjoyment in that
Hendrick was shocking and should have been hooked after 45 or 50 minutes.
Whelan shouldn’t have started the game and his limitations were exposed. McCarthy would have been a big upgrade. With the current squad I probably would have played Hourihane deep in the Whelan role where he played last season for Villa and used Byrne or Browne.
McClean was awful. Good work rate. Made one great defensive cover but he’s probably lost the yard of pace required to be an effective winger and doesn’t have the skill set to play in centre midfield or left back like Kilbane (kind of) had. O’Dowda would have given much more, as would Connolly.
Collins was poor. Feeding of scraps but didn’t look like the answer. Ref didn’t help him, letting them away with fouling him here and there. Looking at today, Sean Maguire has to be a better option, right?
Didn’t think Hourihane was as bad as people have made out. I thought of the front 6 he probably did the best, not that he was good per se.
You’d feel Mick’s inability to take off Hendrick or Whelan or McClean when it’s clearly not working is a major worrying oversight.
Hard to know what you’d do now...
Stevens probably comes in for Doherty. I wouldn’t think Whelo has the gas to play on Tuesday. Browne maybe? Connolly and Maguire in for McClean and Collins?
You almost feel that Adam Idah did more and got more out of playing against better centre backs than the Georgians in Tallaght on Thursday.
McCarthy on his 2 crutches would cover the ground better than whelan does at the moment. How would playing Georgia be beyond McCarthy when he was excellent against west ham last week ?Quote:
Originally Posted by jbyrne
McCarthy is our best defensive midfielder. It's been done to death on here bit most of the best performances we have had over the last number of years have been when he plays. He has the athleticism and pace to allow us to compress the pitch unlike what we see when whelan plays where the distance between defence, midfield and attack is massive and prevents us creating any cohesion. I genuinely cant see how you dont think he is a realistic alternative who would improve things.
O dowda has been playing since his contract got resolved and Brady has just returned in the last few weeks from a rib injury. Both would allow us to keep the ball better and Brady certainly has far better defensive awareness compared to mcclean s idiotic inability to stay tuned in to tracking runners and standing them up rather than lunging in. Mcclean didnt even have any energy or aggressiveness today which is likely dew to his back problem from earlier I the week but even more reason not to play him today.
Last team to beat Switzerland at home in a competitive match was England in 2014.
Qatar did beat them in a friendly but they were probably too friendly.