Serbia V Republic of Ireland - Wednesday, 24th March 2021 - World Cup 2022 Qualifier

Hugely frustrating to score two and defend really well for long spells and lose. Inexperienced keeper has proved costly, I think the first and third goals both showed one of the big weaknesses of a back three. Good strikers find that space off the shoulder of the centre back much easier than they do against a flat back four.

I think we again created quite a few chances/half chances that if we had an inform centre forward we could have converted. Add to that a possible penalty what could have put us 2-1 up. They’re the positives. The teamwork was excellent for the most part.

Sadly midfield did seem to falter when Hendrick came on. Some of the crosses from McLean and Brady (especially the Brady corners) were dreadful.

There’s enough there to think we’ll beat Luxembourg at least.

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Originally Posted by paul_oshea

Unfortunately it will be very difficult to recover from this.

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That's just nonsense.

Too many players not playing enough football. Lots of injuries. Goalkeeping error crucial. Not a bad effort all told.

Serbia have better players than us = = A Better team.

Serbia have more experience, and Vlahovic looks a very good forward. Some of our younger players did well so hope for the future.

We just have to hope for the future that our young players develop, and that they become better international players than we have now.

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Originally Posted by NeverFeltBetter

Ugh.

Positives
Scored twice
Controlled the game for brief periods against a higher seed
Midfield was decent up to 60 minutes (I know, I know)
Kept defensive shape well for most of the game
Limited Serbia quite well in the first half
Had a bit of a go in the second half, and responded as well you can expect after going two down

Negatives
Three poor goals to concede
Travers exposed
Toothless in the attacking third in most respects
Poor offensive set-pieces
Sub strategy wasn't great
After our second we made no more chances
Already having to scrap to get back to zero

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Positives
the system worked better than 4-3-3
Controlled the pace of the game we dictated the match
Stevens is very comfortable playing for Eire.
O'Shea looked composed on the ball in his last man position
Midfield looked strong and ready to bite.
Robinson looked a good replacment for McGoldrick
Shane Long flair and streetwise footie

Negatives
Travers shouldnt have played
They won without doing anything important
We couldnt cope with their counterattacks
We lost a key match.
We made an ordinary team look world class at least in attack
their first two goals were a bit similar

in the end we must beat them iin Ireland.

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Originally Posted by passinginterest

Hugely frustrating to score two and defend really well for long spells and lose. Inexperienced keeper has proved costly, I think the first and third goals both showed one of the big weaknesses of a back three. Good strikers find that space off the shoulder of the centre back much easier than they do against a flat back four.

I think we again created quite a few chances/half chances that if we had an inform centre forward we could have converted. Add to that a possible penalty what could have put us 2-1 up. They’re the positives. The teamwork was excellent for the most part.

Sadly midfield did seem to falter when Hendrick came on. Some of the crosses from McLean and Brady (especially the Brady corners) were dreadful.

There’s enough there to think we’ll beat Luxembourg at least.

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Brady would break your melt.. he's like a child on the street who owns the ball.. wants to take frees, corners, throws.. my ball Brady

And some of the crossing is, and has for years.. been woeful

I've been saying this for months.. I honestly couldn't care much about this campaign. I'm not expecting to get to Qatar. We're not ready.

But we've ten games here.. another 12 NL games over the next two years.. and no doubt a few friendlies thrown in.. 25-30 games.. to build a new team, introduce new players, find a style etc... all before the Euro qualifiers in 23

Loads of chances to develop this team

Im too p1ssed off to write much. We were great at times and sloppiness killed us. Anyone who still pines for the days of McCarthy and doesnt see that Kenny is making progress with a very limited bunch of players is just being ridiculous.

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Originally Posted by seanfhear

Serbia have better players than us = = A Better team.

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I think that's it in the end of the day. Tadic was quality and we had no-one could touch him. Then they bring Mitrovic and Jovic off the bench.

So for all that, I was actually a bit disappointed with Serbia because it wasn't backs to the wall stuff from us, though we were clearly second best.

So overall, that was probably as good as we could have hoped for. Some goals (plural). Not the hammering some of us had feared at the start. Some new players coming in and playing ok. Yeah, there's still issues, particularly up front, and the keeper issue is still a concern. But in a way, I'm happier now than before the match.

Honestly I would take more positives from that than any of the games last autumn. There was something there, not near enough to realistically deserve to get anything from the game tonight with them having the likes of Tadic, Vlahovic and Mitrovic on the field, but enough to convince me that there will be better days ahead for some of these players.

Unfortunately Travers wasn't ready for this level of football, to be fair I'm not convinced Bazunu is either, we were stuck with what we had available in goal unfortunately. But for an hour we matched up well against a team that, being honest, are significantly better than we are at the moment.

Then we voluntarily reduced ourselves to 10 men by bringing on Jeff Hendrick and it fell apart a bit from there.

Personally I would stick with the 3-5-2 for now, and I'd stick with a lot of those players as well. Browne, Cullen, Connolly and Robinson (moreso in the first half) came out of that game in credit. Hendrick and McClean when they came on showed why we have to move on from them. I know we're missing players but I was particularly disappointed to see Hendrick preferred to Knight off the bench.

We obviously need to get a win against Luxembourg now, and probably another against Qatar, just to keep everyone behind the team at this point. I never thought world cup qualification was realistic for this team in terms of where we are currently at, but I'm more hopeful for the future now than I was after the autumn games.

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Originally Posted by seanfhear

Serbia have better players than us = = A Better team.

Serbia have more experience, and Vlahovic looks a very good forward. Some of our younger players did well so hope for the future.

We just have to hope for the future that our young players develop, and that they become better international players than we have now.

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Yes but Travers cant play. Kenny's goalkeeping selection were wrong. Sean McDermott, Colin Doyle and one kid

I feel sorry for the keeper. His positioning let him down and it has cost us. I would take him out of the firing line this weekend.

O’Shea was a bit suspect tonight. Doherty was quiet.

At the end of the day we are turning up to a gun fight with a rusty old knife every time we line up against a half decent side. The quality in the final third needs a big improvement.....and when the defence/keeper concede soft goals then we don’t stand a chance. McClean’s effort at crossing in the last 10 minutes was extremely frustrating. Bread and butter stuff.

I thought Cullen had a good game and hope he stays in the team.

If we had held on to HT I think we’d be looking at a different 2nd half.

Not terrible outside of Doherty, Hendrick and possibly Travers but I'd want to watch his positioning again.

Don't think the 3 at the back will work unless Doherty decides he wants to play football. He offers 0 on or off the ball. Stevens on the other side was great in comparison but we had no balance.

Midfield did ok. They all had patches where they looked like they will become the players we need them to but we are missing a player in there getting on the ball and spreading the play a bit. They are all very one dimensional in their passing. We are also missing an enforcer. Tadic should've been nursing at least a dead leg by the second half....

We don't have a center forward and it's glaring. Serbia had Tadic running the show and had a few natural center forwards for him to pick out and that got them the win. Connolly has something but didn't look sharp.

We would have been delighted with a point and we almost got it. 2 goals scored which would have been enough if we could've stopped Tadic.

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Originally Posted by Razors left peg

Im too p1ssed off to write much. We were great at times and sloppiness killed us. Anyone who still pines for the days of McCarthy and doesnt see that Kenny is making progress with a very limited bunch of players is just being ridiculous.

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of course he is making progress we were the better passing team, his GK selection wasnt correct and costs. That was Kenny to blame

I would take a lot of positives from that game. Especially with the players at Kenny’s disposal

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Originally Posted by shakermaker1982

I feel sorry for the keeper. His positioning let him down and it has cost us. I would take him out of the firing line this weekend.

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Danger with that is it could hit the guy's confidence if he's dropped for what was really only one error. Maybe he could have done better for the third, but Mitrovic beat two centre-backs to get a good header in and that's the bigger issue.

On the basis that the three keepers are all League One level at the moment, you could make a case for Bazunu against Luxembourg and O'Hara against Qatar. But I'd be inclined to keep Travers there for continuity, and give the other two a half each on Tuesday.

Time to say goodbye to McClean.

He has one trick - slow steopover, slow sprint with head down to the endline, and either balloon an aimless cross into the box or his the first defender.

Travers was responsable of this team result, 1st goal you have the doubt but an experience keeper would have rushed to block the guy he got stranded, 2nd amateur stuff, and the 3rd was him going nowhere he was watching the centering instead of his place.

I'd take the calls for Bazunu to start against Luxembourg a lot more seriously if his name was spelt correctly

People being far to hard on Travers here. He made a very minor mistake and was punished by an incredible finish by Mitrovic. 99 times out of hundred he gets away with that and nobody even notices it happened.

Result aside that was much better. On another night Mitrovic knocks that over the bar or we nick another one from a set piece in injury time and everyone is raving about a brave away performance and a great point.

People need to chill out.

serbia had 4 shots on target... 3 went in. i don't remember the save to be honest. luxembourg will have noted the performance and it's too high risk to play travers again as he will be targetted.

cruel perhaps but sport can be like that.

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Originally Posted by zero

serbia had 4 shots on target... 3 went in. i don't remember the save to be honest.

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I think the save was a very good parry in the first half from a narrow angle which went out for a corner.

Serbia's chances were a one-on-one (can't blame the keeper), an excellent lob (keeper suspect) and the forward getting above two defenders 8 yards out (shouldn't have been let get as good a header away from there). Luxembourg haven't anyone of the quality of Tadic and Mitrovic; I wouldn't be too worried about putting Travers in for that.

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Originally Posted by zero

serbia had 4 shots on target... 3 went in. i don't remember the save to be honest. luxembourg will have noted the performance and it's too high risk to play travers again as he will be targetted.

cruel perhaps but sport can be like that.

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Actually that was a good save by Travers. Ok , you’d expect him to make it and he did.

The frustrating thing is we could have won with a bit more discipline. I would go with the same line up for next game. None of our keepers are ready so I would stick with Travers.

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Originally Posted by backstothewall

People being far to hard on Travers here. He made a very minor mistake and was punished by an incredible finish by Mitrovic. 99 times out of hundred he gets away with that and nobody even notices it happened.

Result aside that was much better. On another night Mitrovic knocks that over the bar or we nick another one from a set piece in injury time and everyone is raving about a brave away performance and a great point.

People need to chill out.

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the serbs knew he was a newbie specially Mitrovic thats why he tried the lob.

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Originally Posted by RiffRaff

The frustrating thing is we could have won with a bit more discipline. I would go with the same line up for next game. None of our keepers are ready so I would stick with Travers.

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I'd give all 3 of them a game each.

If our goalkeeper is an issue against Luxembourg we have bigger problems to worry about anyway.

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Originally Posted by Bielsa´s irish

the serbs knew he was a newbie specially Mitrovic thats why he tried the lob.

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He tried the lob because Travers was off his line and there was nothing else on.

Trying that lob is one thing. Pulling it off is another one altogether.

The ref did not give us anything / much until we got away with that unfortunate challenge from Coleman.

The Aaron Connolly one did look a penalty when you get plenty of chances to look at it.

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Originally Posted by zero

serbia had 4 shots on target... 3 went in. i don't remember the save to be honest. luxembourg will have noted the performance and it's too high risk to play travers again as he will be targetted.

cruel perhaps but sport can be like that.

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This!! Thats the thing, the Lux guys will smell blood there, I would play him one half vs Qatar though. I will try either O'Hara and in lesser chance Bazunu, but only because of age

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Originally Posted by zero

serbia had 4 shots on target... 3 went in. i don't remember the save to be honest. luxembourg will have noted the performance and it's too high risk to play travers again as he will be targetted.

cruel perhaps but sport can be like that.

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Originally Posted by RiffRaff

The frustrating thing is we could have won with a bit more discipline. I would go with the same line up for next game. None of our keepers are ready so I would stick with Travers.

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That's our scenario. But that's why we should have played another keeper. I think. The teammates will try to keep him in the 11, I wouldnt because the Lux guys will target him

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Originally Posted by Bielsa´s irish

the serbs knew he was a newbie specially Mitrovic thats why he tried the lob.

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How many other speculative shots did they have?

If we want to have a go at anyone it should be Ciaran Clark imho. Mitrovic puts a hand on his shoulder which gives him the edge to win the header for the third.

He was a cute whore the way he did it, but an experienced defender like Clark shouldn't be getting done like that.

On the night Mitrovic was the difference between the sides. 1-1 was an fair reflection on the game when they put him on.

If he was Irish, he certainly wouldn't have been coming off the bench, which is where we are at the minute.

What we absolutely MUST do now is beat Luxembourg. No excuses.

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Originally Posted by centre mid

How many other speculative shots did they have?

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Exactly. If Serbia sensed an issue with Travers, they would have been having more shots. Instead, they were playing to create clear-cut chances - as evidenced by three goals from four shots. And they had the players to create those chances, so they won.

Not saying Randolph wouldn't have done better than Travers, but it's clearly not the case that Serbia set out to target him.

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Originally Posted by centre mid

How many other speculative shots did they have?

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Check the replay, he looks up to check where our kid was, then got that one in. Again first goal we should have rushed a bit just to hassle Vlahovic he had a very quiet finishing

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Exactly. If Serbia sensed an issue with Travers, they would have been having more shots. Instead, they were playing to create clear-cut chances - as evidenced by three goals from four shots. And they had the players to create those chances, so they won.

Not saying Randolph wouldn't have done better than Travers, but it's clearly not the case that Serbia set out to target him.

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because we dominated the match, we had the ball apart from the first 10 minutes

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Exactly. If Serbia sensed an issue with Travers, they would have been having more shots. Instead, they were playing to create clear-cut chances - as evidenced by three goals from four shots. And they had the players to create those chances, so they won.

Not saying Randolph wouldn't have done better than Travers, but it's clearly not the case that Serbia set out to target him.

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we wouldnt have lost the match with Randolph or any other experience keeper in the match, they had 4 attemps on target 3 goals but they had a few more shot off target

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Originally Posted by centre mid

How many other speculative shots did they have?

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they had 14 shots 4 on target

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Originally Posted by Bielsa´s irish

because we dominated the match, we had the ball apart from the first 10 minutes

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What match were you watching?

We had less than 40% possession.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

What match were you watching?

We had less than 40% possession.

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44%

79 % pass accuracy

39%

What's your source?

And even if it was 44%, how does that equate to "we had the ball"?

Pass accuracy is irrelevant.

Pleasantly surprised by the generally positive mood around the support after the game. Glad to see that people are more realistic about things than I maybe thought many were. I think the second goal probably helped with that - we finished the game on the front foot.

If only we could leave out a player like Mitrovic because we had a player like Vlahovic coming through. Maybe we will have in a few years, who knows.

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Originally Posted by backstothewall

People being far to hard on Travers here. He made a very minor mistake and was punished by an incredible finish by Mitrovic. 99 times out of hundred he gets away with that and nobody even notices it happened.

Result aside that was much better. On another night Mitrovic knocks that over the bar or we nick another one from a set piece in injury time and everyone is raving about a brave away performance and a great point.

People need to chill out.

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I agree, mostly. I don't think he's a bad keeper, but maybe not quite ready and perhaps a little lacking in match sharpness. I think the centre halves weren't quite up to the job today, which was disappointing in spite of the quality opposition as it was exactly the back five I called for. A pity Duffy is so off the boil - he'd never have given Mitrovic that header.

That said, I think we'd have had a result today if Randolph had been fit. Given the calibre of players in the Serbian team - I'd give an eye tooth for a player like Mitrovic and another for a Tadic - that's a good performance.