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Quote:
Originally Posted by elatedscum
johanssons career isnt going well on the face of things. less than 400 mins last year on loan with fortuna sittard, back as a bench player with sevillas b team. looking like he'd be best served with a move to get him some first team football
Azaz won League Two player of the year last season and was mentioned at the time he was Irish eligible. Turns out he's eligible to play for Israel too. An attacking midfielder so interesting to see if Crawford is feeling optimistic an throws him in from the start with Coventry and Smallbone or starts the midfield three you mentioned.Quote:
Originally Posted by elatedscum
Interesting that he's named four CBs with Roughan also being able to play LCB so could pull a surprise and use 3-5-2 again. Though was more 5-4-1 away to Sweden.
Could see him going to a 5-3-2 for the away leg if we come away with a win. If we were playing that, I’d be tempted to start Festy on the right, it’d be very tough on Lee O’Connor but seems mad not to use Festy as wellQuote:
Originally Posted by JR89
Quote:
Originally Posted by elatedscum
Adaramola is probably victim to a lack of game time. Lyons having a cracking season and performing in Conference League at the minute, versus a shambles of a loan spell at Coventry for Adaramola.
Johansson is another who's just dropped like a stone, and doesn't really deserve a place currently. Sevilla B are in the fourth tier of Spanish football, which is regionalised into five separate divisions. Even the third tier is split into two sections there now. 82 teams above their division. He'd do well to get a move away.
Im with you, I dont see much in him at all. Very average playerQuote:
Originally Posted by Jd2793
He won't drop O'Connor. Especially if the change in formation was tactical to help defend any lead we've got going into the second game.Quote:
Originally Posted by elatedscum
Israel squad was announced yesterday
https://www.football.org.il/magazine...CD7F1591E13%7D
(Passing through Google translate)
Quote:
Goalkeepers:
Daniel Peretz, Omer Niraon, Sharif Kiuf
Defense:
Noam Melmud, Ziv Morgan, Gil Cohen, Itai Ben Shabat, Karem Jaber, Stav Lemkin, Roy Herman, Zohar Zasno, Yuval Sade
Midfield:
Muhammad Kanaan, Bar Cohen, Hisham Laios, El Yam Kanzpolsky, Tai Abed, Yoav Hoffmeister, Adir Levy, Ido Shahar, Oscar Gloch
Attack:
Stav Nachmani, Idan Toklomati, Usher Davida.
Good to see Abada and a couple of other players with senior caps left out. Israel do have a big advantage over us here though in that their second senior game is a friendly, so they can drop the likes of Abada down to the under 21s for the second leg if they want to.
It has the feel of one where we could do with a 2 goal or more lead from the first leg to take to Israel.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jd2793
And yet he's our joint top-scorer in the campaign with three. I know he hasn't featured in the campaign but, my word, Sinclair Armstrong has burst onto the scene in recent weeks. He really would be one to throw on in the last twenty minutes if we're chasing a goal.Quote:
Originally Posted by Razors left peg
Armstrong is probably unfortunate not to be named in the 21s squad this time around. While he's only getting ten minutes here and there, it's semi regular game time at a high level and probably warranted a call into the 21s.
Not just Armstrong but even players like Costello who’s played a decent chunk of time in the championship for a high flying team at that. I find it odd how these guys are left out and yet players like Wright who’s in L2 is in the squad.
Hard to argue for Costello or Armstrong as being must haves in the squad, they’ve barely dipped their toes in senior football. Costello clearly was raw in his couple of burnley starts, hasn't had a look in since reinforcements came in. Okoflex has 30 minutes in total of English senior football…
Agree on general sentiment on Wright. He has never impressed me and hasn’t set it alight in lower leagues. But manager must like him and has a lot more senior football experience, and not too many compelling alternatives, Burns still hasn’t lit it up regularly in league one, his league cup appearances have been excellent but he has a long way to go yet.
They're talking about Sinclair Armstrong whose been have positive impacts from the bench with QPR not Okoflex Armstrong.
Ah my bad, hadn’t read the full thread. Yes Armstrong I guess is an interesting one. Pretty strong forward line now with Connolly, Ferguson there. Odubeko has a long way to go in my book from development but at least he’s starting in league one and has scored. I’d have Armstrong in ahead of Kayode who I don’t see going anywhere quickly, did okay in league two, never has had much of a look in at rotherham, at MK Dons now and hasn’t had much of a look in yet although he’s barely been there. Armstrong has a higher ceiling for sure - unfortunately he lost 6 months of development when his loan in the conference was cut short last year, awful decision as I highlighted at the time. May have been in a different place right now if he had completed the full loan spell
Neither Connolly or Kerrigan are involved in their match day squads today so could be injury related.
How stupid is it that the u21 away game overlaps with the senior game against Armenia?
21s game starts at 6.15pm. Senior game starts at 7.45pm. So the last 20 mins will overlap. Plus good luck trying to watch the game and travel to Lansdowne Road at the same time. And then the real issue is, RTE have shown the last number of key 21s away games - but for them, for any broadcaster, does it make sense to pay for the stream if the viewership is cut like that... So might not even be shown on TV
That 6.15pm has likely changed as the FAI website has it as a 7pm kick off on the article with the squad announcement.
https://www.fai.ie/ireland/news/craw...rael-play-offs
Andy Lyons and Brian Maher both picked up knocks in the last 3 mins of the Derry-Rovers game. Something to watch out for anyway...
Mark McGuiness, David Harrington, Liam Kerrigan, and Luca Connell ruled out through injury and replaced by Garcia MacNulty, David Odumosu, Dara Costello, and Adam O'Reilly.
Didn?t see tonight?s game due to my location unfortunately. Disappointing result. Maher cost us yet again it seems, such a shame we are so weak in this position given the quality elsewhere. Who impressed? Hopefully should have too much for them in Tel Aviv, barring another keeper errorQuote:
Originally Posted by tommy_c12000
Did anyone impress? Dunno. Don?t think anyone played better than you would have expected. Evan Ferguson was pretty good. Coventry was pretty good. Redmond did well considering his debut I guess.
Poor team selection by Crawford. Mistake to go 5-3-2. Midfield lacked penetration. Hodge was fine. Would have been better to have played Smallbone deeper like against Bosnia or whoever it was. Coventry and Smallbone together and Tierney off a striker. Connolly had good moments and I think hit the post twice but his legs look shattered, not sure if he?s unfit or if he?s overworked in Italy but he was getting a toe on balls you?d expect him to reach in his stride.
Lee O?Connor was defensively strong but didn?t offer anything going forward. Wright on the far side offered a bit more going forward but was wasteful.
Mad that it took so long to get Ebosele on the pitch. With 11 v 10, could easily have replaced either a centre back or Lee O?Connor with Ollie O?Neill to add some penetration on the other side was well.
Very disappointing overall. Israel were big and strong but they were very limited and we really struggled to turn our dominance into anything meaningful
Nice summary thanks!
Overall I though it was two fairly well matched sides. For Israel, their keeper and number11 were excellent. First half was even enough but Israel had a good spell leading into taking the lead. Maher will obviously be disappointed with it but he did make a couple of outstanding saves on the counter balance.
I?d agree it was a bit slow at times from Ireland, but that?s been a criticism with this group in most of the games. For two lads making debuts I thought the Joes were both very good. The back three all had good moments. In the middle, Coventry had his standard solid game, Smallbone wasn?t at the level of the previous window, but maybe Israel made stopping him a priority. As mentioned, Hodge is a lovely heads up player and was the one most likely to make things happen.
Wright gets a hard time sometimes but I still like him and understand why he gets picked. He?s get real pace and when it does work for him it causes panic for defending teams, he?s solid enough in his defensive work too. He offer something different to anyone else out there (maybe a bit of the Mageady?s about him in that he?s flaky but will probably still create more than most around him). O?Connor is the one who must be under pressure, hard to say he does anything really poorly but he doesn?t do anything particularly well either. Doesn?t get forward a huge amount and when he does his final ball is not good. He?s just there because of experience at this stage.
Up front, Ferguson reminds me of Coleman when he was under 21. I always got the impression it meant so much to Coleman that he tried way too hard, tensed up and didn?t perform well. I know Ferguson is still extremely young, but he?s looked tense every time he?s played, then his touch lets him down a bit. He improved second half and took the goal very well so maybe now he?ll be able to relax more from the start, his potential is huge. Connolly worked hard, looked by far the most likely to score and was overall pretty decent. It wouldn?t be Connolly if he didn?t frustrate at times and the fact he missed a few chances again won?t have helped his confidence hugely, he desperately needs a few goals for club or country but attitude was good.
Shouldn?t be anything to be feared in the away leg but it?ll be a difficult game. They had some very dangerous attacking player and I think they?ll score again at home, they also had a very good keeper, so difficult to score against. I?d normally be optimistic but I can see Israel winning 2-1 and going through.
wright and o'connor aren't good enough when push comes to shove. think last night showed why o'connor plays where he plays and why celtic didnt fancy him. cant see him ever adding to his senior caps.
O'Connor's under 21 career is fairly incredible looking back on it. Should have been second choice to McNamara in his first campaign and should have been second choice to Ebosele or even Lyons in his second campaign. Instead he's ended up becoming one of our all time highest cap winners at that level. He's fine defensively but offers nothing at all going forward and even his club doesn't play him on the right any more.
I'd say he'll be back in Ireland in a couple of years to be honest.
It was going so well until he made the same mistake many Irish make and signed for Celtic?hopefully other youth players look at him and use him as an example of what a made career decision can lead to (ideally Lawal and Kenny look also and learn to gtfo of Celtic asap.).Quote:
Originally Posted by Eirambler
if people are quick, they'll see Jonny Evans has aged well
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football
Is it just the big screen or will it also be shown on the smaller TV's around the stadium?
two changes - ross tierney in for ferguson, presumably over his fitness concerns. he is on the bench though.
andy lyons in for tyreik wright, i'm guessing as he's more defensively sound.
Disappointing on Ferguson being out. I?ve never been that impressed with Tierney, and he has struggled to establish himself at Motherwell. Whats the game plan, Tierney playing off Connolly? Seems like an odd choice by Crawford. Why not just put in Obubeko?
is it a 5-3-2, or 3-5-2?
I guess O'Connor and Lyons will push up to support midfield and drop back into defence as needed
Code:O'Connor-Cashin-O'Brien-Redmond-Lyons
Coventry-Hodge-Smallbone
Connolly-Tierney
5-4-1?
Trust Crawford to out defence himself - always incredibly defensive... Basically removed a winger and replaced with a fullback and replaced a striker with an attacking midfield... He's gonna hope to nick a goal on the counter (but he's removed all the pace from the team, except Connolly)
They'll probably win now that I've said that but ultra ultra defensive stuff
Yup more 5-4-1 and hope for a result like Sweden away.
Lucky to be level at HT. Israel are far better than us. Connolly completely isolated up front.
Looking like Crawford showing he is out of his depth again? Poor selection and tactics, let?s hope we get extremely lucky, or he changes tactics in second half
It's penaty shoot-out in Israel.
Ireland did well defensively in 2nd half & in ET to keep the scores level.
Terrible penalties..
awful penos , desperate stuff