Republic of Ireland V Senegal - Friday, 6th June 2025 - Friendly

Did anyone else notice that HH kept referring to it being a 25 man squad and how those extra players were to ensure that any injuries etc we’d be covered with 2 extra players. Except it’s a 24 man squad. And he mentioned that all of Parrott, Szmodics and Festy were currently injured and Seamus, Evan and Smallbone were lacking game time.

“3 weeks is a long time and we opted to go for 25 players and select 25 players for this camp because we know some things will <corrects himself> might happen in 3 weeks”

He <Szmodics> is starting to train, we are hoping he will be ok in June but it is unlikely - that’s one of the reasons we have 25 players”

Now Seamus has picked up an ankle injury, John Joe Patrick Finn has a match 24 hours before our game against Senegal and assuming he’s correct in saying Szmodics is unlikely - we’re now down to a 21 man squad already with 2 injury doubts and 2 lads lacking match fitness

Finn's last club game is eight days before Senegal, no?

Cannon, McGrath and MacNulty seem the obvious - possibly only? - additions if we're still ignoring Championship players outside the playoffs, and if we assume we don't want to go third tier.

Mark Sykes and Alan Browne were/are involved in the championship playoffs too.

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Originally Posted by ~YTM~

Mark Sykes and Alan Browne were/are involved in the championship playoffs too.

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Sykes is banjaxed isn't he ?

Conor Coventry in a L1 final for a place in the Championship on Sunday with Charlton but so is Josh Keely so CC just didn't make the cut I guess.

Yeah, Sykes is injured alright.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Finn's last club game is eight days before Senegal, no?

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Yep. Sorry I read from someone somewhere (here, Twitter, the other place?) that it would “surely rule him out of at least the first game” or something to that effect and then checked the day of the game, saw it was Thursday and assumed it was 24 hours before rather than 8 days before

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Cannon, McGrath and MacNulty seem the obvious - possibly only? - additions if we're still ignoring Championship players outside the playoffs, and if we assume we don't want to go third tier.

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Kinda depends the position. I’d call up McGrath as first port of call considering the initial squad had 10 defenders and just 5 midfielders. There’s few options if you’re avoiding L1 and Championship non-play off players like you said.

McGrath
Garcia McNulty
Cannon
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Browne
Cashin
Gallagher
Ronan
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LOI Players

Finn started the playoff first leg last night but came off at halftime. Don't know if it was tactical or injury-related. Neither massively encouraging I guess

Tactical I believe. Genuinely I'd have Conor Coventry in the squad before him right now based on what I've seen of both of them. Finn probably has more development in him given his age, but I'd say Coventry is better right now.

I think Hallgrimsson is playing to the gallery a bit in picking Finn, but I understand why he has done it. The longer he's left unpicked the more of a "thing" it becomes, with people building him up further into something he isn't. There seems to be a view that he "couldn't be worse than what we have", but that's doing our current midfielders a disservice.

Agree with you Eirambler. There must be something about him if Reims are picking him. But looks too raw for senior international imo. Beaten on the cross that led to the Metz's goal. Has a 20cm+ height advantage on the attacker (Cheikh Sabaly) that beat him on the cross.

Here's a link to the match highlights - obviously only the first half is of relevance from an Irish point of view.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzELAPEoDnI

Yes HH prob playing to the gallery / smart (depending on your view) with this selection. Just what we need, a lad who gets beaten for headers in the box by someone a foot shorter than him. Good stuff.

Young player with great potential makes mistake shocker

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Young player with great potential makes mistake shocker

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Just looking for him to jump up and head the ball away. Its a relagation play off, kinda important.

Yep, as you say, just what we need (for a friendly against Senegal)

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Yep, as you say, just what we need (for a friendly against Senegal)

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The basics would be nice all right yes.

It was a poor piece of play to be fair, he completely failed to impose his size advantage on the attacker. For me he always looks a bit passive when I've seen him play, and kind of like he doesn't really belong at the level he has been thrown in at. My suspicion is that he'll be given a cap in June and assessed by Hallgrimsson, and will then be nowhere to be seen when the big games come around in the autumn.

i actually don't think it's anywhere near as bad as people are suggesting. attacking player is running onto it, has momentum, Finn is initially moving backwards, opens his body up to head it away from goal and leaves a path for the attacker to go straight through. He reaches the right height which is why he doesn't jump. It's a pretty common criticism of zonal marking is that the player underneath the ball is always vulnerable to an oncoming attacker with the advantage of a run.

I think "player beaten to header for goal" is a relatively light stick in fairness; there'd be no goals if no-one was beaten at some stage.

The fact Finn is in and out of a relegation-threatened French side is probably more useful info. Yet to be honest, do we have many better options if we're leaving out playoff players?

In other squad news, Troy Parrott is on the bench for Alkmaar this evening. First time in the squad in seven weeks

In and out of the team yet he has played a lot of minutes for Reims, if you consider where he was prior to joining them. Before the move, the bulk of his playing minutes are with Getafe’s second team – who play in the fourth tier of Spanish football. Spanish football is regionalised from the third tier down with 90 clubs competing in the fourth tier. Difficult to put this in the context of the English football system, but guessing the level of football of Getafe’s second team is comparable at best to a team competing in the 6/7 tier of English football. That’s quite a jump to move from that level to a Ligue 1 team and a senior international call-up.

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Originally Posted by elatedscum

He reaches the right height which is why he doesn't jump. It's a pretty common criticism of zonal marking is that the player underneath the ball is always vulnerable to an oncoming attacker with the advantage of a run.

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He does get off the ground and the attacker connects with the ball to his side rather than above him. For me, he simply does not read the flight of the ball. Get that right, and his physicality and height advantage wins the ball. There is plenty of criticism of players, especially younger players on the forum, and don't really want to add to the negativity but .... there’s just too much rawness in him for my liking and it’s not just this passage of play that concerns me from the bits I’ve seen him play.

Sure a run-out with the Irish international squad shouldn't do him any harm anyway !

Coleman and Szmodics out of the squad; Moran added.

Moran didn't play the playoffs but gets the attacking spot ahead of Cannon, who did

Senegal squad was announced a few days ago
Sadio Mané is the notable omission
https://www.instagram.com/p/DKJ536gtFTF

The game will be available on Amazon Prime for UK-based fans. Not sure if it'll be streamed outside the UK

I know the site was down for a couple of days - but still quiet ahead of tonight's game!

Not altogether sure what way HH is looking at it with so many players left out by choice. We also have the problem of some players just back from injury (Parrott, Ebosele) and probably unlikely to start both games. Is Ferguson even match fit at this stage? RTÉ reckon Knight, Smallbone, Kelleher, Brady are definite starters, while Parrott is doubtful.

So I don't know -

-------------------Kelleher-------------------
O'Brien------O'Shea------Collins------Brady
Doherty----Knight----Smallbone----Manning
--------------------Taylor--------------------
--------------------Idah--------------------

That's a very conservative XI though, but do Phillips/Finn/Moran really have a place in the starting line-up? And it feels there's a real lack of choice in the wide positions. Finn, Moran, Taylor, Phillips and McAteer are all very central players I think? So we're overstocked there.

A lot depends on who's actually fit of course; I'm not considering Festy, Parrott and Ferguson as starters but they could all change things.

Is Azaz injured?

Hard to be optimistic in terms of the result. Expecting a 0-2 but will be happy enough if we're competitive/show some bottle.

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Originally Posted by Fixer82

Is Azaz injured?

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Left out - all the Championship players not in the playoffs were left out (except Brady, because we've no-one else there)

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Originally Posted by Fixer82

Is Azaz injured?

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No, Castore ran out of 'Z's in the print shop

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Originally Posted by Kingdom

No, Castore ran out of 'Z's in the print shop

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Makes sense. they've been asleep at the wheel for too long

https://x.com/IrelandFootball/status...40895144497615

Think the midfield 3 of Knight Smallbone and Taylor has possibilities... not sure about Manning in front 3 though

Starting XI stats
https://www.instagram.com/p/DKka1iZgx3Q

Lots of intrigue with this one.

Not everyday we get to play Robbie Keanes boyhood club Senegal.

Is Mendy starting at keeper? And what do we do with Pape Matar Sarr

McAteer making his case to start the qualifiers in the autumn, looking very lively in everything he is doing.

Looking like a decent football team. Before the goal McAteer had a couple of good moments but was let down by his decision making for the final ball. Senegal look very open at the back.

Senegal's bench is quite strong (stronger than their starting XI I'd say) if they want to go for it second half and keep their 20 match unbeaten run going.

But don't think we should mind that. There's enough positives already to take from a June friendly. Be good to see what would happen if Senegal upped things

This has been as good as we could hope for in a June friendly. We look organized, trying to play good football and having a go. Very impressed

Yeah, you don't want to read too much into it when you can't know for sure how hard the opposition are going at it. But in general it has been good and I'm liking us having the extra out and out central midfielder in there.

Also enjoying our mixed style of play, some nice short stuff, but some smart balls in behind too. Refreshing that we're not wedded to one particular style of play based on a managerial philosophy of how the game should be played, regardless of whether the players we have suit the approach or not.

Regardless of the opposition I like our attitude and what we are trying to do