2023 UEFA Under-21 Championship

I think there's a bit of damning with faint praise with regard to the Under 21 record caps holder. It's usually a player who breaks through at a young age but then doesn't kick on to the senior squad as soon as would have originally been expected. Lee O'Connor is probably a prime candidate in this squad as Coventry may get promoted soon the way he's going at club level.

I don't think most of the players who have missed out can have too many complaints. Noss and Johansson haven't progressed at club level and McEntee isn't that good - he strikes me as a bit of a poor man's Shane Duffy who doesn't really fit the way we want to play the game. Will Ferry must have been close to a pick though, he can possibly feel hard done by.

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Originally Posted by Eirambler

I think there's a bit of damning with faint praise with regard to the Under 21 record caps holder. It's usually a player who breaks through at a young age but then doesn't kick on to the senior squad as soon as would have originally been expected. Lee O'Connor is probably a prime candidate in this squad as Coventry may get promoted soon the way he's going at club level

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Apart from the 3 lads mentioned, Shane duffy is the only other person I know to get 20+ caps, Cullen with 19. I guess that’s not the worst top 5- although I could be missing some people

1. Barrett
2. Coventry
3. Duffy
4. O’Connor
5. Cullen

Dean Delany and Shane Redmond have 21 u21 caps according to wikipedia. Duffy 20 caps.

https://www.the42.ie/michael-obafemi-4-5712620-Mar2022/ bit more info on the squad

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Originally Posted by liamoo11

https://www.the42.ie/michael-obafemi-4-5712620-Mar2022/ bit more info on the squad

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Am I right in saying that if the u21s were talking to him about a call up, kenny won't be calling him up or am I reading too much in to it?

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Originally Posted by Diggs246

Am I right in saying that if the u21s were talking to him about a call up, kenny won't be calling him up or am I reading too much in to it?

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It sounds a bit to me as if the 21s discussions were going back to previous international Windows.

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Originally Posted by Diggs246

Am I right in saying that if the u21s were talking to him about a call up, kenny won't be calling him up or am I reading too much in to it?

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That was my first take. Hard to know when only reading the print.

For anyone interested, Sweden has named their U21 squad and the bulk is pretty much the same as the November game. But Elanga (ManU) has been moved up to the seniors and 16 year old Roony Bardghji is included for the first time (huge hype surrounding this kid).

In the games in our group last night, Bosnia beat Luxembourg 1-0 last night - https://www.uefa.com/under21/match/2...vs-montenegro/ - and Italy drew 1-1 with Montenegro - https://www.uefa.com/under21/match/2...egro-vs-italy/

The U21s will be missing a few lads tomorrow. Ebosele (family issues), Smallbone (illness), and Ferguson (injury) were all confirmed as being out yesterday. Probably why Darragh Burns and Killian Phillips were brought in the other day. Joe Redmond was called up yesterday when that news broke which seemed weird at the time.

Though Kenny Kids tweeting this morning that Crawford has confirmed that he'll also be without Eiran Cashin who misses the game due to paperwork issues. His international clearance hasn't come through in time and Redmond was to replace him.

Squad could use a) Noss replacing Smallbone as an option to come off the bench for Tierney b) a winger - one of Kerrigan, Ferry, Okoflex, Moylan, Omochere - replacing Ebosele. Right now Wright and one of Burns or O’Neill starts, both are young for the level and relatively unknown entities and could fall flat. C) one of Johansson or Connell coming in instead of Phillips. Same, don’t think you can ask that many players to step up in a single game and if I was asking anyone, it’d be Mipo.

Hopefully it's a back three and not 4-3-3 like suggested elsewhere.

Interesting time to go to 3 at the back. Crawford strikes again. 3 points and I’ll shut up

Great start and super finish by Tierney.

0-1 up - missed the goal. It's snowing.

ross tierney after 12 - literally just missed it thanks to the sh!tty player

Good half. Lot of Swedish pressure after our goal but a comfortable performance so far. We look like we could catch them on the break, Odubeko has been fairly quiet so far though, albeit in a fairly isolated role. Coventry and Kilkenny been very good in midfield. McEntee having a stormer at the back and Maher with a couple of very confident high ball claims.

lot of pressure from Sweden, without it going anywhere. To give him credit, Maher has been imperious in the air. Last 5 mins of the half we got back on the front foot, great to see.

Good first half. I would have been worried about asking the players to change shape without much time with it, given they’ve played a 4 at the back for the whole campaign and for 19s and 17s before it.

I do think the shape is contributing to our inability to keep any possession. Hopefully Kayode’s fresh legs will relieve a little pressure. Sweden have turned the screw a few times and it feels like a goal is coming, but so far, they haven’t really created many chances in the second half despite their dominance

Ooh, that was a definite pen. Blessed.

I think I’d do Burns for Tierney for the last few. Could use some fresh legs and speed to relieve the pressure