Heimir Hallgr�msson

Both Festy and Ogbene can be really frustrating with their final ball and I think we've all agreed on multiple threads that it's the reason they're at championship level.

Ogbene went to another level in this window though that we haven't seen before and I think is hitting his prime. Hopefully that maturity brings consistency going forward and could see him make the premier league next year.

Festy is a bundle of emotions and energy and has plenty of development but I've no doubt he will continue to learn and will be a key member of the squad for 2028, which is perfect timing for when I expect Ogbene will start to lose a yard of pace.

I won't argue how frustrating it can be to watch sometimes and it's not the last time he'll inspire me to throw my shows at the television

I'd have Festy in every squad. He's more useful when you're under the cosh defending a lead than when you're chasing a game and the opposition are sitting deep. But in games where we're defending a lead under serious pressure and need an outlet I'd want him on the bench to come on in that situation.

Is he a useful outlet though?

He wasn't in Portugal - was fairly ineffective and that's part of why they had 30 shots in the game - he wasn't a good outlet

He certainly wasn't at home to Portugal - our attacking threat all but stopped the moment he and Idah came on

He wasn't in Hungary - the match threads everywhere (here, boards, reddit, ybig) are full of people calling him out for giving the ball away, converting silly fouls and generally being not much good

Wouldn’t be dropping Festy. Brilliant against Armenia, brutal against Portugal but useful against Hungary.
He offers something different than Coleman. Direct, strong and fast and can be a handful.
He was a nuisance to the Hungarians in the last 10 or so minutes.
And he can cross the ball sweetly too.
His game has flaws for sure but his qualities are definitely worthy of a squad place

Can he cross the ball sweetly though? The cross against Finland to set up Brady was the only time I recall him doing that.

I don't think he was that great against Armenia either btw - better than the other games for sure, but not a chance should he have gotten man of the match ahead of, say, Manning. He caused problems in that game, sure, but causing problems without having any end product will only get you so far.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Can he cross the ball sweetly though? The cross against Finland to set up Brady was the only time I recall him doing that.

I don't think he was that great against Armenia either btw - better than the other games for sure, but not a chance should he have gotten man of the match ahead of, say, Manning. He caused problems in that game, sure, but causing problems without having any end product will only get you so far.

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I was at the Armenia game and the Armenian defenders certainly didn't like Festy. He ran them ragged. Having his running and pace coming off the bench in the last 20 minutes of a match where opposition defence re starting to tire could be crucial.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Is he a useful outlet though?

He wasn't in Portugal - was fairly ineffective and that's part of why they had 30 shots in the game - he wasn't a good outlet

He certainly wasn't at home to Portugal - our attacking threat all but stopped the moment he and Idah came on

He wasn't in Hungary - the match threads everywhere (here, boards, reddit, ybig) are full of people calling him out for giving the ball away, converting silly fouls and generally being not much good

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The match thread here isn't full of people calling him out really. Just you and one other poster I think. March threads in the heat of the moment usually aren't the most reliable sources anyway.

Most comments here, after people have had time to reflect are reasonably positive. Nobody is saying he should start. Worth a place in the squad for me tho. Unless there's another option waiting in the wings I can't think of.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Is he a useful outlet though?

He wasn't in Portugal - was fairly ineffective and that's part of why they had 30 shots in the game - he wasn't a good outlet

He certainly wasn't at home to Portugal - our attacking threat all but stopped the moment he and Idah came on

He wasn't in Hungary - the match threads everywhere (here, boards, reddit, ybig) are full of people calling him out for giving the ball away, converting silly fouls and generally being not much good

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His pace scares defenders - and that is his biggest asset at the moment.

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Originally Posted by ontheotherhand

The match thread here isn't full of people calling him out really. Just you and one other poster I think. March threads in the heat of the moment usually aren't the most reliable sources anyway.

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And Kingdom too, later on and in the cold light of day.

YBIG and Boards are much busier, and universal criticism. (I think reddit was the same but it's a headmelt trying to find anything there, so I can't find the match thread now)

You're right that there's an element of heat of the moment in it for sure. But I think it tells something all the same that every comment was very negative.

I'm not saying anyone is saying he should start. Just that maybe there's one or two in the squad that could benefit from the treatment Doherty/Molumby got.

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Originally Posted by Fixer82

I was at the Armenia game and the Armenian defenders certainly didn't like Festy. He ran them ragged. Having his running and pace coming off the bench in the last 20 minutes of a match where opposition defence re starting to tire could be crucial.

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I was at it too, and I agree the Armenian defenders didn't like him. But again, he still had no end product.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

I'm not saying anyone is saying he should start. Just that maybe there's one or two in the squad that could benefit from the treatment Doherty/Molumby got.

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I think this would be a mistake - he strikes me as the type of kid (and he still is a kid) that needs an arm around the shoulder rather than a scolding.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

I was at it too, and I agree the Armenian defenders didn't like him. But again, he still had no end product.

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Agree that there was no end product - but the chaos he can cause among defenders can create gaps for others.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

And Kingdom too, later on and in the cold light of day.

YBIG and Boards are much busier, and universal criticism. (I think reddit was the same but it's a headmelt trying to find anything there, so I can't find the match thread now)

You're right that there's an element of heat of the moment in it for sure. But I think it tells something all the same that every comment was very negative.

I'm not saying anyone is saying he should start. Just that maybe there's one or two in the squad that could benefit from the treatment Doherty/Molumby got.


I was at it too, and I agree the Armenian defenders didn't like him. But again, he still had no end product.

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Fair enough. In the heat of the match, I wanted Azaz off....so......

Looking back at the game, it was a really strange performance. Outside of Parrot, Kelleher, Coleman and maybe Ogbene, none of the starters were great. They all had good moments but bad moments too. Manning and maybe Kenny were the best of the subs but it was a chaotic team performance against and equally shambolic Hungarian one, particularly in the second half, where neither team seemed to be able to settle. It suited us in the end but mainly because Parrot was flawless.

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Originally Posted by ontheotherhand

Fair enough. In the heat of the match, I wanted Azaz off....so......

Looking back at the game, it was a really strange performance. Outside of Parrot, Kelleher, Coleman and maybe Ogbene, none of the starters were great. They all had good moments but bad moments too. Manning and maybe Kenny were the best of the subs but it was a chaotic team performance against and equally shambolic Hungarian one, particularly in the second half, where neither team seemed to be able to settle. It suited us in the end but mainly because Parrot was flawless.

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There's a difference between chaotic and shambolic.

There's no doubt that it was a chaotic game. But the chaos is a feature, not a bug. It's a deliberate strategy being coached on the training ground and directed from the dugout by the manager.

And he told us he was going to do this back in September.

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Originally Posted by Heimir Hallgrímsson

“If it helps us, I really like more chaos than calmness.”

“I think we have so much energy and so much physical strength in our team that we shouldn't be a calm team. We should use that power to help us win games."

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Are ye forgetting that he already got that treatment for the Portugal / Armenia window and had a meltdown on Twitter?

He ended up being called in to cover someone (can't remember who) and put in a man of the match display.

I definitely think the next step would be arm around the shoulder. "Remember how you responded the last time" etc etc.

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Originally Posted by rebelmusic

Are ye forgetting that he already got that treatment for the Portugal / Armenia window and had a meltdown on Twitter?

He ended up being called in to cover someone (can't remember who) and put in a man of the match display.

I definitely think the next step would be arm around the shoulder. "Remember how you responded the last time" etc etc.

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that was the first window where both him, Molumby and Coleman were left out for Jimmy Dunne, Killian Phillips etc.

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Originally Posted by backstothewall

There's a difference between chaotic and shambolic.

There's no doubt that it was a chaotic game. But the chaos is a feature, not a bug. It's a deliberate strategy being coached on the training ground and directed from the dugout by the manager.

And he told us he was going to do this back in September.

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I remember the quote and referenced it on another thread I think, but, given that we haven't seen much of it until the Hungary game, I'd be wary of giving HH all the credit for this one. Hungary's own nerves played a big part in creating the later chaos as did the general winner takes all aspect of the game. HH did pounce on it though with aggressive subs and deserves praise for that.

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Originally Posted by ontheotherhand

I remember the quote and referenced it on another thread I think, but, given that we haven't seen much of it until the Hungary game, I'd be wary of giving HH all the credit for this one. Hungary's own nerves played a big part in creating the later chaos as did the general winner takes all aspect of the game. HH did pounce on it though with aggressive subs and deserves praise for that.

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I definately saw aspects of it against Portugal. They pushed up very high from the get go, and there were a number of occasions when we just smashed the ball clear into the vast expanse of space between their back 4 and the goalkeeper. Generally speaking the result was their defenders running back towards their own goal in a foot race with Ogbene (which he invariably won), and we supported the attack in whatever way we could and tried to make something happen before they had time to properly set themselves.

We didn't score from it but under the previous regime we would have been trying to counter attack with a few extra passes, the opposition would have time to set themselves, and it would inevitably have broken down in the middle of the field and the pressure would have been straight back on us.

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Originally Posted by backstothewall

I definately saw aspects of it against Portugal. They pushed up very high from the get go, and there were a number of occasions when we just smashed the ball clear into the vast expanse of space between their back 4 and the goalkeeper. Generally speaking the result was their defenders running back towards their own goal in a foot race with Ogbene (which he invariably won), and we supported the attack in whatever way we could and tried to make something happen before they had time to properly set themselves.

We didn't score from it but under the previous regime we would have been trying to counter attack with a few extra passes, the opposition would have time to set themselves, and it would inevitably have broken down in the middle of the field and the pressure would have been straight back on us.

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Maybe we need to distinguish between planned chaos and unplanned chaos. Probably a lot of both on Sunday....but from both teams. I'm still very confused as to why Festy was being asked to fire long throws into the box when he kept falling way, way short of the targets for example. Planned chaos.....or......just a bit of a shambles?

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Originally Posted by ontheotherhand

Maybe we need to distinguish between planned chaos and unplanned chaos. Probably a lot of both on Sunday....but from both teams. I'm still very confused as to why Festy was being asked to fire long throws into the box when he kept falling way, way short of the targets for example. Planned chaos.....or......just a bit of a shambles?

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he was able to do it earlier in the campaign or in a friendly. maybe the armenia home game? i remember being really surprised by his long throw. but he just didn't have the distance at all and it was really obvious that at the very least we needed someone short to flick it on if he didn't make the distance

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Originally Posted by ontheotherhand

Maybe we need to distinguish between planned chaos and unplanned chaos. Probably a lot of both on Sunday....but from both teams. I'm still very confused as to why Festy was being asked to fire long throws into the box when he kept falling way, way short of the targets for example. Planned chaos.....or......just a bit of a shambles?

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I think that was a simple matter of him standing there and ending up taking the throw. Someone should have had the wit to call off the long throw strategy we had while O'Brien was on the field but I've see better teams than us making that mistake.

It reminded me of a certain night when Germany were pushing up to the the half way line at kick outs owing to having scouted Shay Given's weakness at kicking, and continuing to do so after Given was carried off and replaced by Darren Randolph. Even after Randolph demonstrated he had a foot like a traction engine they kept at it and only learned the lesson after Shane Long scored the goal that broke Scottish hearts.

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Originally Posted by elatedscum

that was the first window where both him, Molumby and Coleman were left out for Jimmy Dunne, Killian Phillips etc.

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I stand corrected! Anyway it's the same point, the tough love approach was already done with him