He shouldn't be in the Irish squad. We haven't sank so low that we need to be picking players from League 1 especially when there are better options who are overlooked.
https://www.fai.ie/ireland/news/mcca...drick-progress
Hope for Duffy and Didsy. Didn't realise Cunningham was out with injury. Williams has been centre back most recently. Is it far more likely now that it will be Doherty or McClean? Connolly starting would be fabulous if McClean is left back.
I think a lot of these decision are really a consequence of not having any time to work with the squad and to see players. He went straight into real competitive games. Had to create a squad on the fly and has had little time to experiment or try out different players and different positions. So guys who were initially injured like Long and McCarthy or out of favour at their clubs like Clark were left out in the cold in a way they wouldn't have been if he had worked with them previously.
It's difficult circumstances to work under and considering where we were under O'Neill in terms of performances and results, and in terms of the underage set up, things are so much better than they were 10 months ago. Nonetheless, it all feels kind of reactive to a certain extent. Like, had Clark played against United a week earlier, he would have been called up over Williams, maybe even one day earlier. Maybe the same is true of McCarthy. The Connolly call up was a little similar.
Ultimately to me, it comes down to, who would i trust more if there was an early injury against Switzerland - McCarthy or Cullen and that's McCarthy. Clarke or Williams and that's Clarke. Browne or Arter and that's Arter. Long or Hogan and that's Long. If you're 2-0 up against Georgia, feel free to try embed a Browne or a Cullen if you believe in them and see how they do, step by step, but honestly if end up counting on those lads to contribute to the Swiss game, we could be taking a serious and unnecessary chance....
You've got to feel for Mick - he looks at our experienced and up-and-coming players and thinks "well, McCarthy and Connolly have only made cameo appearances this season, while Long and Clark are barely in their squads" so he leaves them out of the squad, only for them all to start on Saturday and for Connolly to bang in two goals and must have thought "dammit! why couldn't this have happened two weeks ago?!"
Didn't Clark play the 'full 90' for Newcastle the other day?
No, No, No!
1. Connolly had 30 minutes of senior League football and 1 game in the League Cup under his belt, while Parrott had no senior competitive experience
2. Both were involved in the U21 victory over Sweden
3. The Bulgaria game was, at the time, a surprisingly worthwhile exercise, with James Collins and Alan Browne getting their first goals, Josh Cullen and Jack Byrne getting the chance to impress in midfield, an inexperienced central defensive partnership being used that we may now have to depend on, and even the Conor Hourihane left-back experiment having had an effect, as he seems to have built on those minutes he begged Mick for and re-established himself in the Villa midfield.
Connolly's gamechanging performances came after that - it would have been irresponsible of Mick to give them caps at that point. Also, if he was to have given one of them a cap, it would most likely have been Parrott, based on his pre-season.
Things are moving quickly, with regards to the young players, but Mick's timeline is short, so they have to do something special at club level to justify being thrown into the middle of a international qualifying campaign - last Saturday, Aaron Connolly managed that
Would anyone happen to know of any pub in Fukuoka that will be showing the Georgia match this weekend?! I'm heading over for the rugby but am desperate to see the qualifiers. Any Irish bar I have contacted in Fukuoka so far has said they won't be broadcasting it, even though kick-off is 23:00 Japan time.
If anyone happened to know of a place showing Switzerland v Ireland in Kyoto (K.O. 04:45am Wednesday 16th!), I would likewise be really grateful for any tips!
Aren't our games on Sky Sports? That'd increase the number of bars likely to have access to the games. It won't clash with the rugby times.
There'll be live streams too.
Thanks a lot lads. In the end I heard back from the International Bar in Fukuoka which confirmed they'll be showing the Georgia match! https://www.facebook.com/InternationalBarFukuoka/
No such luck so far for the Swiss game which kicks off around 4:45am... needless to say I'll still be up and scouring the internet for viable streams!
RTE have one of the most sophisticated player stream systems going, on AI final day they could handle over 160,000 simultaneous streams worldwide. It's possible to access rte via virtual proxy but the easiest and most practical way is via an iptv sub costing a few euros monthly. Considering though the game is also on Sky and a hundred other tv stations, therefore it's unmissable, it's the internet equivalent of only having to hit a barn door with a banjo.
OK, I acknowledge your prescience Diggs and, in hindsight, it would have been great if Connolly had managed to get a cap under his belt... but at the time it was perfectly reasonable, in the absence of Robinson and McGoldrick, to give the game time to Hogan and Collins, as they were the back-ups in the squad and both needed a cap in advance of these qualifiers - this was also justified by the goal and assist they contributed (I previously joked about Hogan's assist but, in fairness, he was first to react, like any good striker, to the keeper's parry).
Connolly's cameos after the Bulgaria friendly did start to hint that he was getting close to a real breakthrough but, even taking that into account, his performance last Saturday was a fantastic game-changer that made everybody's heads spin a little (in a good way) - we here at foot.ie have been tracking him for a couple of years but I don't think many of us saw that coming. It's great and, yes, I would now feel comfortable with him getting a shot against Georgia if we needed a goal, although I would still understand if Mick gave the responsibility to one of the more established forwards.
I honestly don't think a Bulgaria friendly appearance would change that much. He's a good confident player and relies on instinct. The midfield will be different so for the most part it wouldn't have afforded an opportunity for the players to learn each others' runs etc.
He won the game for the U21s which was more important.
Duffy has been declared fit and is on his way to meet up with squad. I would love to see the lineup look like this :
Randolph
Coleman
Duffy
Egan
Doherty
Robinson
Hendrick
Whelan
Hourihane
McClean
Connolly
I hope fans do appreciate that there has been a trend happening and still in motion that Georgia are edging closer to managing that win at home against us.
I would go with that apart from swapping Cullen for Whelan. Mick may be forced into this if he wants Whelan fresh for the Switzerland game. McClean will give Doherty good protection away from home. Mick will also start Collins - I watched him vs Millwall last week and he really was excellent and the exact type of player we need away vs Georgia. Expect Connolly to come on at the 60-70 minute mark
I'm sick of getting Georgia for exactly that reason. There's only so long we can keep scamming wins off them.
The only bright side at the moment is that performances have improved slightly of late - since Gibraltar H/A anyway. But a performance like either one against Gibraltar and this is absolutely a banana skin.
Am I right in saying, that if Denmark beat the swiss and we win in Georgia
a draw against swiss for us and we are there with a game to spare?
Correct. If the Swiss win, and we win, then all we need is a point to qualify
Is that right?
As it stands -
IRL 5-11
DEN 5-9
SUI 4-8
Ireland beat Georgia and Switzerland beat Denmark gives -
IRL 6-14
SUI 5-11
DEN 6-9
Ireland then draw with Switzerland to give -
IRL 7-15
SUI 6-12
DEN 6-9
We don't play on the 15th November, but Denmark and Switzerland host Gibraltar and Georgia, so let's say two home wins which gives
IRL 7-15
SUI 7-15
DEN 7-12
Then on the final day, we lose at home to Denmark and Switzerland win in Gibraltar to give -
SUI 8-18
DEN 8-15
IRL 8-15
And we miss out on head-to-head, the first of which is head-to-head between the two teams, and here we've got 1 point from two games against Denmark and they have 4.
What am I missing?
That would leave
Ireland beat Georgia and Denmark beat Switzerland gives -
IRL 6-14
DEN 6-12
SUI 5-8
Ireland then draw with Switzerland to give -
IRL 7-15
DEN 6-12
SUI 6-9
We don't play on the 15th November, but Denmark and Switzerland host Gibraltar and Georgia, so let's say two home wins which gives
DEN 7-15
IRL 7-15
SUI 7-12
Then on the final day, we lose at home to Denmark and Switzerland win in Gibraltar to give -
DEN 8-18
SUI 8-15
IRL 8-15
Wouldn't we need a 2-2 draw to overtake switzerland?
https://i.imgur.com/M5Xe75l.png
What happens if there's a hurricane?
I like this happy ending scenario bettter,
Denmark draw with Swiss,
we beat Georgia
We lose to Swiss and draw with Denmark
We qualify with 15 points
Denmark 3rd on 14.
We cant afford to be complacent v Georgia, if they can get a draw v Denmark anything can happen.
Also only just realised the match is at 2pm, I was expecting an evening match!
Anyhow, the Swiss seem to be on a roll.
Georgia manager Vladimir Weiss: "McCarthy plays another system and plays four in the back now, but Ireland play every time like Michael Flatley dancing.
"We will see tomorrow who has better dancers, because Georgia also have good dancers."
What does it even mean I wonder.