Republic of Ireland V Bulgaria- 10th September 2019 - Friendly

Easy game to come into, but Byrne did well. I like Jack, good player and may have sorted his attitude out as he matured. But I wouldn’t take him seriously as an international prospect until he has proved himself outside of the league of Ireland.

I have high hopes for the LOI standard to improve with the right backing and mgt structure as FAI sorts itself out, especially with so many great people working hard at the grass roots level. But objectively, there has been minimal improvement in my life time. There’s no reason why the league can’t get close to the standard of the Scandinavian leagues, if that happens then I’d have no qualms with LOI players being selected for senior team on a more regular basis. Now, I view the selection of LOI players as a barometer of the poor strength in depth of our national team.

First time we have scored 3 since St Patrick's hattrick v the devil, if I recall correctly.

I think we are entering a new era of high scoring high possession high trophy football.

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Originally Posted by tricky_colour

First time we have scored 3 since St Patrick's hattrick v the devil, if I recall correctly.

I think we are entering a new era of high scoring high possession high trophy football.

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Someone is high again anyway! :D

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Originally Posted by tricky_colour

First time we have scored 3 since St Patrick's hattrick v the devil, if I recall correctly.

I think we are entering a new era of high scoring high possession high trophy football.

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Is that Grass or Moroccan black hash? It's good it's very good whatever it is

I'm home.

The first half was terrible. Bulgaria were terrible throughout apart from that lad with the hair.

For once in one of these games the flurry of subs after 60 mins brought things to life rather than killing things off.

I'd say Browne, Cullen, Collins & Byrne moved up the queue after tonight. Hogan & Curtis went the other way. The others were treading water.

Except that Cullen was playing in central midfield I thought he had a touch of the Ray Houghton about him. Certainly looked like him .

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Originally Posted by samhaydenjr

And now it's a B international... the one thing we all didn't want it to be... Ah Mick, I think you're great, but seriously... is this the best use of a single friendly in the middle of some vital qualifiers, when your main team is still pretty makeshift? Watch now, Travers will save a penalty, Long and Egan will be rocks in defence, Hourihane will be a revelation, Browne and Cullen will dominate midfield, O'Dowda will torment the Bulgarian defence and Hogan will get a brace in a 3-0 win:D

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Sorry Mick, for ever doubting you... this turned out to be a really worthwhile exercise - first cap for Cullen, who got MOTM, Collins, who scored, and Byrne, who gave added impetus in the second half and showed that he may yet prove to be the player we hoped he'd be. First goal for Alan Browne and Kevin Long (and assists for Stevens, Byrne and, er, Hogan). OK, Travers didn't save a penalty but, in fairness, it was a really good penalty. And as for Hourihane... well, he asked Mick for minutes and got them. On this performance there's definitely no need to raid the U21s for added depth... from 'keeper to striker, we now have a bunch of lads that are ready to go if called upon.

https://twitter.com/FAIreland/status...058551808?s=19

There were murmurs his attitude wasn't up to scratch but this interview shows a very grounded and humble young player commenting on his senior debut. I like the look of Byrne. I wonder where he will go next.

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Originally Posted by Olé Olé

https://twitter.com/FAIreland/status...058551808?s=19

There were murmurs his attitude wasn't up to scratch but this interview shows a very grounded and humble young player commenting on his senior debut. I like the look of Byrne. I wonder where he will go next.

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Barcelona perhaps.

Byrne's 23 now, so a lot of the behaviour attributed to him was when he was in his late teens. There’s research lately that suggests adolescence lasts up to about 24 years, and I’d swear that later maturity is more common among my students now than when I started lecturing around 2001, or when I was in my early 20s a few years further back.

Go back 30 years, a player’s career was about 18-31. Now it’s taking off around 21 and lasting till about 34/5. It can’t be just the physical development that’s taking longer.

First half was grim, second half we improved and Bulgaria looked grim instead.

Not too much can be read into a friendly against a mediocre team - usually you can only learn who's not up to the level, or at least, not up to it in a particular position, but we learned that Byrne didn't look out of place at all against opposition of a much higher level than LOI.

Fully agree with that assessment Osarusan. Can't read anything into it, and though Cullen and Byrne looked good at that level, they wont find the space or time on the ball against the swiss or even the georgians. Physicality will play a big part too for those players. Lets wait and see, hopefully they get a chance against Georgia though.

Worth noting that their keeper was one of the worst I've seen in a while. The Gibraltar keeper who scored that og a couple of years back, and the infamous Turkish keeper (Omer Catkin) who was subbed on and off again, are the two comparable ones. Unusually, he was a 37-year-old making his international debut. But he was all over the shop for the first two goals. Would we even have won the game without him? How strong was that Bulgaria team overall?

But they're the standard caveats in games of this nature. Happy to take the positives, such as they are, with Byrne being first among them, and a style of play that wasn't eye-gaugingly bad.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Worth noting that their keeper was one of the worst I've seen in a while. The Gibraltar keeper who scored that og a couple of years back, and the infamous Turkish keeper (Omer Catkin) who was subbed on and off again, are the two comparable ones. Unusually, he was a 37-year-old making his international debut. But he was all over the shop for the first two goals. Would we even have won the game without him? How strong was that Bulgaria team overall?

But they're the standard caveats in games of this nature. Happy to take the positives, such as they are, with Byrne being first among them, and a style of play that wasn't eye-gaugingly bad.

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Don’t knock over the half full glass !

Is Mick serious about bringing Stephen Ward back from retirement? or did I pick that up balls ways

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Originally Posted by Diggs246

Is Mick serious about bringing Stephen Ward back from retirement? or did I pick that up balls ways

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Seemed pretty serious to me. He said similar about bringing back Daryl Murphy though, and that never happened.

For people saying that Byrne only did it against poor opposition, the rest of the players were playing against the same opposition and didnt look as good! Judge was on the pitch a lot longer than Byrne and was pretty poor I thought. That would be the position that Byrne would be targeting since Judge was the one that Mick turned to off the bench against the Swiss.

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Originally Posted by seanfhear

Don’t knock over the half full glass !

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The keeper has spent a good chunk of his career in the Bulgarian lower leagues! :p

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Originally Posted by Razors left peg

For people saying that Byrne only did it against poor opposition, the rest of the players were playing against the same opposition and didnt look as good! Judge was on the pitch a lot longer than Byrne and was pretty poor I thought. That would be the position that Byrne would be targeting since Judge was the one that Mick turned to off the bench against the Swiss.

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I was fairly underwhelmed by Judge over the 2 games. To me it looked like this level is maybe beyond him.

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Originally Posted by backstothewall

I was fairly underwhelmed by Judge over the 2 games. To me it looked like this level is maybe beyond him.

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Have to agree. The Indo gave him a player rating of 8 - I don't know what they saw to rate him that high.