Way too easy for them, nice finish notwithstanding. Duffy seemed to be caught out though I'd need to see it again.
Way too easy for them, nice finish notwithstanding. Duffy seemed to be caught out though I'd need to see it again.
some fella called Ronaldo just put Portugal 2 to 1 up against mighty Lux
Its so annoying that every other nation on earth with a football team are morw comfortable on the ball than us. Is it a mental thing with us? Is it going to take a while to banish the mindseof the last 15 years?
we've stopped playing.
That’s a criminal wrong ball option from Robinson.
Who is supposed to be the “defensive” central midfielder?? We’ve no midfield in second half
Been better since Knight and Robinson came on
1/10 performance in the 2nd half. woeful.
We'll be told we were brilliant and deserved to win the game.
I see no progress. The players looks scared and frankly disinterested. This is our "reaction" to the luxembourg loss.
Christie has to be the most pointless player in a generation
What was the point of that free? Nonsense.
Real game of two halves.
First half, we had a sense of urgency, a sense of direction about us (and by direction I just mean moving towards the opposition goal).
Second half, all that drained away on about 55-60 minutes, and it was pretty aimless after that, no structure at all.
Could still have won it right at the death though, superb ball to the back post, diving header that was well saved...had to go back across goal with it.
drives me mad when there is seconds to go and players flute around with it...lump it into the ****ing box for ****s sake
Reasonable result. Some improvements to aspects of the performance. Cullen, Molumby, Knight, Bazunu, O’Shea, Connolly, Parrott, Idah have been nicely blooded in. Many more to come in the coming months. Let’s see who pushes on towards the latter part of club season and who emerges over the summer. It will be a painful process, but a worthwhile long-term experiment
Yeah, a criminal waste alright.
Overall, at least it was a draw. And a deserved one. There were positives. Enough? Not to disspell the idea that we're a desperately poor team.
McClean looked likvely, but gave the ball away a lot. Robinson mayn't have been on the pitch. Bazunu was very shaky. Brady is injured again.
I do feel a bit better than I did after the Luxembourg game, but that's not saying a huge amount tbh.
How can there be so much hype about Troy Parrot? His descent through the leagues (Premier, Championship, League 1) looks unstoppable.
I think there is some progress there.
Pro’s
A higher tempo generally (apart from a spell at the start of second half).
A better mix of possession and a willingness to be a bit more direct.
Bazanu. He settled well after his rashness for the overturned peno and the spill at the edge of the box. His distribution is excellent, very sharp. He is confident, decisive and clearly has all the attritibutes to be a top keeper. With him and Kelleher and to a lesser extent so far Travers we have good options in that position going forward when not so long ago it looked a serious concern.
Parrott. In patches at least. Intelligent player.
Cyrus Christie. He done better tonight at RWB than Matt Doherty has at all for Ireland.
James McClean. Been a while since we could say that.
Con’s.
Fading yet again after a positive start. How very Ireland of us frankly this has been an issue now for several years.
Midfield. Jeff Hendrick’s name on the teamsheet may as well just be a gap. I wouldn’t have him in the squad again. Whilst we have promising players in midfield it will take some time you would imagine.
Decision making. It is unbelievably infuriating how often we make the wrong decision in the opposition half again a long standing issue.
His careers not over. But on that performance, he looks destined to spend his time in the lower leagues. What justifies the hype - apart from him being 19?
You know things are really bad when you draw 1-1 with Qatar and people are saying it's a decent result. It's another dreadful result if we're being honest, we're just more conditioned to them now, which is probably just as well given how the autumn games are likely to go under Kenny.
As for Parrott, hopefully he makes it as a decent professional and a solid international, there's plenty of time for him to develop. But he must be the most overhyped wonderkid to ever leave our shores. Was being made out like he was the next Robbie Keane. He is nowhere near the level Keane was at at a similar age. Anthony Stokes was better at 19 than Parrott is.
I wouldn't agree with this. Distribution and decision-making are two very different aspects of goalkeeping. Three or four times in those two games Bazunu showed wojus decision-making, and we're fortunate it didn't cost us. That doesn't get balanced out by some good distribution. I'd be terrified if he were in nets against Portugal.
Yes, we have some good goalkeeping prospects, but he was one of the downsides of tonight for me.
Well look, they are Asian champions and that's not a mickey-mouse tournament. They beat South Korea and Japan to win it. They didn't play well at all, but they're not Oman. I think it was an ok result, and we've been short enough on them lately that I'm ok with that. Certainly it wasn't a great result by any stretch.
Tbf I didn’t say he got his decisions right just that he was decisive. I think perhaps too keen as someone else has mentioned but it is a very good sign to me at such a young age playing for his country for the first or second time he is willing to back himself and make those decisions. I would have no concerns that over the next couple of years he will couple that decisiveness with timing.
Obviously Randolph still solidly #1 and Kelleher given his performances at a high level is ahead of him but I seen all the attributes there to suggest the lad is or will be a very good keeper.
Poor Kenny is totally lost
Do I think I'm harsh? Nope. Three or four howlers in the two games and he's been lucky to get away with them. Great prospect, but he's not a positive from tonight's game.
Decisively wrong isn't much good to us!
I hope he does learn from it. But he's got a lot to learn still. I can see why he's conceding two a game at Rochdale for example.
I think some folks are so desperate for green shoots that they're wilfully ignoring mistakes from Bazunu.
I thought the good tonight included Duffy, McClean, Coleman, O'Shea, and Long. Flashes from Christie, Knight and Brady too, and a solid shift from Horgan. Robinson was dire. Molumby wasn't great. Bazunu was shaky. Parrott didn't catch my eye much, for good or bad. All I saw tonight was a suggestion that Kenny made a bags of the team selections last week in the games that mattered. I said before the game that a score draw would be a good result, and I stand by that.
Was just having this debate on Facebook with some guy asking why does Kenny never start Parrott. I pointed out Troy has scored just 1 goal in the last 2 seasons (23 club games) that one goal came in the 3rd tier.
Definitely has potential and looked good at youth level but need to be taking the next step up soon, From what i have seen he is a best a championship player
seems like the overall narrative was that we played well and 1-1 was a decent result.
I don't understand.
Leaving out Shane Duffy and Hendricks was clearly a mistake by Kenny. McClean was not fit (so maybe understandable) but Long should have got more time as well.
You were a little concerned by Bazunu to begin with weren't you? Questioned whether he was highly rated at Man City etc?
He kept us in the game against Luxembourg with some fine saves at point blank range. He's also made a few overly committed moves. Howlers is a stretch. Nothing got through him for a goal did it? Few dangerous passes out. Few balls claimed that he might have left. He's 19. I think anyone who didn't already have an opinion formed probably thinks he did well over the two games. The ones I know do at least. On here most seemed to want to stick with him after Lux. Those looking for errors will highlight them and those who believe in him will forgive the errors and focus on the saves, the confidence and the fact he only conceded two great strikers.
He looked much more comfortable than Travers and at 19 I think he will get better and better.
I don't know if it was even intended to be spiky. It felt to me like Kenny went out there to make some points in the face of plenty of criticism and he needed to warm himself up before forcing out those points. Calling out his record at Dundalk and with the Irish under 21s to imply he is a serial winner didn't do anything to amend the results we have seen since he became senior manager.
I like him and have sympathy for him in the circumstances but beating your chest to a remote interviewer doesn't serve much of a purpose. Kenny would be better off accepting that the noise of the last few days is inevitable and, based on the results, justified. Just work towards fixing it.
19 games it took Michael O Neill to win one for the North.. 19.. including a loss to Luxembourg
And two years later, he got them to the Euros
Player wise, what has Kenny got that we haven't seen yet?
We're hammering 19 y olds for not being world beaters ffs
He has done that repeatedly and mentioned twice again in his post match interview this evening how he/they are not happy at failing to beat Luxembourg.
TO’D ends the interview by saying “well said” to SK are to we take from that he is in agreement with him? Not usually how an interviewer would wrap it up.
Not quite.
He won his 10th game, vs Russia in a WCQ.
Granted, it was another 8 games before he won his next(!), but that second win was away to Hungary, the opener of the ECQ's where they went on to win 6, draw 3 and lose just the once to top the group.
The real point being that even during that winless sequence, he never quite "lost the dressing room", even if he did lose/discard one or two individuals along the way.
I'm not qualified to judge SK, but if he is to have any chance it is essential he sticks to his guns with whatever he wants to do, since players need certainty, all the more when they are young and results aren't going their way.
This interview with Michael O'Neill summed it up for me:
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/news...er/ar-BB14NIVM
I actually found that interview gave me a bit more confidence in Kenny. He came across as far from beaten to me and determined to get it right.
I hope he does.