2023 UEFA Under-21 Championship

Finished 2-0 to the Swiss. Plenty of effort from Ireland but no real quality in the final third. A familiar story unfortunately.

There were a few encouraging showings - I thought Johansson, Grant and the two wide players, Wright and Ebosele, looked good in the first half.

I'd have to say though there are a few others who have been around Ireland underage squads for a long time who look to have stalled in their development and probably won't feature at senior level. In a few cases you can clearly see the players that have gone out and played senior football kicking on and the ones that have stayed at Under 23 level stalling more often than not.

Ireland faded for the third quarter. Came back into it a little in the final quarter.

Overall, not a bad performance and some moments of quality and decent play and players. Lacked spark in the final third, whether due to lack of a penetrative 10 and 9 or lack of familiarity or time together amongst the squad.

Overall, I would not complain too much but hopefully the side can retain enough players to be more competitive in the qualifying games. Says I, seeking Johansson to move on up.. but I just think he would benefit a lot from that.

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Originally Posted by Eirambler

Finished 2-0 to the Swiss. Plenty of effort from Ireland but no real quality in the final third. A familiar story unfortunately.

There were a few encouraging showings - I thought Johansson, Grant and the two wide players, Wright and Ebosele, looked good in the first half.

I'd have to say though there are a few others who have been around Ireland underage squads for a long time who look to have stalled in their development and probably won't feature at senior level. In a few cases you can clearly see the players that have gone out and played senior football kicking on and the ones that have stayed at Under 23 level stalling more often than not.

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Yes, Wright, Ebosele, Grant and Johansson were my picks too.

As I said, I feel like Wright improves every time I see him. He keeps packing on the upper body strength. There was a side profile view of him in the second half and his shoulders are very round. On top of that, he has good delivery and pace and seems very aware in his movement. Hopefully he gets a campaign in League One or the Championship this season.

Ebosele is seriously game. Loves a tackle. Loves a dribble. Can find a pass. Prospect.

Overall it was to be expected, you could tell that Switzerland were far more cohesive and you could tell in how relaxed they were as everything came naturally for them, whereas we tried to make things happen too soon. There were good individual moments, we just need to mould a cohesive team from what we have and hopefully we get afew experienced players involved.

Interesting that the two Swiss scorers have around 100 top flight club appearances between them. That's better than a good chunk of our senior squad. Just shows again the value of having a proper domestic league.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Interesting that the two Swiss scorers have around 100 top flight club appearances between them. That's better than a good chunk of our senior squad. Just shows again the value of having a proper domestic league.

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Both had less than the Irish CF

Apparently this is the only match the Swiss u21s are playing so obviously they must have went full throttle whereas we will likely rotate more.

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Originally Posted by CSAD

Both had less than the Irish CF

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No they didn't? Kayode 64 league games, none higher than League Two. Stergiou has 75 league games, all in the Swiss top flight which is probably a higher level

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

No they didn't? Kayode 64 league games, none higher than League Two. Stergiou has 75 league games, all in the Swiss top flight which is probably a higher level

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Apologies, when you said goalscorer I thought you meant CF for some reason.

Unless you are talking about PL/bundeliga/La Liga level I don’t think the level is all that important at this stage in your career. It’s like being in college studying pre med but working as a cashier in Costa, it’s about adding work experience to your CV even if the job isn’t all that extravagant compared to the career you want.

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Originally Posted by Olé Olé

Finn is not committed. Absolutely ridiculous. Should never be called up again.

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The childishness and immaturity of some of the responses on here are ridiculous.

Finn is 17 - he is a minor - neither he nor the FAI have any say in what his mother wants or doesn't want for him. I commend her for ensuring that her son receives an education before committing to football.

Furthermore, nobody would even be discussing Finn if Ryan Nolan hadn't signed with Gatafe 9 months ago - give the kid a break and stop with the nonsense.

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Originally Posted by Jolly Red Giant

The childishness and immaturity of some of the responses on here are ridiculous.

Finn is 17 - he is a minor - neither he nor the FAI have any say in what his mother wants or doesn't want for him. I commend her for ensuring that her son receives an education before committing to football.

Furthermore, nobody would even be discussing Finn if Ryan Nolan hadn't signed with Gatafe 9 months ago - give the kid a break and stop with the nonsense.

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Hang on, was the original poster serious?? Presumed he was joking.

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Originally Posted by Jolly Red Giant

The childishness and immaturity of some of the responses on here are ridiculous.

Finn is 17 - he is a minor - neither he nor the FAI have any say in what his mother wants or doesn't want for him. I commend her for ensuring that her son receives an education before committing to football.

Furthermore, nobody would even be discussing Finn if Ryan Nolan hadn't signed with Gatafe 9 months ago - give the kid a break and stop with the nonsense.

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Sarcasm radar failure here I'd say, might want to get yours serviced there JRG :)

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Originally Posted by CSAD

Apologies, when you said goalscorer I thought you meant CF for some reason.

Unless you are talking about PL/bundeliga/La Liga level I don’t think the level is all that important at this stage in your career. It’s like being in college studying pre med but working as a cashier in Costa, it’s about adding work experience to your CV even if the job isn’t all that extravagant compared to the career you want.

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Yeah, I think it's good that Kayode is playing senior football at all, though Conference North is a low level and I'd probably not count those games. But even it's a different game compared to playing underage stuff all the time.

But some of the Swiss guys have much more exposure again - Imeri, Sohm, Stergiou with 50+ Swiss top flight games already. Okafor is their star player but wasn't involved today; not sure why. It kind of puts the hype about, say, Conor Coventry into perspective when his equivalent experience is 7 games with Lincoln. I think no-one in the squad bar Kayode has more than 25 senior league games. The reports I've seen indicate the Swiss were comfortable winners, and it's probably not surprising as their players do seem to be a step ahead in their careers than ours.

On a similar note btw, Colm Whelan set a goal for UCD in our 3-2 win in Athlone on Friday and really should have scored one himself too. You can see clips below at 1:25 and 2:25. Again, this is the LoI First Division, and you have to keep that in mind when evaluating him!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I21_RouOhw

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Originally Posted by Jolly Red Giant

The childishness and immaturity of some of the responses on here are ridiculous.

Finn is 17 - he is a minor - neither he nor the FAI have any say in what his mother wants or doesn't want for him. I commend her for ensuring that her son receives an education before committing to football.

Furthermore, nobody would even be discussing Finn if Ryan Nolan hadn't signed with Gatafe 9 months ago - give the kid a break and stop with the nonsense.

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He's not committed to Ireland. If he can write his name and kick a ball then what education does he need? Ludicrous. Should never be called up again.

I'm bloody joking, pal. You're really searching hard to get your hit of outrage.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Yeah, I think it's good that Kayode is playing senior football at all, though Conference North is a low level and I'd probably not count those games. But even it's a different game compared to playing underage stuff all the time.

But some of the Swiss guys have much more exposure again - Imeri, Sohm, Stergiou with 50+ Swiss top flight games already. Okafor is their star player but wasn't involved today; not sure why. It kind of puts the hype about, say, Conor Coventry into perspective when his equivalent experience is 7 games with Lincoln. I think no-one in the squad bar Kayode has more than 25 senior league games. The reports I've seen indicate the Swiss were comfortable winners, and it's probably not surprising as their players do seem to be a step ahead in their careers than ours.

On a similar note btw, Colm Whelan set a goal for UCD in our 3-2 win in Athlone on Friday and really should have scored one himself too. You can see clips below at 1:25 and 2:25. Again, this is the LoI First Division, and you have to keep that in mind when evaluating him!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I21_RouOhw

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He’s playing L2 but will possibly be playing L1 next season. He does have the look of a player who will be a real late bloomer so while he isn’t doing amazingly now he is definitely someone I’d keep an eye on, a lot of championship clubs were sniffing around so they see it also.

It’s not just club level though, everyone outside of the defense had atleast 6 appearances I believe compared to Ireland who bar Coventry had no more than 3 and it was telling throughout. Coventry seriously needs to think about his career now, either leave on loan or leave altogether if the opportunity for first team minutes isn’t there. Over the 90 they were but between the two goals it was very even but Ireland were very rusty and struggled to get Into the match until about the 20th minute and after that looked more than a match albeit struggled to create chances and after the second went in it knocked the stuffing out of the team and Switzerland looked comfortable after that.

Yeah Colm is doing great, at his point in his career he is in the right place but hopefully in the next few years he steps up the ladder.

"He'll possibly be playing L1 next season" really isn't a ringing endorsement in fairness.

Given how bad the senior team is, we need a bumper crop of 21s for a couple of years in a row to build the seniors up again. Yes, there's promising players there and we'll pick up a couple of senior regulars out of it. But the experience of the Swiss team puts our lot in perspective. It'd have me quite concerned for the future.

Not sharing the doom and gloom. Missing perhaps a more influential player in the 10 position, and granted there was a relatively high degree of slopiness in our play (goals were avoidable imo and dead ball deliveries were poor), but I think there's more positive than negative aspects to be taken from a work in progress. But we'll see how we get on in the next 2 games.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

"He'll possibly be playing L1 next season" really isn't a ringing endorsement in fairness.

Given how bad the senior team is, we need a bumper crop of 21s for a couple of years in a row to build the seniors up again. Yes, there's promising players there and we'll pick up a couple of senior regulars out of it. But the experience of the Swiss team puts our lot in perspective. It'd have me quite concerned for the future.

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He was playing league 2 so playing league 1 is the next step in the ladder, it’s about playing games at his age rather than excelling at his age.

You should also take into perspective that the Irish u21s are missing 10+ players whereas the Swiss were only missing 3 (Okafor,Ndoye,Omrageric) players who’d realistically be in contention. That’s perspective.

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Originally Posted by CSAD

He was playing league 2 so playing league 1 is the next step in the ladder, it’s about playing games at his age rather than excelling at his age.

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That's a bit of a leap of faith in fairness.

Also a big difference between playing Conference North and Swiss Super League. Yes, playing games is important, but it's not the be all and end all. The level matters too.

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Originally Posted by CSAD

You should also take into perspective that the Irish u21s are missing 10+ players whereas the Swiss were only missing 3 (Okafor,Ndoye,Omrageric) players who’d realistically be in contention. That’s perspective.

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I did take it into consideration when I mentioned the senior squad in my original post. The U21s in the senior squad with fewer league games include Bazunu, Parrott, O'Connor, Omibamidele, Molumby, Knight and Idah. The U21s in the senior squad with more league games are...no-one. Then you can add in Kelleher, Travers and Connolly who have also played fewer games and I'm not sure if they're still eligible.

But we have to go down the foreign academy route because we don't have a sufficiently strong domestic league to bring new players into, and other nations are showing us up for that. We can't keep putting all our eggs in one basket.

How good is the Swiss league? Comparable to League One?