The commentator said 3 if I heard him correctly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scrufil
The commentator said 3 if I heard him correctly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scrufil
Decent half for a first outing under a new manager. Possession obviously needs to be converted to chances. That half flew by and not too many groans for a hoof ball etc. As a new work in progress, not too shabby. Changes off the bench will effect things, If there is a number changes at HT or soon after the restart. Id like to see just a couple of changes at most until 70mins or so. SK is reluctant to make early changes so we will see.Quote:
Originally Posted by centre mid
Only in the Ireland team would you have 2 centre midfielders who actively hide from receiving the ball.
I like the idea of Idah & Connolly upfront - if we can find someone to pass it to them in dangerous positions, they could really shine, in my opinion.
It’s weird seeing us being on the front foot. It will take some time before it hopefully clicks. With us pushing Bulgaria back it’s not helping Idah (who has held ball up & looks sharp) though. I bet he’d love to run at them with space on offer.
This game must be close to all time fouls per minute record. Very stop start.
FFS. Kiss of death. All from Hourihane playing another poor pass.
Midfield not coverimg themsleves in glory there.
Disappointed with the goal conceded. Egan looks a rolls Royce of a player but probably has to share the blame with Duffy for the space for the goal. Connolly looks so dangerous and we probably should have a couple of goals at this stage.
Still there to be won. I said when Kenny got the job that we’re going to lose more games that we used to draw but that we’ll also win more of them. This game is a decent example.
Bulgaria's second goal in the last year
Both against us.
This is easier on the eye than before, but the same end result for now
Problem is that in tight qualification group, not losing is often more important than winningQuote:
Originally Posted by passinginterest
I'd take a draw here but it doesn't look like we'll get one.Quote:
Originally Posted by passinginterest
Why are we playing at such a slow pace? It’s easy for Bulgaria to shuffle across when it’s walking football.
thank god we've another game in a few days.
Couple of players reverted to type after HT, gonna take a while to iron that out. Hendrick not good enough for International football and hasnt been for a few years. Midfield is gonna be Kenny's biggest headache. Weve good options everywhere else.
Bulgaria are four games into their season. We are in pre season.
It is a bit toothless. In terms of results McCarthy went a long while without a win. This new style is high risk/high return. My only real worry about SK as an international manager is the limited time he has with player to build a system. Its possible one of the few positives of current situation is that a lot of games, in international terms, condensed.Quote:
Originally Posted by passinginterest
I think Duffy’s touch there sums up why. Very tired, added to a new system, players taking an extra touch that shouldn’t be needed. There’s a lot of promise, would be nice to at least draw, but all is not lost either way.Quote:
Originally Posted by shakermaker1982
for all the talk of Doherty/Coleman, Doherty hasnt done a solitary tap this whole game
Nothing
PS, still think we score last minute.. hon Ireland
We’re getting Irelanded here. It’s almost funny the irony of it. The way they’re just piling bodies in the middle of the defence and hit us for a cheap goal.
Ha, and how many times have we conceded a late one like that too!!
Deserved the goal,great delivery
told ye.. im having a deju vu episode here.. i think we score another
Is that a more things change the more things stay the same lol
Phew.
I’d be raging if I was the Bulgarian manager :) the marking for that corner. Jesus.
Will take a point. Midfield needs sorting out. We’ve all been banging on about it for years, I don’t think Hourihane and McCarthy can make the step up needed for this system to be fully effective. Not good enough not brave enough on the ball.
Good goalQuote:
Originally Posted by passinginterest
.made by Brady entirely..fair play to him.
A couple of comments
.every time I looked at Doherty his passing seemed poor but that may not be entirely fair.
Connolly looked bright and capable
Our midfield looked stale is a diplomatic way of putting it.
Stevens is decent
I like Robinson as a supersub
Would have liked to see molumby...
:) indeedQuote:
Originally Posted by Insidetherock
Connolly our man of the match? Looked bright all through. Midfield has a tough job in that system and got tired. Would be interested to see Arter and Molumby getting a run in there too. I though Hendrick was the best of the three first half and Hourihane had some good moments in the second, but none of them consistent enough.
Delighted for Kenny that they got the draw though. Must have been at least 65% possession? Under the last 3 managers we’d have had 30% possession and had to listen to bull about how the Bulgarians are very good technically and we can’t pass the ball the way they do.
A lot more positives than negatives. Midfield continues to be a conundrum. Doherty for me continues to be a perfect fit for Wolves system but not a particularly good RB. Our defening for their goal was very poor but probably more down to Midfield.
Looking forward to the weekend.
I'll take a 1-1 away result ground out with good football over a Trap/MON/Mick/Jack 0-0 away result backs to the wall thing any day.
Connolly was good / very good.
Idah did ok for a young fella making his debut.
Doherty is a much better wing back than full back. I suppose he did not make any serious mistakes and he is relatively inexperienced at international level.
McCarthy was not the Messiah in this game anyway.
1-1. Fair result but I thought Ireland were the better team against what was very limited opposition.
Positives
- We actually tried to play football.
- Connolly looked dangerous on the left.
- Long and Brady looked good when they came on.
- O'Dowda had a very good 30 minutes in the first half.
- Good old Irish goal when we needed it from Duffy.
- Some nice passes from Hourihane.
Negatives
- James McCarthy offered nothing and was rightly substituted.
- Doherty didn't justify his inclusion over Coleman.
- O'Dowda was poor in the second half.
- Terrible defending for the centre backs for the goal, in particular Duffy.
- Little creativity in the team. Only Connolly and Hourihane offered anything in this regard until Long and Brady came on.
I have sympathy for Doherty. It is no coincidence that he looked much better when O'Dowda went off.
In the first half when O'Dowda was doing well, he was cutting inside and retaining the ball. He never found Doherty in space on the overlap, not the underlap for that matter. And in the second half Doherty was just isolated.
Stevens and Connolly dovetailed much better on the opposite flank because Connolly was making more dangerous runs both inside and outside the Bulgarian full back and was able to pull narrow when Stevens went outside him.
Decent first half, faded second half, nice not to lose.
There's a structure to the team in attack, we had 8/9 players in their final third at times, but less so in defence. That system will need midfielders with leather lungs to last the 90 minutes.
Spells of lovely football too. Funny how capable they are of it when allowed/encouraged to do it.
In the end it took a back to basics, good old fashioned headed goal from our centre half.
As a starting point for the Kenny era, not too bad. Connolly is a keeper.
I wouldn't mark anybody's card too harshly just yet. Players fitness levels are varied and for what amounts to a new team, preparations for this game were far from ideal.
Brady did play well when he came on = Good
Long hungry like his old self = Good.
I'm confused - before the game you said Randolph was the only choice for keeper? :)Quote:
Originally Posted by geysir
Hard to know where to start with that, a certain amount to like about the performance but a lot to be frustrated about too. I feel I need to keep reminding myself that this is a longer term project and we can't change our style of play that much over the course of one weekend training camp and expect it all to click. But there are huge issues ahead of Slovakia - that Bulgaria team were absolutely awful and we almost lost to them.
On the plus side it was a welcome change to see us dominating possession and knocking the ball around reasonably comfortably. However, there seemed to be a real lack of urgency to the whole effort, especially during the period of the game between half time and the Bulgaria goal. We never really stretched out the Bulgarian defence at all with our passing - if we can't do it against them we will find it even more difficult against any decent team.
Midfield was really poor, I was disappointed that Molumby didn't start and even more disappointed that he wasn't introduced. We need a player who can pick a pass but also drive us forward in possession and build momentum and at the moment he is our best bet to that. Hendrick as usual didn't do a lot wrong but didn't do a lot at all either, for me he is a squad player at best and we need to take him out of the starting team now. I don't think we can play both him and Hourihane and expect our midfield to go well, we can only have one of them and Hourihane offers a threat from set piece delivery so he's the one to stay in for me. In fairness Brady was lively when he came on and is worthy of consideration also.
I saw enough of O'Dowda to make my mind up that I don't want to see any more of him - he's not good enough. Egan seemed off the pace at the back, both for the goal and another chance a few minutes later he let his man go - needs to do a lot better than that. Doherty didn't really do enough to justify the push for him to start, I'd still be happy enough to see Coleman at right back going forward. Connolly was good though, I like him every time I see him play, especially out on the left.
And, while it was great not to lose, it was a bit disappointing that the goal came from a header straight from a corner - basically in the end we played 85 minutes of passing football and created nothing and then played five minutes of direct stuff at the end and scored.
So at the end of all that we got a goal from a header from a centre back from a set piece and the national scoreline - 1-1. Hopefully we will see a bit of progress and a good few changes to the team for Finland.
We rely on our centre back , he's our most dangerous attacking player. That's a sad indictment of where we are. Mick MC droll tones about get a corner out of it and a goal got very frustrating but it's exactly what happened.
Very little positives to take. Most of the young lads not ready for men's football yet. Connolly not consistent enough. Kenny stuck with what he believed in when it might have been easier to pull on the more senior experienced lads earlier in the game. That's a positive for me. Little else.
I'd like to see the same starting lineup again Sunday so we can give everyone a second chance. And hopefully we're never desparate enough to see James McClean in our team again.
Bit harsh Paul, Rome in a day etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by paul_oshea
A few players certainly reverted to type after HT but its early days. SK onky had them.for a few.days.
I thought we were good. Much better than usual but slightly lacking ideas in the final third.
I would put that down to a few things.
- The team definitely wasn't used to the formation or playing it together.
- Hourihane was not willing to push up high.
- Hendrick was and showed good feet at times but didn't find the killer pass, bar the one when Connolly went offside and that was deflected. I think he'll be good in this formation after a few games in it.
- O'Dowda got on the ball and looked dangerous but very lateral in the first half. It was like he was given instructions to go narrow and let Doherty overlap but that ain't going to achieve much when he is running almost the opposite direction to Doherty. He missed a glorious chance in the first half too when Connolly pulled it back to him.
- Idah did quite well but he was dealing with scraps. I put that down to a lot of the above points. He wasn't fed much decent ball by those around him. And I think Bulgaria set up tightly in the middle too and that wasn't going to help Idah either. But, as I said, he was game and retained the ball in tight situations more often than not.
I thought Egan looked very comfortable. I think Stevens grew into it. I think Doherty grew into it too. Hendrick did not look like a man who hadn't played in six months- he looked really good and much more confident. McCarthy faded but I think the set up will suit him. Connolly is such a player- I really feel he is going to be important for us for such a long time. Brady looked bright when he came in.
Plenty take aways from that. Kenny will have learned a lot. I wish we had won and we could have on another day. But Kenny has learned something about every single player on the pitch tonight.
Looking forward to the next night. I would like to see Coleman get his game, as I think he will. I would like to see Brady in for O'Dowda, Didzy for Idah, Molumby for McCarthy and Browne or Arter for Hourihane.