Armenia V Republic of Ireland - Saturday, 4th June 2022 - 2022/23 UEFA Nations League

Very decent squad, no glaring omissions.

Coventry probably would have been called up if the 21s didnt have important games, and he may still get a call up for the later games. Midfield is the obvious weakness, Hourihane still being around shows the lack of depth. Hopefully in the next season or so we'll see more lads step forward there.

Delighted Obafemi called up to put to bed the "will he, wont he" crap.... there better be no last min injuries there.

Aaron Connolly is currently on the pi$$ on holidays somewhere. We all have the right to go on hols, but Id hope when he gets back hes straight into the gym. He has too much talent to be missing squads. I know theres talk that hes injured, but that excuse has been thrown around about him for the last few Internationals. Its a big summer for him, Im not sure theres a big market for him to even go on loan

Is Sykes injured? If not, his failure to receive a call up seems strange given that he plays in a position where we're light on options and with the season he's had; 8 goals and 8 assists, earning himself a move to the Championship in the process.

I thought McNamara might get the call, too, with Doherty missing. He's had also had a very good season, showing himself to be a really reliable and consistent performer who can also can cover both flanks.

Otherwise, I'm mightily relieved to see Obafemi's name there and pleased to see Ebosele getting called up for the first time. They, Hamilton and Ogbene give us some serious rapid options in attack that could potentially cause any defence problems.

As others have pointed out, midfield remains a major cause of concern. Browne and Hourihane just didn't impress against Lithuania, leaving us hugely reliant on Hendrick and, especially, Cullen. Surely either or both of Coventry or Kilkenny ought to have been promoted.

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Originally Posted by Razors left peg

Very decent squad, no glaring omissions.

Coventry probably would have been called up if the 21s didnt have important games, and he may still get a call up for the later games. Midfield is the obvious weakness, Hourihane still being around shows the lack of depth. Hopefully in the next season or so we'll see more lads step forward there.

Delighted Obafemi called up to put to bed the "will he, wont he" crap.... there better be no last min injuries there.

Aaron Connolly is currently on the pi$$ on holidays somewhere. We all have the right to go on hols, but Id hope when he gets back hes straight into the gym. He has too much talent to be missing squads. I know theres talk that hes injured, but that excuse has been thrown around about him for the last few Internationals. Its a big summer for him, Im not sure theres a big market for him to even go on loan

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will be a while before we see coventry imo. dont think hes near the level yet, needs a solid season of improvement behind him. kilkenny looks miles ahead of him any time i watch the 21s. just a pity he got pushed out at b'mouth. hopefully he gets a move in the summer looks a real talent

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Originally Posted by Trequartista20

As others have pointed out, midfield remains a major cause of concern. Browne and Hourihane just didn't impress against Lithuania, leaving us hugely reliant on Hendrick and, especially, Cullen. Surely either or both of Coventry or Kilkenny ought to have been promoted.

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there would have been moaning from other quarters if either were called up at the expense of the 21s given they can still qualify. was lots of grief given to kenny when he brought up the likes of idah parrott bazunu etc at the end of the last campaign. lets see what happens with the 21s , if theyve played themselves out of qualification after 2 games i wouldnt be surprised if 1/2 are drafted in.

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Originally Posted by Jd2793

will be a while before we see coventry imo. dont think hes near the level yet, needs a solid season behind him. kilkenny looks miles ahead of him any time i watch the 21s. just a pity he got pushed out at b'mouth. hopefully he gets a move in the summer looks a real talent

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Coventry just put a very good season behind him at MK Dons, they loved him there. He might not be that far away.

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Originally Posted by Jd2793

there would have been moaning from other quarters if either were called up at the expense of the 21s given they can still qualify. was lots of grief given to kenny when he brought up the likes of idah parrott bazunu etc at the end of the last campaign. lets see what happens with the 21s , if theyve played themselves out of qualification after 2 games i wouldnt be surprised if 1/2 are drafted in.

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Sure, I get that, but of course the senior team should be always be given priority over the kids and it's not as if the under-21s don't have other quality midfielders to call on, with Hodge, Smallbone, Watson, Hodermarck, Noss, Moran etc available.

Armenian squad announced

Breakdown of it on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armeni...l_team#Players
Pretty experienced, although no player is in double figures for goals. Only two strikers have been named, and one of them - Adamyan - has just won the Belgian league with Brugge
Majority are based in Armenia too

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Originally Posted by Jd2793

. lets see what happens with the 21s , if theyve played themselves out of qualification after 2 games i wouldnt be surprised if 1/2 are drafted in.

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They won’t

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Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

Armenian squad announced

Breakdown of it on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armeni...l_team#Players
Pretty experienced, although no player is in double figures for goals. Only two strikers have been named, and one of them - Adamyan - has just won the Belgian league with Brugge
Majority are based in Armenia too

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VAhan from Pogon Szczecin, who came close to winning a first Ekstrakalasa in Poland is lethal if given space to shoot from the edge of the box. I know because I watched him win a number of games for Pogon, although he dropped off a bit towards the end of the season, for some reason.

He was signed with the money from selling Kacper Kowlsowski to Brighton. If he plays, the defence need to keep tight on him.

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Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

Pretty experienced, although no player is in double figures for goals. Only two strikers have been named, and one of them - Adamyan - has just won the Belgian league with Brugge
Majority are based in Armenia too

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It's interesting to see their form of late. Their last game was a 9-0 defeat in Norway. In the last 12 months, they've drawn with Liechtenstein and Iceland, and lost 6-0 to Germany and 5-0 to North Macedonia. But immediately before that, they'd drawn with Croatia in a friendly, beaten Romania in qualifying and actually gone on a 5-match winning run.

Eloratings has then midway between us and Luxembourg/Azerbaijan, but with Mkhitaryan - their record scorer - retiring in March, I think they may be a bit over-rated. I think I'd be happy enough with a repeat of Luxembourg/Azerbaijan away - a 2-0 or 3-0 win, but made to feel uncomfortable at times during it. An early settler would be nice given how we quickly seemed to get bogged down against Luxembourg away and at home against Lithuania without it.

I've watched a few games including that draw against Lichtenstein they are toothless up front. Had they won that game they were in a very good position to get to the Euros and they'd no shot of note. They're nothing near the Armenia team we've met Before

lichtenstein are one of the worst teams in europe pretty grim if they are struggling to break them down. we should be winning that game comfortably.

Problem with that, is when teams are so poor, they employ low blocks that Ireland find hard to break down...

We'll get more good out of the likes of Ogbene and Hamilton in the Scotland Ukraine games..

Best case scenario.. Scotland beat Ukraine in the play off.. then lose to Wales.. we play both of them while they're on a downer

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Originally Posted by Insidetherock

Problem with that, is when teams are so poor, they employ low blocks that Ireland find hard to break down...

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Old man yells at cloud moment.... I f'ing hate this type of terminology

I don’t know what it means

Is it that they put ten men behind the ball?

According to google;
What is a low block?
The low block is a defensive system where the players defend very deep in their own territory and restrict the space for opposition players to exploit. It is a more static form of defence, as there is not much movement compared to a team playing with high pressing intensity.

so yeah, it's the modern coaching term for defend deep with 10 men behind the ball! It's not the worst footballing term in the world.

Lads I wouldn't ask unless I was desperate but...

Does anyone have a spare ticket for the game in Yerevan? A really good friend (& colleague) of mine (and a sligo fan) is travelling over. I'd arranged to go too, and get tickets through the FAI, but other circumstances have prevailed over the past few weeks and i've not focussed on it and won't travel. I know tickets probably won't be an issue in terms of travelling capacity etc. but if anyone knows of a spare ticket going a beggin, please drop me a pm, I'd appreciate it hugely.
Thanks

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Originally Posted by passinginterest

According to google;
What is a low block?
The low block is a defensive system where the players defend very deep in their own territory and restrict the space for opposition players to exploit. It is a more static form of defence, as there is not much movement compared to a team playing with high pressing intensity.

so yeah, it's the modern coaching term for defend deep with 10 men behind the ball! It's not the worst footballing term in the world.

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basically the two banks of four a la Trap. :)

Its fancy new coaching speak. Kenny is a nightmare for it. My other favorite new one is the midfield "pivot".

I remember years back Jack Charlton was talking about how FIFA had started using the phrase "pressing". He was very annoyed about it, said thats what I invented and we just called it putting them under pressure.

I now finally understand his anger!!!