to be fair collins's record for luton at league one level was impressive, pretty much a goal every other game. dropped to 1 in 3 in his first season in the championship and i think he is in and out of the team now.Originally Posted by CraftyToePoke
paddy madden had a good record at that league one too and couldn't step up. i would say that's a more valid comparison than mitro.
i do think he offers us something though, depending on the opposition.
It's about time more of us were realistic.
TBF, it's not bad - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_...orn_1990)#Club
Averaging a little under one goal every three games for Luton since signing for them
Ah I'm not slagging Collins off, he has a part to play. Just saying Mitrovic, the Real player, the Fiorentina player and Tadic recent CL semi finalist and a key player in his clubs run to that bring a few percent more than our lads in those positions do when the game begins. When we had two Keanes and a Duff we brought that, we don't atm.
Being realistic I'd settle for victories against the two teams ranked below us in this group and being competitive against the teams ranked above us (a bit like last night). However more importantly after this campaign I'd like to think we will be starting the next Euro qualifiers with 5/6 young players who have progressed during this campaign and can be relied upon as regular starters going into the next one. That's what I think Kenny needs to achieve to earn a crack at the Euro 24 qualifiers. Away games against Luxembourg and Azarbajan will be crucial.
But they went down before and he didn't move on?
Collins currently has as many international goals as Robinson, Connolly, Idah, Parrott and Maguire combined. None of which says that he's either world class or terrible but I think he's getting a raw deal from some here.
I thought RTE went a bit heavy on praising Serbia and their players- and then went off an made Alan Browne man of the match, but I digress. Tadic and Mitrovic are not elite are very good footballers and, yes, Tadic caused problems and, yes, we don't have Premiership striker to bring on in Mitrovic and that demonstrates strength in reserve. But go through the rest of their team- Eibar, Strasbourg, Fiorentina, Brugge, Crvena Zvedza, Torino, Valencia, Legia, Sassuolo- it wasn't as if they were absolutely stacked with quality. Mitrovic could have started over Djuricic and maybe the result would still be the same.
We started 7 Premiership players with varying levels of regularity of starts- O'Shea, Coleman, Stevens, Clark mostly in and Robinson, Doherty and Connolly in and out- with Cullen of Anderlecht and Molumby, Browne and Travers. Randolph and Egan improve that team immediately, and McCarthy on a good day.
Overall, we don't have the depth of squad or attacking quality of Vlahovic, Tadic and Mitrovic but that is borne out in a 3-2 result. I'm frankly delighted to see us get a 3-2 result and it is a fair scoreline. If we can find a standout in midfield and a quality striker then who knows how good we can be with a bit of time for Kenny to implement a style. God, I hate to say this, but imagine Rice and Grealish in that team last night....
Interesting to see the switch in formation. I wonder if having Anthony Barry on board helped facilitate the switch. 3-4-3 is a favourite of Tuchel so Barry has been well exposed to it at Chelsea. Granted, we played a 3-5-2 but Browne did push up when he could.
Luxembourg got the same result as us vs Serbia when they played in the Euro qualifiers. Although Mitro and Milinkovic-Savic started that game. Last night was our best change of a result against a Serbia in transition, with a new manager who'd had 2 sessions with them. Both teams were extremely sloppy in possession, not something I was expecting from Serbia, although they had rested some first teamers with an eye on Portugal.
55% possession Serbia 45% possession Ireland. Dominant!!
Mitro, Milinkovic-Savic, Kostic, Jovic were benched with an eye on the Portugal game.
Ya thats a good point they brought the big guns in early when things weren't going as easy for them.
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
I said just after halfway through last night during the game, that Serbia didnt look dangerous, and they didnt really. Our defensive formation was generally solid bar a couple of individual(s)/individual mistakes. I still stick by that, they could leave their best players off for 3/5s of the game. They went up a couple of goals and took their foot off the pedal again. A draw would have been a good result for us, and I feel last night was the best chance in getting that - for the reasons you've highlighted above.
When you look at the premier league and the rest of Europe its performing very well in the European competitions and still attracts the cream of the crop. Serbia's starting 11 had a smattering of players from Italy and Spain but all generally mid table clubs. The rest were dotted around the European leagues. We downplay the premier league when it suits and overstate European leagues.
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
Would Jovic, Kostic and Mitro not be in the front 3? What about Tadic and Vlahovic?
I know. I stated I digressed instead of delving further into the patent contradiction.
You really don't like SK do you sbgawa?
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
Nah, he's been peddling the same stuff for too long now, pushing on a decade anyway.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
No i actually meant it as a genuine comment, you hear players who have played for him saying how motivational etc he was and he comes across terrible in interviews so i kind of meant that cant ne the real him ....if you know what i mean.
There is only so much heart you can take from an hour's decent performance. It feels like a really disappointing result after leading the game, but to be fair the players fought right til the end to salvage something. Serbia never got out of second gear, really, and they do have a lot of quality, particularly in the final third. Tadic has come on so much since leaving Southampton for Ajax and he played with so much confidence last night it was frightening. I don't recall him ever looking as dangerous in the previous two games against them. Maybe the new systems of both teams had a part to play in that?
End Apartheid Now! One Team in Ireland!
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