been dominant the last ten mins.
Liking the look of these changes too.
been dominant the last ten mins.
Originally Posted by backstothewall
It always does. I'd love to see stats how how many games we've started with two in midfield in the last four years, and what our outcomes have been in those games. And yet we've gone and done it again. I just don't get it. If you've got a weak area you need to reinforce it - ours is central midfield.
I knew praising the keeper at half time was going to come back to bite me...game was gone anyway i suppose.
Ah jaysus. Way to spoil a great game Kelleher...
Just lump it forward and we might get an equaliser
Tough to watch. We are a long way off from being anywhere close to qualifying for any major competitions.
Good attitude after conceding. Some really good fight and constructive play in parts. Shame to give away such a sloppy second. Positives in the overall defensive organisation, the chances created and putting them under pressure after going behind. Negatives in poor enough first half getting outnumbered in midfield and we manage to give away another gift of a goal. I guess some bad habits die hard.
Maybe the secret to our relative success from 1986 to 2016 was that we never ended up in a group with Greece.
wasn't too impressed by troy sadly. Taylor looked decent. festy a downgrade on chieo. a mixed bag. scales and collins look to be the centre half pair going forward, both played well.
Hari-kari stuff there at the end ~ First from Scales and them from Kelleher ~ Ended up a disaster from Kelleher.
Hopefully these players learn and learn fast !
Quite easy to sum it up. We remain way off the required standard, technically. And our ball control is woeful. On the other hand, Greece were well ahead of us in these two departments. That is why they won and we lost.
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts !
I'm more optimistic after this break than the previous one because I think the new man is starting to impose his style on the side. That said the individual errors are killing us.
I was annoyed with the commentary to say the Greeks were tiring after their efforts in Wembley, forgetting that we too had a game the same night.
If they can bring the same attitude into the Finland game we'll be alright.
Greece are just a lot better than us at this point in time. That's a better organised Greece side than Poyet's version as well.
We really have had some awful luck with group draws in the last few years. Drawing both France and Netherlands in the Euro qualification draw, followed by England in the Nations League draw was bad enough. But to draw Greece as a lower seed in addition to that both times was beyond unfortunate. You could hardly have hand picked worse draws for us in those two groups.
If we can find a way to stay in the B division in spite of the group draw we got, we'll have done well. But knowing us if it comes to a relegation playoff we'll get the team from the Sweden/Slovakia group. It's just the way it's going for us at the moment.
In terms of the on field stuff, if the penny hasn't dropped about resourcing midfield at this point then I honestly give up. If it's McCarthy still imposing his tactical expertise that's behind it then he should be left in Piraeus to find his own way home and not be seen again. But that's speculation obviously, and the buck stops with Hallgrimsson. Basically unless we're playing Gibraltar we have to have at least three in midfield in every single game. I know I must sound like a stuck record repeating this at this point but it's beyond a joke at this stage.
That's a really good Greece team and we played pretty well in parts. Been seeing a lot worse. If that sounds like faint praise, well the bar is low for a reason.
Ou-est le Centre George Pompidou?
A one in 6 chance of drawing either Greece or Serbia as the Pot 2 team in the World Cup draw. One to keep an eye on, they'll be two of the worst draws we could pull from Pot 2.
Dan McD making an important point on Twitter tonight about staying in the B division. The two Auto-Q spots for Euro 2028 (yes we need to think that far ahead) that are potentially going to be distributed between ourselves, Scotland and Wales will likely be handed out based on Nations League ranking next time around. Wales and Scotland will both be in the B division, so we can only compete for them if we stay up - there's no way to finish ahead of either if we're down in C. So staying in B is particularly important this time around, if we're planning on being at our own Euros in four years time.
I think what I like the most about this manager is that the team always plays better in the second half. I also like that he makes good subs and makes them early enough to have an impact.
Contrast this with SK, who was always sussed out by the opposition manager at half-time, and stood around in the second half doing nothing while Plan A collapsed.
Nations League is everything for us for the next few years..
It dictates qualifying seedings, chances of play off places, and if this is correct, chances of playing a home Euros
This window, has been good... the team is slowly, building a structure, and getting some new players involved (Ebosele, Azaz, Taylor)..
I honestly couldn't care less about WC qualifying.. but we have to be at the Euros in 28.. we have to be
Pretty much this. When he took off Ferguson and added a midfielder after 55 minutes the game totally changed. From the 55th to the 90th minute we were the better team. The difference was night and day. Taylor did well coming off the bench but mostly we were just much more capable of overwhelming their midfielders, denying them time and space.
That’s two games – this game and England – that have largely lost regarding initial formation/team selection and only playing two midfielders.
I thought Ferguson was fouled early on and it should have been a penalty. Also thought the deflection was unlucky and Kelleher saves it if there’s no deflection. Saying that, if you give up 20 shots then there’s always a decent chance that one of them will deflect awkwardly
I wouldn't be so blase about WC qualifying, AFAIU the seedings for the WCQ are based on nations league standings. Ireland are on course to be 3rd seeds in the WCQ draw should they finish ahead of Finland.
Even though I hold Heimar in high regard I would have many critiques about how he has handled the first 4 competitive games. He has been slow (in the first 2 games) to take command of affairs. This evening I just could not get my head around the approach to this game against Greece. I assumed he would apply structure, as in structure based on observable ability v the opposition strengths.
Second place in this group was lost when Greece beat England, basically Ireland are just battling out 3rd and 4th with Finland and are ahead in that duel.
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