QuoteIf the away fans are being kept where the Bray fans were tonight any chance of an atmosphere is dead too btw.
Best entertainment of the night was watching the Thomond lads struggle with the scoreboard. "BBBBBB" were 10-3 up on "AAAAAA" at one stage.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
If the away fans are being kept where the Bray fans were tonight any chance of an atmosphere is dead too btw.
Saves money, but kills the atmosphere. Can't imagine the other side will be opened up unless we're playing Rovers, Cork etc where a big(ger) crowd will travel.Originally Posted by bluewhitearmy
Have to say, it was even tough for the hardcore lads last night, wasn't much for them to create a buzz about.
Nzuzi was woeful last night, he looked like he didn't know where he was, never once looked for the ball, hid behind the Bray lads sometimes...that could be a bit harsh he might have been unfit or carrying an injury. Did Darragh Rainsford touch the ball more than twice in the second half? Pitch was cack which didn't help
Why no corporate section open last night?
he also was with Waterford and us also..
Gary Cronin is he the right man to manage Longford Town?
nzuzi isnt a midfielder really but has been put into it by taylor.all the midfield was very poor and up front.the team is weaker than last season and will do well to finish in the same position as last year,match was awful to watch and no atmosphere.ref was diabolical for the whole game.very poor advert for the league of ireland.progression from last year?i have my doubts from that display.
It's become apparent that Taylor is an incredibly dogmatic manager.
Since the beginning of his tenure, he has been insistent on playing with two inside forwards. Bray were able to defend the width of their penalty box on Friday night, with our only wide out ball coming sporadically in the form of right full Shaun Kelly. Most of the time our play was incredibly narrow and we were attempting eye of the needle through balls that were never going to come off.
That was when we managed to work it into the final third of course. Patrick Nzuzi had a 'mare in the anchorman position. He was constantly out of position and was forced into a large number of fouls to compensate. How he managed to last a few minutes of the second half I'll never know. Red card waiting to happen. Crucially, his performance when we had the ball was just as inept. Our defenders aren't as comfortable as they should be in this system and were punting aimless long balls anyway, but his inability to find space to receive exacerbated that problem. When Hughes (who was impressive) dropped in there after Nzuzi's yellow card we looked a bit better, but Oji and particularly Folan were still ****ing lumping it.
We need to play with one traditional winger to vary the attacking threat and stretch the oppositon. I feel like I've said this a million times. You just know though that when Galbraith comes back, he'll be on the right running inside into blind alleys.
Worrying, worrying start.
Man of the match by the way for me was Adam Mitchell. Won the battle of the gingers against Gaffney all ends up. Neither red card was justified either. I'm sure the Cassidy one was O'Regan evening it up Howard Webb style.
Nzuzi has been a midfielder all his career he was only moved back into defence by Taylor last season.
Cusack....solid, didnt have much to do.
kelly..... looked good going forward and defensively, a good performance.
oji.....went close with the header, looked injured a few times but was rarely threatened.
folan.....gave the ball away alot, trys the 60 yard diagonal alot.
williams.....not up to much, still looks a bit overweight.
duggan......poor in possesion, and looked off the pace. Harsh red though
hughes.....tried hard, ran around and tried to be busy but things didnt work out for him.
nzuzi......was terrible. Miles off the pace, sloppy in possesion, poor tackling, surprised he wasnt off at half time.
rainsford......looked short of confidence...non existant.
treacy......didnt threaten at all, not at the races. Slight improvement in second half.
gaffney......isolated for most part, worked hard but no real threat to bray. His throw ins were dangerous.
Hughes gave the ball away an awful lot for people to be calling him impressive. Let's not forget we were missing our 1st choice keeper who's head and shoulders above Cusack, our new CB, our 1st choice centreforward and Galbraith so disappointing? Yes. Worrying? Not quite yet tho I will say that dropping points against Bray again will put us firmly among the relegation candidates.
I think that when Curran comes back with a slight change in system things could be a lot better. Honestly think that tactics were a massive part of the problem lastnight.
woefull stuff poor pitch or no poor pitch,shocked to hear people think hughes should have been man of the match,non stop effort ok but headless running for the most part and gave the ball away too much.pity about duggan,will be out now for a while and that midfield without him hardly gives the impression of dominating game.clean sheet a positive,decent crowd too considering the opposition.the appointment of feneally as ass.manager does,like other things lately,make little sense.
Why what do you know about him? Genuine question by the way I know nothing other then the fact he was going to be Corks assistant manager this season.
Duggan only misses one game.
I think hughes showed the effort that people want to see from the players but he needs to add alot more to be considered impressive. I for one was shocked with how boring and predictable limerick were. Bray looked dangerous at times in the first half but overall were poor. I m not as optimistic about the season ahead. People saying when curran comes back it will be big plus, i watched most of games last year and his work rate is excellent but he isnt the player who is going to score 15+ goals and galbraith is far too inconsistent. Axel bossekota is a huge loss. 7th place at best sadly is how i see it, possibly lower
I didn't think Axel was that good tbh ran around like a headless chicken and went missing for 4 or 5 games in a row. Curran wont score 15 a season but he will help Rory Gaffney a lot.
That 4 3 3 system needs to go out the window too. You can't keep forcing players into a system that doesn't suit them. I think it's Taylor's biggest downfall that he can't adapt the system to the players he has available to him, and seems reluctant to try it.
A 4 4 2 with Gaffney and Curran up top would be a real goal threat. When they're up there on their own, they look so isolated.
We are missing that speedy winger type of player that Axel was, I'd have liked that in the squad as a threat, even from the bench if chasing a game
nzuzi is a better defender than midfielder if that is the case that midfield is his position.was very good in defence last year.we have too many defenders and not enough quality in midfield.jason hughes isnt good enough for top level league of ireland football.
My first game in two years. Great to be in a covered seat, pint available, decent facilities. Such a change from what I left.
That game itself was dire, with both teams pretty poor, and the ref woeful. We kept trying to play this quick passing game, but the players receiving the ball never seemed to know what to do with it. This resulted in us passing the ball around in front of their midfield all night. Or else we passed it to a player who was already clearly closed down. A few times we had throw ins in a decent position, and within 4 passes the ball was back with our keeper.
I am not all that familiar with the team, and can't really comment on how things might change with different players/formations, but on Friday night, it was pretty poor stuff indeed.
EDIT: just to reiterate how useless the ref was. Harsh cards all over the place. Can't comment on Duggan's dive as we couldn't see it, but the Bray red was a joke, as was the booking of their sub for diving. 3 minutes injury time also, after the reds, yellows, subs, and a couple of injuries. I think he wanted a draw to reduce the anger felt toward him.
Last edited by osarusan; 09/03/2014 at 12:33 PM.
And Dundalk and Monaghan.
The ball is round and has many surprises.
The standard was poor from both sides, I lost count of the number of poor 1st touches from both sides, I know the pitch wasn't the best but these players should be able to deal with this and control the ball better. Also, I don't think players are encouraged enough to take the game to the opposition, for example how many times did we see a midfielder driving at the opposition or a winger taking on a full back ? At one point Oji took the ball past a couple of Bray players and pushed on into midfield with the ball and you could hear it lift the crowd. A few minutes later the ball came to him and he had time to control it and play it out but he chose to leave the ball run past him and back to the keeper. I think the manager has to encourage the players to get on the ball more and take the game to the opposition especially when playing at home. Also, did i hear correctly that Taylor was on Limerick 95FM from 11am to 2pm on Saturday ? I didn't get a chance to listen but does anyone know what the programme was about ? was it sports related ?
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