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- I was struck by how the only time we ever seemed to get more than one player in the box was at set pieces.
- I was struck by how, from minute one, there was pockets of empty space left in front of our box, the space Meyler was supposed to be patrolling, the space Whelan continuously fails to protect when he plays; Serbia got joy time and time again but MON failed to do anything about it.
- It was asinine how we ended up with no central midfielders against Georgia and with Hourihane as the closest thing to a central midfielder against Serbia. Against Georgia we ended up with McGeady, McClean, Brady, Walters, Long and Murphy on the pitch. O'Neill is clueless when it comes to adapting our shape and reorganising; it's fly by seat of pants stuff, real square pegs in round holes – which Walters sums up.
- Christie is limited but game going forward. He had no support from an unfit Walters when defending, same as Coleman in Dublin against Georgia; but anyone could tell you Walters should play up front if at all. Christie did well to track back and stop a dangerous Serbia counter at point, when it would have been easy to go down.
- Ward seems to think he's an auxiliary CB at times, tucking in and leaving us laughably exposed down his side.
- Clark and Duffy were fine and are an adequate base to build on. If only O'Shea was a couple years younger, though, we badly miss his vocal presence and organisational skills.
- The introduction of O'Dowda, who can't get off the bench for Bristol City, again, shows the folly of relying on granny rule players. He was ineffective apart from one decent cross.
- Sean Maguire should've been integrated with the friendlies over 6 months ago. It's not like we could've possibly played any worse in those games if he was given a few minutes to show what he could do
- It's laughable to see some fans use Woodburn as a reason for lads like Rice to be fast-tracked. A player who has about 270 minutes of senior football behind him and was brought off at half time in his last start because of a game changing mistake.
- Hogan has finally given up on playing for England and thrown his lot in with us after one odd league goal in 20 games. We've been down this road before with Folan, Best and Cox. I would be pleasantly surprised if he is a success for us, but lads like Martin, Rhodes and McCormack have scored goals at Championship level with greater frequency over a longer period of time and have completely flattered to deceive at Intl level.
- Why do we only come out and play when all seems lost? The Georgia game was the most frustrating since the 2-2 Austria game in Dublin. It's like we subconsciously play for a draw even when in front.
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