Turkey V Republic of Ireland - Antalya - 23rd March 2018 - Friendly

[shakermaker1982]

Did the 532 work?

Twitter and Facebook is just full of Liverpool fans slagging off the team and the manager.

[Fixer82]

That was painful stuff.
Severe lack of composure and technical ability in the squad.

How many times did Turks play one touch football and when we got it our players had to take two or three touches?

Couldn’t pass the ball out of defence and ended up hoofing out for Turkish throw.
McClean as a wing back was too intent on hoofing ball as hard as he could into the sky.

Positives for me were Doyle, Rice, Maguire and Horgan.
Good to see Alan Judge playing again.

Once again though, we concede by not sorting out a two-man corner. Happened against Scots and Danes.

[tricky_colour]

Did the 532 work?

Twitter and Facebook is just full of Liverpool fans slagging off the team and the manager.

Not according to a commentator on RTE he said it made no difference
then it automatically switched to the England game, the highlight of which was a young blonde girl,
one of the children who come on with the players for the national anthem, flicking two fingers
at the camera when she was on TV

Aside from that all the children with the England team looked pretty miserable.

[Fixer82]

Another positive for me was 8 of the 11 starters singing Amhrán na bhFiann. Must be the most we’ve had singing it in years.

[Kingdom]

Thought second half we played well enough, Rice took a bit of time to get into it but was excellent once he got into the game and was even more so when when he moved into midfield. Meyler & Rice in cm is what we should go with going forward in my opinion. Hendricks had another anonymous game, first half he's the senior lad in middle and he was nowhere to be seen. There's goals in Seani and Hogan if we can get them the service, Dunner had it right after the game saying we're too conservative in midfield, if you cede that and sit back in the middle you'll be hard pressed to create anything. Optimistic after that despite the result.

You know that one chance we created.......it was Jeff, out of nothing.

[colonelwest]

You know that one chance we created.......it was Jeff, out of nothing.

Aye it was, that's the stuff he's capable of doing and that he needs to do more often, he needs to be more aggressive on the ball and off the ball looking for it. Rice did more of that on his debut at 19 years of age when he went into midfield than Hendrick has done since the Euros pretty much.

[tricky_colour]

https://youtu.be/UE9ciobvxrU?t=5m14s

5m14s stick tongue out and flicks two fingers!!

I have noticed earlier that all the England "mascots" all looked really miserable so I
was wondering what she was so happy about, note all the rest of the dutch mascots
look pretty miserable to, at least she is enjoying herself.

[backstothewall]

I only got seeing parts of the match but I find myself surprised at how negative the comments are. It was more or less a scratch team, and Turkey are no mugs.

3 at the back seemed to work well enough. There wasn't many chances for either side but of the parts of the game i've watched we created the best one from open play. None of the new players looked out of place, Rice was obviously impressive but I also liked the look of Hogan. We've given a run out to some of those who show up for squad after squad without ever getting very much in the way of playing time which will have to be good for harmony in the squad.

Overall I felt it was a worthwhile exercise, and there were plenty of positives.

[Fixer82]

I only got seeing parts of the match but I find myself surprised at how negative the comments are. It was more or less a scratch team, and Turkey are no mugs.

3 at the back seemed to work well enough. There wasn't many chances for either side but of the parts of the game i've watched we created the best one from open play. None of the new players looked out of place, Rice was obviously impressive but I also liked the look of Hogan. We've given a run out to some of those who show up for squad after squad without ever getting very much in the way of playing time which will have to be good for harmony in the squad.

Overall I felt it was a worthwhile exercise, and there were plenty of positives.

The negativity is due to the haplessness of so many of the players making basic mistakes. Not controlling the ball with first touch. Hoofing the ball out of play so much and making a balls of trying to pass out of the back.

[tricky_colour]

Naughty Dutch girl!

[DannyInvincible]

Not a great game but we did better in the second half. Liked the look of Rice, particularly when he was moved into midfield. Hogan was unlucky not to score his chance; he shouldn't have bothered trying to round the keeper. Thought Maguire impressed too; should have had a penalty.

[Fixer82]

Not a great game but we did better in the second half. Liked the look of Rice, particularly when he was moved into midfield. Hogan was unlucky not to score his chance; he shouldn't have bothered trying to round the keeper. Thought Maguire impressed too; should have had a penalty.

Hogan should have slid to make the ball instead of trying to catch up with it.
Maguire definitely deserved a peno.

But overall I found the game so frustrating. The Turks looked far superior on the ball.

[Olé Olé]

Not a bad exercise at all. I think we allowed ourselves to get pinned into our own half in midfield. The three lads there struggled to get into the game as a result (Browne, Hourihane and Hendrick). Maguire and Hogan look good and Rice looks great.

[Fixer82]

Whelan at one stage said that we were sitting back inviting them on to us. But our defence (Duffy and McClean) in particular consistently hoofed the ball back to the Turks in the first half. The midfield had no option but to sit deep and defend as the Turks came forward with the ball time and again

[Stuttgart88]

I was really disappointed in that. Sure, Rice looked like a thoroughbred footballer but the standard of play was generally rubbish - as we have become accustomed to under MON. Totally lacking cohesion. The only consistent passing was between our CBs who eventually hoofed it up to two midgets upfront.

Midfield totally abdicated responsibility in the first half, bar a passage of play on 42 mins when they all seemed to want the ball. Anyone notice when Rice had possession once and held his arms up begging for an option? In the first 5-10 mins territory was quite even. Then Turkey realised we lacked ambition with the ball and moved up 5-10 yards. Then after another 10 mins they realised we simply moved back, so they moved up again. From around 25 mins onwards Turkey's deepest players were playing inside our half.

I thought Horgan had something about him when he came on and Doherty showed a bit of swagger. He's a confident lad.

Doyle did grand but his distribution makes Randolph look like Liam Brady. He's definitely not a threat to any of the more established options. Maguire's first touch is like Mick McCathy's. If your forward pair are to feed off scraps the ball has to stick. Instead it bounced off both of them like a rubber ball on a tiled floor.

The goal was brain dead defensively. Turkey tried the same thing only a few mins earlier from the other side and it led to a chance they should have scored from. I liked that move actually, it's just a shame we were asleep. Didn't we concede at a crucial time of the game against Denmark from a short corner too? These are the details that matter.

I didn't notice much from Hendrick other than his pass for Hogan. I was watching on a small screen in a pub in Kilburn and could barely hear the commentary. I struggled to make out which midfielder was which at times.

Really uninspiring. I didn't care about the result I just wanted some signs of life, signs that O'Neill is getting reasonably good players - which they are - to play reasonably well. I didn't really see much of that.

[Stuttgart88]

That was painful stuff.
Severe lack of composure and technical ability in the squad.

How many times did Turks play one touch football and when we got it our players had to take two or three touches?

Couldn’t pass the ball out of defence and ended up hoofing out for Turkish throw.
McClean as a wing back was too intent on hoofing ball as hard as he could into the sky.

Positives for me were Doyle, Rice, Maguire and Horgan.
Good to see Alan Judge playing again.

Once again though, we concede by not sorting out a two-man corner. Happened against Scots and Danes.

This, except I think (hope?) the midfielders picked have the technical ability just not the "moral courage" to demand the ball. That's their effing job.

[backstothewall]

This issue raised about Rice looking around for someone to pass to. Harry Arter has made taking the ball from the back 4 his stock and trade at Bournemouth. A Rice-Arter axis could be key to us in the future.

[Olé Olé]

This issue raised about Rice looking around for someone to pass to. Harry Arter has made taking the ball from the back 4 his stock and trade at Bournemouth. A Rice-Arter axis could be key to us in the future.

McCarthy's best games for us have been when he's done something similar, albeit less aggressively than Arter does.

Hogan and Maguire up front offer serious pace and the gilt-edged chance of Hogan offered an insight as to how it would work out in the future. Being able to move the ball quickly through midfield would seriously facilitate creating chances like that with their pace to get behind defences.

[backstothewall]

McCarthy's best games for us have been when he's done something similar, albeit less aggressively than Arter does.

Hogan and Maguire up front offer serious pace and the gilt-edged chance of Hogan offered an insight as to how it would work out in the future. Being able to move the ball quickly through midfield would seriously facilitate creating chances like that with their pace to get behind defences.

I wouldn't mind a look at playing Rice as a libero in one of the friendlies coming up. It might be hard to fit McClean in to that system but it feels like that is going to be an issue in any system we play with the players available to us

[shakermaker1982]

Sounds like we are still going long. It really pi$$es me off that this is still allowed to happen. Roy Keane was one of the best CM players to give a short pass. One touch, two touch he would move the ball on. Why isn’t this filtering down to the players?

They surely play one and two touch at training? If my Sunday league side can practice it once a week at training on a Tuesday night and then see a big difference over the course of a season on mud bath pitches it’s not surely too much to ask to see professionals make a step change in their approach?!!

Not every time but we will never improve if our mindset is just to go long. Football has moved on - we need to catch up.

Good to hear that Rice was a positive. Just need to find 5 or 6 of his quality!