Originally Posted by
Stuttgart88
Jesus that was hard to watch and I came home just flattened by the way O’Neill is managing this team.
Watched 2nd half again this morning am am now more positive, especially the way we played in the last 10-20 mins - though USA seemed to just collapse.
We won every second ball and used it constructively. I think Horgan made a lot happen by wanting the ball a lot. Horgan and Stevens worked very well together. Horgan has a great gift of being able to just crate a few feet of space to put in a good cross. A better player than McLean and far better at receiving the ball.
Stevens deserves credit but I actually think it’s at least as much down to picking a specialist LB in the LB position. Williams did OK in Paris and I think Cunningham deserves a look.
Overall I’m disappointed 2 friendlies went by without looking properly at Doherty.
Rice, Lenihan, Stevens (what a first touch from a drilled pass from Horgan) and Horgan were all excellent later on. O’Dowda decent but careless at times.
Kevin Long quietly impressive. Arter had a strong cameo. Burke was good all night I thought - better than Maguire is my first impression of each in an international shirt. Sure, Turkey away is harder but Maguire’s first touch was poor all night in his debut.
Doyle to blame for a goal again. As soon as the US won that header he should have charged out to at least punch it. Randolph would have I’m certain. Hendrick was shocked he didn’t come for it, though he should have taken charge himself in the absence of a shout.
We have 3 better keepers, Brady, McCarthy, Clark and Shane Long still to come back. That’s a lot of experience.
Hourihane, Hogan, Maguire, Doherty, Judge etc are still to figure properly. Browne has something to offer I think but needs a few more games before we can decide.
I’d make a good fist of making a good team from all of that.
So, less pessimistic than at HT yesterday except I still have no faith whatsoever in O’Neill and the first half was ****. The sight of O’Neill flanked by Keane, Guppy and Walford - who thinks he’s in fcuking Miami Vice - just makes me think we are managed by a bunch of utterly ineffective free loaders. We capped a few new faces but deep down I think O’Neill will interpret what he saw in a regressive fashion.
That’s where I disagree with SamHjr - I just don’t see O’Neill learning what was capable of being learnt from these games.
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