agree with all of the above.I said in my preview that even with the withdrawals we have good players, not great, but good and good enough to at least stand up and be counted. Anyway, this morning I listed to a full hour of analysis on OTB with Cunningham, Breen and Andrews and John Hartson from the Welsh angle.
The 3 Irish guys' views were largely the same and can be summarised as:
- The selection was poor. Our 2 in midfield were just swamped by a high quality 3 in midfield for Wales.
- We failed to adapt to this, just as we failed to adapt to Denmark's dominance in Dublin (then we actually made it worse)
- The players played poorly. In the past pulling on the green shirt brought better performances from players than many were used to delivering at club level. These days the players play WORSE than at their clubs. This is a management failure.
-Hendrick and Hourihane were both picked as a vanilla 2 man midfield, expected to sit deep, yet neither plays deep at club level; each is used to arriving late in the attacking third of the pitch
- Management (despite MON, Keane, Guppy & Walford all being prominent) admit to not working on systems, shape etc.
- Last night, yet again, there was no obvious pattern, shape or system. This is a "systemic failure" of management.
- Other sides work on their shape and systems so why can't we? EVERY other side does it.
- Despite being critical of both individual performances and management's role, and tearing apart the impact of management, all 3 declined to call for a change (actually I didn't hear Breen's final remarks). Hartson said he is too close to MON to comment.
- Despite the absentees we had our strongest back 5 out.
So,
-I have to say I agree with all of this, except for the strongest back 5 bit. I think the May friendlies showed Kevin Long is deserving of a start over Clark, and actually Stevens is deserving of a start over Ward. So too was Williams based on his Paris performance. Lenihan looks a player too and a threat from set pieces
- Hartson said we played 451. I don't think so.
- Why no Meyler? No world beater but his absence left the space in front of our back 4 too open. allen had acres of space for the first goal
- No mention at all of Matt Doherty, far more influential at Wolves than Christie at Fulham
- No mention that Stevens and Horgan - our only credible out ball in the absence of Judge - looked like a great "unit" on the left versus USA, and did so again briefly last night
- They let management off too lightly. Faced with the charge sheet aimed at them, their position is totally untenable in my opinion.
- We played 352 in 3 games since Denmark. He went back to 4411 in the next competitive game. Weird to say the least.
There is just no way this set up can continue. NI and Iceland are great examples of organisation. The WC showed lots of "lesser" teams being hard to play against because of their shape and system off the ball. We didn't have one. That's just unforgivable especially when MON says he doesn't have time to create a system. 2nd place is crucial in the Nations League. That's a very tall order now.
I'd give the job to McCarthy tomorrow. Even Kerr again.
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