If Maguire misses out cause of head injury long coming in makes us stronger I think off the bench with mcgoldrick and Robinson likely to start in front three along with mcclean.
McCarthy clearly has no time for Long at all, James Collins added to the list of lower division strikers who are getting picked before him.
James McCarthy fully fit but pulls out of the squad, committed as ever. Glenn Whelan a cert to start now.
Well Mick doesn’t like Long anyway
Yeah, this one I would question - I know Long has had his issues in front of goal (and that Collins has stepped up to Championship level well, scoring his third yesterday), but he's our only active striker who has actually scored internationally (unless you count Aiden O'Brien); he's our only active striker with more than one Premier League goal; and he's seventh on our all-time goalscoring list, with a goal to caps ratio comparable to Quinn and Cascarino. And as his goal against Germany showed, he's a great option to bring off the bench against a defence tired by a hardworking forward line
Actually I saw that yesterday and my first thought was yep that was a dive, you have to do what you can these says, all fair in love and war etc...
However looking at it again he has been very hard done by.
It is beyond doubt Morrison clipped his ankle, you can see Morrison is nowhere near the ball when he taps his ankle, it is a "tap tackle" as it in
known in rugby and there is no way you can stay on your feet from one
of those.
Arter might have made meal of it, not even sure of that but he was fouled so it is a free kick to him. It is very hard to stay on your feet when someone clips your ankle it affects your whole balance, I think he was very hard done by.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49456552
100% is quite high for a forward, you rarely see higher.Man of the match - Callum Robinson (Sheffield United)
Callum Robinson scored from one of his four shots, and was 100% accurate with his 21 passes during the game
Do we know the yellow card was given for simulation? Despite what the commentators said my impression was that the yellow was given for dissent. You just can't get on like that.
Definite dive because he doesn’t go down with the contact.
He takes another step and then decides to hit the deck
I know I will burn in hell for this, but I think we should play the long ball system on Thursday
I had a look at the swiss defense and they were beyond hopeless dealing with balls being launched at them
Also our midfield is no match for theirs
I'm pretty sure we will, most of these lads can't string three passes together. 'Direct' football and set pieces is where we're at for now sadly.
Long is a man for the Long ball . Something is amiss here . A falling out / Shane fed up of it / something else .
If our system is some kind of 4-5-1/4-3-3 situation I actually think we’ll enjoy our share of the ball. Georgia are no Switzerland but they dominated possession against us last campaign and we had more control this time around under Mick. Having a midfield three of Whelan behind Hourihane and Hendrick if that is indeed the selection will allow us to hold our own in the middle of the park.
My main concern isn’t possession but rather the ability to create/finish chances.
I don’t see an obvious immediate solution to that with the personnel we have, just hoping it’s a matter of time before some of our young prospects break through.
For now I think Robinson is the only player capable of consistently creating something from open play. Likely we’ll be relying on set pieces — which honestly I have a lot of faith in with the quality of Hourihane’s delivery and Duffy’s capability to dominate aerially.
Mick says that Long's absence is purely down to lack of playing time and that he is willing to bring him back in once he's playing - I think this is a debatable rationale with a player of Long's experience and calibre (will four or five games really make that much of a difference), but it does indicate that there's still a chance we'll see him in the last three qualifiers: https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2019...on-shane-long/
Incidentally, I will say, having seen the Swiss squad sheet and where they all ply their trades, that we are definitely the underdogs again for this tie so we will have to be at our absolute best to get something from it - if we do, then Mick and the players deserve enormous credit
I agree with Robinson. And it's a pity that he will be playing wider than he is at club level. To compound that, I don't think McClean has looked like scoring much for us so we don't have a goal threat on that side when we should. The heroics of Austria in 2016 and Wales in 2017 feel a long time ago.
A lot of praise around for Stevens and his displays for Sheffield United. He has looked good for us at left back but I think playing in a flatter back four is depriving us of his attacking abilities. The same would be the case if Doherty was at right back. I wonder whether it will get to the point where we just need to go with the 3-5-2 to make the most of what we have. Given that we already play with a midfield 3, we can maintain that.
I don't see us getting to that point. I think McCarthy is going to stick with this 4-3-2-1.
He has no problem picking Hendrick either who has fewer minutes this season than Long. I remember this being an issue with Mick the first time around, he would make a big play on some players not being first choice at their clubs but would then completely ignore it for others like Mcateer and Mark Kennedy.
Last edited by Eirambler; 03/09/2019 at 8:58 AM.
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