Putting all our faith in players with 'potential' seems to be rather clutching at straws. I doubt if Idah and Connolly will score more than ten goals between them this season at their clubs (presuming they even get enough games in the first team). I suspect their careers will probably mostly play out at Championship level, possibly even dropping down to League One at some point - although I believe, on what we've seen so far, Connolly will do better than Idah.
I think you mean narrative there. Prerogative is the right of an individual. And it's spelt prerogative. With an "r"
What does that even mean "half the players missing had 80% of the caps", I'm guessing that the top seven players of the 14 that were unavailable had 80% of the caps total of the 14?
Proving what exactly?
Dara O'Shea is a huge positive for us going forward. He looked good at centre half, he looked okay at left back and I thought he looked excellent at right back. He clipped a few beautiful crosses into the box. He won't be right back for us in the future but he's a huge option beside John Egan at the back, particularly given his comfort on the ball. I think he has a huge future.
Jason Knight impressed me last night. He gives us the hustle and bustle and aggression that we need in midfield. Between McCarthy, Hendrick, Molumby, Cullen, Browne, Arter, Brady, Byrne and Knight we now have a lot of options at a fairly similar level. It's probably now about picking the right combination or a couple of players kicking on- there's a lot of potential in Knight, Molumby and Cullen to progress and who knows what Jack Byrne can achieve at this stage.
There's a case for McCarthy, Hendrick and Knight to start. I would also gladly see Molumby and Cullen in there. Hourihane should be nowhere near the team after his last few matches. He was dreadful last night. He didn't look at all fussed either- I refuse to believe he couldn't control that game if he wanted to and tried to.
Up front is a difficult one. Collins looked fine and served a purpose. He should have scored the header at the back post in the first half that went over. Horgan has definitely earned credit for his performances. However, he's probably occupying that middle ground above Maguire and Curtis but behind Connolly, Robinson, Long and maybe even McClean and O'Dowda.
Overall:
I think that O'Shea and Knight are the two to push themselves into starting contention;
Kenny clearly fancies Browne and, to a lesser extent, Horgan;
Idah has had a difficult role and struggled in it a lot- I think he needs a full season of club football before hanging our hat on him as a starter. Is it very rare for a number 9 to thrive in a front three? A lot of line leading 9's tend to struggle in their late teens and early 20's from my memory- Kane, Drogba and Giroud are three that come to mind as having struggled through spells at second tier French and English sides. I can see Callum Robinson occupying this spot for us.
i love Steven Reid but if you look at Scotland's actual results while he's been there they actually haven't been much good!
I agree with most of the rest. The actual XI you selected is open to debate. I am more positive about Hendrick's recent contributions than most here. I think he has shown Giles' "moral courage" at the very least.
I have virtually written off Qatar already, but remember that's "selfish and unpatriotic"!
I agree, its an idealist view really. One unfounded in reality. I do think though with all the players back, he will be much more sure of himself and what he needs come March. I just hope that he sees where its worth persisting(Idah is not that player, whether he will be is open to question) with his ways and where its not he changes. These games have clearly shown that we must pick our best players in their best positions, and the best players we have for certain positions. Make the glove fit, use the right formation that gets the best out of those available. This is what I would like to see but I'm 90% sure it wont happen
Randolph
Egan Duffy/Long Clark
Doherty/Coleman Stevens
McCarthy Molumby
Byrne/Hendrick
Robinson/Connolly Collins/Connolly
I've left it fairly open in a couple of positions, as I'm relatively happy and feel it could be changed/tweaked slightly or starting and finishing could be changed adapted based off who we are playing and how the game is going. I'd like that system for most of the pots up to 2nd(including).
Then when it comes to the big teams revert to a 4-5-1
Randolph
Doherty Egan Duffy/Long Stevens
Coleman Mccarthy Molumby Hendrick Connolly
Robinson
Last edited by paul_oshea; 19/11/2020 at 10:05 AM.
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
The biggest negative under Kenny is the lack of goals. But we scored just 7 goals in the group qualification for the Euros - which included 4 games against Georgia and Gibraltar. To put it into perspective, Denmark and Switzerland scored 23 and 19 goals respectively in the same qualification group. Our goal scoring problems are not a Kenny issue but have been brewing under the radar.
Cast your mind back to the last Nations League campaign and the final game against Denmark, and argue if what you have seen under Kenny is an improvement or not on that.
Last night was bad but the changes Kenny is trying to implement are long over due and necessary.
Final tables in for the Nations League, so we've some sight of who we'll be playing in two years
One from each group of 4
Switzerland, Sweden,Bosnia, Iceland
Finland, Norway, Scotland, Russia
Slovenia, Montenegro, Albania, Armenia
So, 8-10 WC qualifiers, 2-3 friendlies, and 6 more NL games against the above teams. 16-20 games... and that's before the 2024 Euro qualifiers start
Apart from the fact it's a mental number of international games.. that really is loads of time for any manager to build a side and a plan to get to Germany in 2024
As of this morning, we are no 24 in UEFA rankings.. so we should be in a competition with 24 places
After an abject 4 years in my opinion.. not just one campaign
And the team that plays in those finals, should be radically different from the one now
Whats 12 hours exactly? You havent given a description of the task at hand? I need a bit more guidance
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
I always thought the american way was to spell it without the R, so just left it lazily. But yes i meant its the individual posters right to ignore the facts, as they choose.I think you mean narrative there. Prerogative is the right of an individual. And it's spelt prerogative. With an "r"
Point i was trying to make was that the Bulgaria 11 that would take to the field against us was very inexperienced. So they had just as bad luck as us.What does that even mean "half the players missing had 80% of the caps", I'm guessing that the top seven players of the 14 that were unavailable had 80% of the caps total of the 14?
Proving what exactly?
No I said I can't, stutts thanked the reply. I never came out with any nonsense about 2 years plans, throwing away wcs or building for the future or players coming through. Same way as I dont know about the retention of heat and energy in solar panels, so I amn't going to comment, I'd ask the question and expect a reply.Can you?
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
The you should have written "ignore the facts, that's your prerogative", or "don't let the facts get in the way of the narrative". What you wrote made no sense.
"half the missing players" could have referred to either the missing Irish or Bulgarian players, be less ambiguous in future.
I don't see any thanks from him on your reply.
Last edited by Stuttgart88; 19/11/2020 at 2:56 PM.
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