2023 UEFA Under-21 Championship

[Jd2793]

Squad announced:

https://twitter.com/faireland/status...115476481?s=21

Connolly coming back is the big surprise. I think injuries are: McEntee, Bagan, Kilkenny, Noss.

Keepers and centre halves straight forward.

Tayo Adaramola is probably a bit hard done by. He was good in his last game he played and with Bagan injured, you’d think he had eyes on starting. Andy Lyons perhaps the one to get the nod?

Midfieldwise, hadn’t heard of Azaz till now. Connell an obvious replacement for Kilkenny. Not that he really deserves to be there, but I feel really sorry for Ryan Johansson. Made such an effort to switch and has basically been forgotten.

Maher

O’Connor
McGuinness
Bagan
Lyons

Coventry
Smallbone
Tierney

Ebosele/Kerrigan
Ferguson/Odubeko/Kayode
Connolly/Wright/O’Neill

johanssons career isnt going well on the face of things. less than 400 mins last year on loan with fortuna sittard, back as a bench player with sevillas b team. looking like he'd be best served with a move to get him some first team football

[JR89]

Squad announced:

https://twitter.com/faireland/status...115476481?s=21

Connolly coming back is the big surprise. I think injuries are: McEntee, Bagan, Kilkenny, Noss.

Keepers and centre halves straight forward.

Tayo Adaramola is probably a bit hard done by. He was good in his last game he played and with Bagan injured, you’d think he had eyes on starting. Andy Lyons perhaps the one to get the nod?

Midfieldwise, hadn’t heard of Azaz till now. Connell an obvious replacement for Kilkenny. Not that he really deserves to be there, but I feel really sorry for Ryan Johansson. Made such an effort to switch and has basically been forgotten.

Maher

O’Connor
McGuinness
Bagan
Lyons

Coventry
Smallbone
Tierney

Ebosele/Kerrigan
Ferguson/Odubeko/Kayode
Connolly/Wright/O’Neill

Azaz won League Two player of the year last season and was mentioned at the time he was Irish eligible. Turns out he's eligible to play for Israel too. An attacking midfielder so interesting to see if Crawford is feeling optimistic an throws him in from the start with Coventry and Smallbone or starts the midfield three you mentioned.

Interesting that he's named four CBs with Roughan also being able to play LCB so could pull a surprise and use 3-5-2 again. Though was more 5-4-1 away to Sweden.

[elatedscum]

Azaz won League Two player of the year last season and was mentioned at the time he was Irish eligible. Turns out he's eligible to play for Israel too. An attacking midfielder so interesting to see if Crawford is feeling optimistic an throws him in from the start with Coventry and Smallbone or starts the midfield three you mentioned.

Interesting that he's named four CBs with Roughan also being able to play LCB so could pull a surprise and use 3-5-2 again. Though was more 5-4-1 away to Sweden.

Could see him going to a 5-3-2 for the away leg if we come away with a win. If we were playing that, I’d be tempted to start Festy on the right, it’d be very tough on Lee O’Connor but seems mad not to use Festy as well

[nigel-harps1954]

Squad announced:


Tayo Adaramola is probably a bit hard done by. He was good in his last game he played and with Bagan injured, you’d think he had eyes on starting. Andy Lyons perhaps the one to get the nod?

Midfieldwise, hadn’t heard of Azaz till now. Connell an obvious replacement for Kilkenny. Not that he really deserves to be there, but I feel really sorry for Ryan Johansson. Made such an effort to switch and has basically been forgotten.

Adaramola is probably victim to a lack of game time. Lyons having a cracking season and performing in Conference League at the minute, versus a shambles of a loan spell at Coventry for Adaramola.

Johansson is another who's just dropped like a stone, and doesn't really deserve a place currently. Sevilla B are in the fourth tier of Spanish football, which is regionalised into five separate divisions. Even the third tier is split into two sections there now. 82 teams above their division. He'd do well to get a move away.

[Razors left peg]

might be the only one but i dont see it with tyreik wright. hes been a regular pretty much so it's probably harsh not to include him but i was surprised they've dropped young burns already.

Im with you, I dont see much in him at all. Very average player

[JR89]

Could see him going to a 5-3-2 for the away leg if we come away with a win. If we were playing that, I’d be tempted to start Festy on the right, it’d be very tough on Lee O’Connor but seems mad not to use Festy as well

He won't drop O'Connor. Especially if the change in formation was tactical to help defend any lead we've got going into the second game.

[tetsujin1979]

Israel squad was announced yesterday
https://www.football.org.il/magazine...CD7F1591E13%7D
(Passing through Google translate)

Goalkeepers:
Daniel Peretz, Omer Niraon, Sharif Kiuf

Defense:
Noam Melmud, Ziv Morgan, Gil Cohen, Itai Ben Shabat, Karem Jaber, Stav Lemkin, Roy Herman, Zohar Zasno, Yuval Sade

Midfield:
Muhammad Kanaan, Bar Cohen, Hisham Laios, El Yam Kanzpolsky, Tai Abed, Yoav Hoffmeister, Adir Levy, Ido Shahar, Oscar Gloch

Attack:
Stav Nachmani, Idan Toklomati, Usher Davida.

[Eirambler]

Good to see Abada and a couple of other players with senior caps left out. Israel do have a big advantage over us here though in that their second senior game is a friendly, so they can drop the likes of Abada down to the under 21s for the second leg if they want to.

It has the feel of one where we could do with a 2 goal or more lead from the first leg to take to Israel.

[samhaydenjr]

might be the only one but i dont see it with tyreik wright. hes been a regular pretty much so it's probably harsh not to include him but i was surprised they've dropped young burns already.

Im with you, I dont see much in him at all. Very average player

And yet he's our joint top-scorer in the campaign with three. I know he hasn't featured in the campaign but, my word, Sinclair Armstrong has burst onto the scene in recent weeks. He really would be one to throw on in the last twenty minutes if we're chasing a goal.

[nigel-harps1954]

Armstrong is probably unfortunate not to be named in the 21s squad this time around. While he's only getting ten minutes here and there, it's semi regular game time at a high level and probably warranted a call into the 21s.

[CSAD]

Not just Armstrong but even players like Costello who’s played a decent chunk of time in the championship for a high flying team at that. I find it odd how these guys are left out and yet players like Wright who’s in L2 is in the squad.

[tommy_c12000]

Hard to argue for Costello or Armstrong as being must haves in the squad, they’ve barely dipped their toes in senior football. Costello clearly was raw in his couple of burnley starts, hasn't had a look in since reinforcements came in. Okoflex has 30 minutes in total of English senior football…

Agree on general sentiment on Wright. He has never impressed me and hasn’t set it alight in lower leagues. But manager must like him and has a lot more senior football experience, and not too many compelling alternatives, Burns still hasn’t lit it up regularly in league one, his league cup appearances have been excellent but he has a long way to go yet.

[JR89]

They're talking about Sinclair Armstrong whose been have positive impacts from the bench with QPR not Okoflex Armstrong.

[tommy_c12000]

Ah my bad, hadn’t read the full thread. Yes Armstrong I guess is an interesting one. Pretty strong forward line now with Connolly, Ferguson there. Odubeko has a long way to go in my book from development but at least he’s starting in league one and has scored. I’d have Armstrong in ahead of Kayode who I don’t see going anywhere quickly, did okay in league two, never has had much of a look in at rotherham, at MK Dons now and hasn’t had much of a look in yet although he’s barely been there. Armstrong has a higher ceiling for sure - unfortunately he lost 6 months of development when his loan in the conference was cut short last year, awful decision as I highlighted at the time. May have been in a different place right now if he had completed the full loan spell

[JR89]

Neither Connolly or Kerrigan are involved in their match day squads today so could be injury related.

[elatedscum]

How stupid is it that the u21 away game overlaps with the senior game against Armenia?

21s game starts at 6.15pm. Senior game starts at 7.45pm. So the last 20 mins will overlap. Plus good luck trying to watch the game and travel to Lansdowne Road at the same time. And then the real issue is, RTE have shown the last number of key 21s away games - but for them, for any broadcaster, does it make sense to pay for the stream if the viewership is cut like that... So might not even be shown on TV

[JR89]

That 6.15pm has likely changed as the FAI website has it as a 7pm kick off on the article with the squad announcement.

https://www.fai.ie/ireland/news/craw...rael-play-offs

[elatedscum]

Andy Lyons and Brian Maher both picked up knocks in the last 3 mins of the Derry-Rovers game. Something to watch out for anyway...

[JR89]

Mark McGuiness, David Harrington, Liam Kerrigan, and Luca Connell ruled out through injury and replaced by Garcia MacNulty, David Odumosu, Dara Costello, and Adam O'Reilly.

[tommy_c12000]

Strong squad with the exception of goalkeepers. We should have enough to beat Israel over two legs, as long as keeper makes no mistakes.

Didn?t see tonight?s game due to my location unfortunately. Disappointing result. Maher cost us yet again it seems, such a shame we are so weak in this position given the quality elsewhere. Who impressed? Hopefully should have too much for them in Tel Aviv, barring another keeper error