I do see a positive here in that the weaker teams are often better equipped to defend against the, shall we say, more traditional Irish style of play. They can make a good stab of sitting deep and defending against long balls and being physical. Gibraltar holding us to 3-0 on aggregate recently being a good example.
If we try to move the ball about, I think we've the potential to open them up more than usual and create decent chances - which is what Kenny wants.
The question then is whether the squad (and coaching staff) are good enough to achieve that. And that brings us back to the discussion we've been having this past 18 months of course
Team is -
Bazunu
Doherty
O'Shea
Egan
McClean
Cullen
Hourihane
Knight
Parrott
Curtis
Collins
Don't understand Bazunu in nets tbh. Leaving aside the already-had discussion as to whether he's ready for it yet, surely Kelleher has to be brought in at some stage anyway here? Or is he being held for the Hungary game?
Other than that it's probably predictable enough, and there's probably no way of making a silk purse out of the sow that is our forward options.
Last edited by pineapple stu; 03/06/2021 at 2:57 PM.
Might have just come down to who did better so far in training but I'm surprised Kelleher isn't getting the nod as well.Originally Posted by pineapple stu
For the rest..no real shocks I suppose. Was hoping McGrath would start but mainly because I'm not sure how much he has improved since he left Dundalk and that would be interesting to see. Curtis/Parrot instead is reasonable.
Doherty as rb is worrying but I guess Kenny thinks he will be able to bomb forward enough to be comfortable. He really needs to put in a performance.
Agreed on Doherty, high time he put in a decent performance in a green shirt. Hopefully he puts the stop start season at Spurs behind him today
Havin a weekend away is quite frankly,lettin ur team mates down!
I feel a 10-0 coming on ............to us.
That selection feels very narrow - so presuming Doherty and McClean will play more advanced to add width.
The FAI has been posting videos from training and pretty sure Kelleher had strapping support on an elbow. Guessing he's not 100% but I'd pick Bazunu in goals out of the three available anyway.
Not a great watch so far very stop start. Ball in the air far too much.
Very, very poor again from Kenny's Ireland. Andorra have been at least our equals. Were the Andorrans to show a modicum more ambition I could easily see them winning this.
Still waiting for Matt Doherty to have a decent game for Ireland.
We're practically incapable of playing a decent forward pass. So many times we get to half way and run out of ideas
How is an international match being played on a poor astro pitch?
Doesn’t excuse our performance though
Few voices in the world are more annoying than Stephen Kelly.
I see a better standard of football on a Sunday morning.
Zero imagination.
It's actually an embarrassent. Is there an Irish player on the pitch that understands what a midfielder is supposed to do. Get the ball off the defence, pass, move, dictate the game, control the tempo.
You see those things in Division 1 League of Ireland ffs.
Kenny always seems surprised how badly we play after the games we've played so farin his reign - these players certainly have no interest it would seem.
Every Andoran tackle has been a foul so hard to have any cohesion but doesnt excuse an international footballer being unable to control a ball from a 10 yard pass.
Have we had a shot yet?
One shot blocked from Doherty maybe - is that it?
Edit - there's a shot there from us. A bloody awful one
It’s quite clear the players have no interest, that’s why they magically have injury problems when the international fixtures come around.
The players excuse doesn't wash when we're playing a side as lowly as Andorra.
We patently haven't been set up or organised properly again. Again we're ponderously knocking the ball about in front of the opposition to no effect. No imagination in general play nor with our set-pieces.
Andorra have scored a couple of times against us before. If they score today I can easily see the unimaginable happening.
Good passage of play there - and then Curtis with an awful header. How do you head six yards wide when six yards out and central?
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