Actually wiki says he probably isn't suspended -
Maybe it was just a tournament-standard graphic?Originally Posted by wiki
Brilliant article here from The Athletic about when players generally hit their peak in the various positions on the pitch..
Strikers - around 27
And there's lads here writing off Idah, Connolly, Parrott, Obafemi.. 19-21 yr olds
Aldridge was 28 when he made his debut..
https://theathletic.com/2935360/2021...ampaign=601983
As well as Cullen has played, he'll be relieved if he's not suspended, Knight did really well, Hendrick did nothing wrong, Taylor was called up & Kilkenny is entering the conversation too. Hourihane & Browne are less of a worry to him but there's only room for so many. Molumby is around too.
Who would be your five or six in the reckoning for the friendlies ? Taylor, Kilkenny, Doyle-Hayes, Ronan for me if they continue their seasons. Nathan Collins I'm counting as in already despite not playing.
It'd be nice if Obafemi bought an alarm clock and sorted himself out to join them but the odds continue to lengthen on that one.
I think Cullen and Doherty were the only players to start all the qualifiers. It means we probably do need to look at an alternative option to Cullen in the friendlies anyway. There's the tried and failed in Hourihane, then there's the all action but erratic Molumby. There's also the likes of Browne and Knight who could potentially do a job in the current squad. Jack Taylor was called up and probably comes close to fitting the bill, then in the 21s we have Coventry and Kilkenny who won't be far away from stepping up. Taylor seems to be ahead of Coventry at club level so unless that reverses Taylor is probably in prime position and Kilkenny is having a great season so he's most likely next in line for a senior cap.
Would like to see Manning get some playing time soon too. I always wonder about a player like that, who gets called up all the time, but even when it looks like there's a gap for him to come in he gets overlooked for someone like McClean. It makes me think he's not a great trainer, or there's just something management don't quite trust about him.
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I think my favorite post Ive read(Im sorry I cant remember who wrote it) about how its unfair to be too harsh on the young strikers is that at 19/ 20 Ogbene was playing for Limerick. He wasnt exactly starring there either. Ive been very guilty myself of criticizing Connolly and Obafemi in particular but they are young guys who still have loads of time to improve. Robinson is 26 now, its taken him until the last 6 months to really establish himself with us.
That being said, being late for training consistently, getting into fights in nightclubs, not putting the effort in overall is not going to help them improve. They all still have time but it wont get handed to them, they need to work if they are going to be successful footballers.
But equally, I'm sure there's plenty of players who spend a couple of years on the fringes of a Premier League side without really breaking through, and then drop down the divisions to settle in the third/fourth tier. Why compare to Aldridge and not to the other side of things?
I don't think anyone's writing Idah off for ever and ever - but on the flip side I think it's reasonable to speculate whether he'll be an international in, say, five years' time. We've a lot of young players and the harsh reality of young players is that not all of them can make it.
To be honest, if his club situation doesn't change by March, I wouldn't have him in the squad then. Ten minutes every other week isn't really what's needed, especially if Scott Hogan has, say, 12-15 Championship goals by then.
Remember he was a 4-3-3 man no matter what also? The formation, style of play, patterns of play, set pieces etc etc etc have all dramatically improved over the past year. Others have noted how well coached the team looks now. It's clear that Anthony Barry has had a major influence on things.
If keeping Barry on board is dependent on Kenny keeping his job, then I think everyone can accept that. If it looks like he's leaving, gets a job offer or something like that, then I think we need to make a move and offer him the top job.
Now, Kenny has to get credit for bringing Barry on board. Having such a highly rated coach is having a hugely positive impact on many players who wouldn't have had access to this high level of coaching. Things obviously haven't been perfect, far from it but from a position where we were really struggling last year, things have improved since Barry started in February.
I know there are many people who will see this as an attack on Kenny. Far from it. We all want what's best for Ireland and I don't think anyone could argue that having the Chelsea coach involved isn't a great thing for us. We need to keep him at all costs.
Yeah, cos the improvement couldn’t possibly be down to the manager, or other factors, such as the emergence and growing experience of the young players, the emergence of Callum Robinson as a decent striker. No, that couldn’t possibly be it.
Really, the lengths that people will go to to avoid giving Kenny any sort of credit are just bizarre.
Out for a spell, got neglected, lay on the bench unselected.
I just gave Kenny credit in that post you quoted. It's not a criticism of Kenny to say that Barry has been vital to the improvement in performance. It's a pretty obvious fact. You just have to look at the formation and set up.
As I said, there have been improvements but that was from a very low base. We struggled for long periods against Luxembourg and the Portugal game was a turgid 0-0. Some people are getting carried away with beating Azerbaijan and Luxembourg. We have a lot of work to do but with Barry involved and some young players beginning to show promise, we could improve further.
BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!!
What’s the Luxembourg manager saying about Irish staff being disrespectful?
I read his quote and can’t make sense of it
As Stutts pointed out, it was curious why McClean was selected ahead of Stevens. But aside from McClean making numerous basic technical errors, it should be added that he just never gives up when other players (Doherty and Hendrick) were gasping. He managed to sprint back often for defensive cover, crucially so on 2 occasions and at the end his fitness and concentration on the 90th minute, his control and execution of the cross field pass to land on a sixpence was the technical highlight of the game. Kenny did not substitute him. We won't miss him when he goes but at the same time we will miss him, his attitude is just so positive when lesser mortals would be thinking they're an imposter.
Unusually so for an almost dead rubber game, I enjoyed it immensely even through the ping pong mistakes from both teams. The atmosphere was cracking and the large raucous Irish support had a ball. We were crap in the 2nd half until suddenly we weren't, when our football began to make sense.
would have loved to have been there, certainly sounded like a brilliant atmosphere
Possibly you would've had to side step the footie voices imposed inside your head, your conscience telling you not to over celebrate a victory against Luxembourg, there are reductions - important reductions. It's only Luxembourg, if only the ref had allowed that Lux goal it could have been so different and Kenny only stumbled onto a substitution positive by accident. And if you do celebrate victory, remember that it was the first coach's victory. It has been scientifically proved that we were totally on the wrong path until Mr. Browne turned up and shifted our fortunes from an irreversible slide into the rabbit hole to viewing a happier tomorrow.
I remember our awful performance in scraping past Luxembourg under Charlton in our hero era, but somehow that's not of import right now.
John Giles on the Dunphy podcast conveniently forgets how his team peppered with top division players scraped by teams like this away (sometimes) and now pontificates reservedly on a 3 nil victory. Brady?? just how many times did Brady play in an Irish team which got neutered by banality on away turf, 0-1 to one of the worst teams in Europe then, Norway, and the loss to a rubbish Switzerland was pathetic then for that Irish team. Possibly my mind has been taken over by the spirit of OwlsFan and I am just channeling his thoughts, but this time I don't object.
But we dominated from 62 minutes on when Knight (not Browne) came in. Kenny has learned a lesson now with regards to playing 3 forwards/strikers there. He probably should have learned it against Azerbaijan but hopefully the penny has dropped.
Either way, all this revisionism and hypothesizing is rubbish. We had chances in the first 62 minutes too. We should have had a penalty. Duffy was pushed. A keeper that Kenny has given his head to made a top notch save. Kenny made the substitute- he didn't stumble onto it.
The game finished 3-0. If Luxembourg's goal had been allowed to stand how do you even know how the game would have finished? Why wouldn't it have been as likely to finish 3-1?
I've been dragged down the rabbit hole now but some of this talked is so frustrating.
BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!
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