loi is closer to the conference/conf south as a whole. rovers would give a l1 side a game the rest? not a chance. couple of players within the league capable of playing to that level but not more than a handful.Originally Posted by sparky12345678
He plays his best football at club level in an advanced position. He has consistently disappointed for Ireland in deep positions. Agree totally on Cullen.
loi is closer to the conference/conf south as a whole. rovers would give a l1 side a game the rest? not a chance. couple of players within the league capable of playing to that level but not more than a handful.
I know he didn't have a load to do but Collins looks the real deal. We may need an "Embarrassment of riches: centre half" thread!
Yes, he does, and that is easier for him to achieve in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1. He often played on the left or right of the midfield 3 for Villa and that was where he was best for them and then playing in the 10 role would suit too.
However, it doesn't look likely that he would be able to occupy either of the spots near the striker in our 3-4-3. Those positions are reserved for lads that can work and press and cover ground like Ogbene, Knight, McGrath or that are forward players looking to pick up awkward positions like Robinson and Idah.
Honestly, it's like he was built to be high level centre half. The way he controls, passes, heads and tackles is all so natural to him. I don't want to attract accusations of hype but I would be shocked if he isn't a Premiership defender for a long time to come. I've liked O'Shea and Omobamidele a lot but this guy just feels more like a sure thing.
Not wanting to drag this off topic either with the where does LOI rank side of it, which is a bit pointless and always divides opinion & its an Ireland match thread.
I think a number of things have calmed the calls for LOI players, its early season here being part of it. We have players coming through at better level clubs in England to occupy the conversation which wasn't the case there for a few seasons and that drew focus on players like Maguire / Byrne and Burke, they got chances and ultimately didn't impact.
Yes agreed, mea culpa
I’ve not seen Byrne recently, but his cameos for Ireland were just that. He’s not conspicuously worse than some who have had multiple caps during the same period. I’m not necessarily advocating for his recall, but to say he didn’t impact is harsh given the very limited opportunities he has had.
A match like last night where defences are sitting in is the exact sort of match where a player like Byrne who can pick out a killer pass would be useful.
Its early season though but come the Nations league i suspect he will be on the bench at least.
Agreed. He made more of an impact v Bulgaria than Hourihane did last night against worse opposition. But he'd only be an option on the bench even if he can get back to his levels. I think he'd have stayed in and around the squad if not for the bad case of covid and then the back injury but now there's plenty ahead of him where there wasn't really when he was flying.
But as of now there's nobody close to a call up in the league and better options elsewhere. There's a few younger players worth watching mind you.
Watched some of the highlights back online, basically the offside goals, and the actual winner.
From early on in the game, it was clear that Lithuania did not come here to win, or even to play. It was very much a case of defend in numbers, and try to get something either on the break, or from a set play. There's nothing wrong with those tactics, it could even be considered a compliment - that if they tried to win the game, they would be open to our style of play - but it meant that watching it as an Ireland fan was frustrating in the extreme.
Everything good in the first half went through Ogbene. I wasn't sure what height he was before the game, but I never thought he was short, and a google afterwards puts his height around 5"11, but he still looked short against the Lithuanian defence. Likewise Will Keane (who stands about 6"1, depending on what source you trust) was crowded out every time a ball came near him, so I don't understand why we persisted in crossing more than 40 balls into the box when they were just going to be headed away anyway.
I know the trope of a player getting better when he doesn't play is tired, but this was a game that needed someone like Wes Hoolahan, to pick a pass between the lines to expose a packed defence. Wes is six weeks shy of his 40th birthday, so why not use this opportunity to give Mark Sykes(seven assists this season) his debut, or include Connor Ronan(five assists) in the squad? Among the substitutes that were named, the only player other than Sykes that could do that is Jason Knight.
It was a good result, the unbeaten streak is extended, the clean sheets record is now five in the last six, only Portugal and Serbia have scored more than one against us in twelve months, but it's hard to not feel that this game was a missed opportunity. I could have been in goals for the last twenty minutes and Lithuania still wouldn't have scored, so why not give Talbot or O'Leary a cap? When Travers and Bazunu are available again, they're unlikely to be in the squad, and if any goalkeeper is unavailable for any reason in June, throwing either of the two callups in for a debut in a Nations League game is a lot to ask.
The post reads a bit down, and my opinion of the game is anything but. By most metrics, it was a success - a win, a clean sheet at home, a fine winning goal, chances created, opposition dominated - but still there could have been a little more done.
If Talbot or O'Leary played 20 minutes last night it would make zero difference to how they would perform if they were called into a real game.
Yeah agreed - and more valuable for Kelleher to play as many minutes as possible. There was always the chance he would get tested on the break. But tets is pretty spot on with everything else.
I think if Talbot or O'Leary were sent on it would just have been a token cap, because there's every chance that neither will ever be capped.
However I'm disappointed that there were no debuts at all across the two friendlies. In particular I would have liked to have seen at least one of Sykes or Ronan get a decent run out. Feels like a missed opportunity there, probably caused by the poor initial selection in midfield. If we had started with a proper midfield we would likely have been comfortably ahead and could then have experimented more in the second half.
My frustration with Kenny is that he's not radical enough. He has a style and a playing philosophy, so stop picking players who clearly are never going to be able to play that way like Hourihane.
Collins was popping up all over the pitch last night. There was one time he was hanging off the last Lithuanian defender trying to run onto a through ball (might have been from Hourihane) which just didn't come through to him. Wasn't the only time he was up in attack either. I know it was only Lithuania and he didn't have much defending to do, but was good to see him keen to get forward.
Also looks like a big lad; the Richie Dunne comparison someone made earlier in the thread (I think!) seems apt.
(Also, don't want to drag things too much off topic - or maybe tets/John wants to spin this out into a new thread - but JD2793 linked to this twitter thread in the Off Topic forum recently which I thought was an interesting attempt at setting out how the LoI compares to other leagues. Slightly below League 2 on average is what it reckons, but with a range between mid-table L1 (Rovers) and Conference North/South (Longford). Certainly I don't know anyone who thinks the LoI is somewhere between Championship and L1)
I could absolutely see us needing one of those before long. However we may also need embarrassment of poverty threads for left back, central midfield and up front...
That's an interesting Twitter thread. It actually more or less lines up with how I would have viewed those various leagues before I saw it - LoIP being between League 2 and National League etc. I do think it slightly overrates Shamrock Rovers though - mid table League 1 and better than every Scottish team outside of the big 2 - I'm not sure that's quite right? It might be skewed by Rovers playing European games mid season or something.
Anyway, veering off topic here.
That's actually exactly what I reckoned in the Off Topic thread too
Amazing the swings and roundabouts this can take. I thought the forwards (Obafemi, Connolly, Parrott and Idah) would be the surest things. These 3 young centre halves and 3 young goalkeepers have come up from behind them and all 6 lads look like they will be high level Championship or Premiership level footballers for the majority of their careers which means they'll be in the frame for us unless we have a drastic uptick in quality overall. The forwards have been a mixed bag and Obafemi and Idah have had really bright patches at Championship and Premiership level respectively of late. And our front 3 looks like it will be Knight, Ogbene and Robinson for the next while unless one of those guys sustains some really good club form.
I agree on midfield and left back. Coventry, Kilkenny and Johansson are 3 of the lads I think need big seasons next season and need to pick their moves wisely (assuming all of them will be on the move). Johansson I'm including because he has looked quality when I have seen him but it hasn't happened for him this season in Holland.
Hopefully we get an Ogbene-like bolter into the mix if none of those guys press on. Maybe Mark Sykes or Daniel Crowley (who I believe is playing deeper for Willem II than the 10 spot he normally occupied). Ronan is probably a player for the front line options if he does keep going.
As I type this, it is becoming clear to me that our squad has become much stronger recently.
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