QuoteTwo poor campaigns and two easy-beat competitive wins in sixteen games. The system.Originally Posted by Diggs246
The system allows for cullen and jeff in the middle. Knight could take Jeffs place ..won't he won't
Two poor campaigns and two easy-beat competitive wins in sixteen games. The system.
Asking Knight to play in a midfield 2 and a midfield 3 are two different things. I'm not saying he can't do it, but you'd be restricting him from doing the things he does best.
If you consider the roles that Cullen and Hendrick are asked to play, they're generally behind the ball, doing more defensive work and early build up play, and are rarely in positions in the final third to impact. you probably want Knight to have a little more freedom
To be fair "the system" wasn't used for much of that period - and it was at its worst when we tried to play three forwards rather than a Knight or McGrath in an advanced position alongside two forwards.
So the selection of Knight where he is being picked is sound. The rest of them can battle it out for the other two forward places.
And yet Idah was the only one playing in the Premiership this season and was in good form before his season ending injury. Right now I'd actually have Idah as the current best forward we have. His performance away to Portugal was brilliant.
Idah was good away against Portugal, but that's about it really. Hauling him off in Luxembourg changed the game, by contrast.
His good Premier League form was patchy I think. A couple of poor performances (like a lot of his teammates), and a couple of good games which yielded a slightly fortunate goal, a very bad miss, and a couple of assists. I think he lacks a bit of composure in front of goal still and needs more playing time to address that.
Obafemi's form (if he pops along in June, yadda yadda yadda) is far more impressive than Idah's. 8 goals and a couple of assists in 12 games is sit-up-and-take-notice form. Parrott is also starting to deliver, albeit at a lower level and I'd like to see how he does and where he's at next season before saying he's miles better than others in the squad.
I wouldn't have Idah as the best forward we have available to us. Robinson - who I've said before isn't droppable - scored six times last autumn for example. Idah started two of those games and didn't get a sniff at goal. (I know scoring goals isn't the be-all-and-end-all for forwards, but it's a big deal nonetheless)
Obafemis form in the last couple months has been great, but from what Ive seen of both over all I think Idah is a better player personally.
What makes you think that? What has he done to give you that opinion? Have you watched equal amounts of them at club level? Or is it based on the fact you've just seen idah playing for Ireland and a handful of games in the premiership and not the same for obafemi?
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 watched most of Swanseas games in the last couple months and watched all of Norwich games when Idah played this season.
I also watch both of them in ever u21 game they played for Ireland.
With Parrott getting four goals in a game recently, Cannon doing likewise, Idah starting to score again at Celtic, Mark O'Mahony scoring in his last two games for Pompey, Sinclair Armstrong showing some goalscoring form, and even Obafemi hitting the back of the net today, is it overly optimistic of me to resurrect this thread? Perhaps, but if Connolly comes off the bench next week to score a last-minute winner for Sunderland, I think it will be justified
Yes, yes it is.
The thread was best left wherever it had ended up.
Look, I'm as happy as the next man we're no longer picking Sammon v England at Wembley & watching him fail to control a throw in, or howling for Seanie Maguire as the saviour or throwing Graham Burke in against France or hoping Scotty Hogan doesn't do too well so might reconnect with his Irish side. Things are a bit better but there's no embarrassment of riches at international tier two standard or even tier three.
One of your original players is in Munster Senior League now.
Parrott is rebuilding, after a series of anticlimactic loans in England he's stabilised in Holland and at a good second tier club in a second tier league.
Cannon likewise, the Leicester manager recently bemoaned having no fit strikers for a match while having Cannon available & fit. There's embarrassment there but not the riches type.
Idah, doing well with the minutes he's getting so far.
O'Mahony, way too early to be placing this kind of nonsensical expectation on him.
Armstrong misses chances that need to go in.
Obafemi & Connolly, will you stop. Just don't.
We're talking about having to usurp a seed two nation in a qualifying situation here, that's the level. There's maybe scope for cautious optimism but you really need to make comparable lists of who we are facing, all their forwards & you wouldn't be talking about embarrassment of riches if you did that. And that's what's relevant, the opposition we will face & not just the goldfish bowl of Irish soccer where every youngster is news purely because we have so few.
I think encouraging depth would be closer to being accurate than embarrassing riches. In Ferguson, Cannon, Idah, Parrott and Armstrong we look like we will have a solid core group of strikers for the next decade. Vata, Melia, Emakhu or O'Mahony may or may not join that group in time. Connolly or Obafemi may or may not get their heads sufficiently screwed on to finally fulfill their potential.
But if we can't find a way to create chances for them it won't really matter anyway. That's the big task for Hallgrimsson now.
So long as it doesn't take away from our centre-back nirvana !
Reminded me that our center backs have been among our most reliable scorers through the years... wasn't Duffy our top scorer in some qualifying groups?!
Riches or not? I think the answer comes down to the level of hope experienced by the observer. At the moment, even after the last disaster of a window, I can feel the hope rising again so am inclined to say we have a lot of promise in the attacking department, if not exactly 'an embarrassment of riches'. That said, I appreciate the nay sayers, because it's the hope that kills you, which means the nay sayers are life savers... that I will likely ignore every time until the final whistle goes.
I think there's a good chance that most of Vata, Melia, Emakhu and O'Mahony get to a level around where Cannon, Idah, Parrott and Armstrong are currently at.
I think the issue is more how much that 8 progress. They are all well positioned and regarded and at a good age with scope to progress. If one or two or three of them could become consistent Premiership (or equivalent) level players it would be great.
Emakhu and Vata can and do play as wide forwards too which is helpful. Parrott and Melia may have qualities that can be used too out wide, behind or beside a centre forward.
I'm considering Ferguson separately. My view is that current blip is injury and form related and might only bring him on. He is nailed on to become a consistent Premiership player and has had periods of consistency at that level already (consistency intra season or season on season - a few ways of looking at it).
Ha! I did check that list and saw that - also Ryan Cassidy is now at Hayes and Yeading - it really looked at the time like he might break through at a high level - he was scoring for fun for Watford underage teams. But out of the twenty I listed, seven now have caps (yes, I know, Connolly and Obafemi have gone worryingly backwards since) and Mark O'Mahony is showing serious promise plus Franco Umeh is now appearing regularly in matchday squads. Most of the others look like they'll probably end up in the lower leagues or LOI.
That's reasonable - FWIW, in the last year Greece have called up four strikers from the Greek Super League, one from a recently promoted Turkish Super Lig club, one each from Benfica, Celta Vigo, Club Brugge and Cruz Azul. If we include Szmodics and Robinson, we have two forwards in the Premier League (three if we consider Ogbene a forward), six in The Championship (yes, I'm including Obafemi and Connolly), Idah scoring regularly at Celtic and Parrott at one of the bigger Eredivisie teams. It's a little tricky to compare, especially as some of our lads are just establishing themselves while others have been... em... inconsistent, to put it kindly (Connolly, Obafemi). But if they could all continue their recent form, then I think our forward line would actually be better than Greece's
& even if they are, or become that, can you point out the embarrassment of riches, relative to UEFA qualification groups which is our reality Sam ? There just isn't one.
I'd refer again to Portugal bringing on Silva late on when desperate for a goal who had outscored Haaland in Germany at the time. I'd refer to France not taking Benzema to a WC. Etc.
We're better than we were.
We will improve further as these lads settle into their careers.
& I look forward to that as much as anyone.
What we have are some options who on their day might get us a goal or two on a good day.
Its a really good topic, just badly titled IMO.
I don't think anyone is comparing us to France or Portugal to be fair. Our comparison would be with other teams around pots 2 and 3, from Scotland to Hungary to Slovakia and so on.
We had about 13 years without producing a decent striker via our youth system. Basically from Shane Long from 1987 to the Kenny group of u21s (Idah, Connolly, Parrott, Obafemi).
All of our best wingers in that period were also developed in other youth systems (McClean, Robinson, Johnston) or missed underage football entirely (Ogbene). O’Dowda is pretty much the best winger that was an underage footballer and Seanie Maguire the best striker…
So in the context of an absolute barren decade or more, it does feel like there’s a relative embarrassment of riches.
You’ve suddenly got 7 lads who at their best have looked good enough to contribute internationally:
Ferguson
Connolly
Idah
Obafemi
Cannon
Szmodics
Parrott
Then you’ve got loads of lads right behind them who look very promising, looking just at the 21s squad:
Armstrong
Emakhu
O’Mahony
Kenny
Melia
And you could find another good handful of exciting players further down the system, along with dual eligible players like Louie Barry
You’ll always get lads like Glen McAuley who look promising at u17 or u19 and end up playing LSL -but I do think the landscape today if infinitely better than a decade ago
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks