We can only hope Ukraine play a bit of a second team on Wednesday because they’ve a huge game tomorrow and hope Scotland maybe do the same,I still wouldn’t be confident watching us today….
I thought we played very well The killing pass is not there, the front 3 play very separated from each other, the width comes from the rwb and lwb , the main problem is the final ball and Ogbene missed a few, Robinson is not a 9,/ nor Ogbene nor Parrott who can score but is more of a second striker. We can't afford not playing a 9.
I agree about the 3-4-1-2 in theory but it’s a slight variation of what we currently do (more of a 3-4-2-1). If Obafemi is our 9 (not exactly in the Frank Stapleton mode but a 9 nonetheless) then we need a true 10 playing really close to him (like Piroe). That probably means Parrott in the absence of anyone else remotely capable of playing that type of position. Maddison would plug that gap…(can dream). This means you lose a spot for Ogbene unless you play him RWB.
https://www.the42.ie/stephen-kenny-59-5783290-Jun2022/
Err, so they had played five at the back before?We studied Armenia’s last 20 games: they had never played five at the back before, only once against Germany. They always played 4-4-2.
There's something that's being forgotten about in all this embarrassing result talk... the nations league is supposedly 4 teams equally matched in a group. Yeah we are better than Armenia and should be beating but they are in same group as us for a reason. We struggled to beat them before out there too. On another day we would have won that game today.
I still think we'll get good results in the next 3 games. We have improved even if today's result doesn't show it.
That’s a poor interview. He basically admits he got outplayed by their guy before the game and out coached at half time. I get more and more disappointed by that performance the more I study it. It’s still salvageable (big picture) but it’s also time to start consistently delivering performances and results.
I think there's something in that - but since gaining promotion, their captain and best player has retired, they've lost 5-0 at home to North Macedonia, drawn at home to Liechtenstein, and of course lost 9-0 in Norway. They're the lowest-ranked side in League B. If we can't beat them, then don't really have any business being in League B ourselves.
And the problem is it's not the first time we've struggled against a side like them. Luxembourg at home, Azerbaijan at home, Lithuania at home, Luxembourg away for 65 minutes - it's been the same story each time.
I do think there'll be a bit of a bounce on Wednesday - not necessarily enough to win the game, but enough to put in a respectable performance - but that's not much good to us if we can't put away the sides ranked below us.
Last edited by pineapple stu; 04/06/2022 at 6:10 PM.
As I said I think we do struggle against teams that sit back and we definitely have to improve on thar. Against better teams we are pretty good
Lads again I watched The game in Buenos Aires, we made mistakes up front I catched The match At 12 minutes that had started. We dominated them, they played very cagey. Our main problem is upfront, ogbene is not Frank Stapleton who would have had a hattrick At halftime in his prime with those chances donkey Ogbene missed, Ogbene' game is on The sides beat the man and create but he is not a 9 and he is not a goalscorer he could score. What if he had a Shane Long he is not there for Colllins At half time. When Kenny fell in love with The stalement is when they scored. If there is something to blame Kenny is his lack of ambition to kill off The match. There is still a place for someone like Shane Long after this, we cant play without a true 9. Kenny's Eire played good football until where it matters, I would even try Manning as playmaker as how things are, we need to reshuffle it to a 3-4-1-2 I would try Ogbene where he can affect The game, on The sides, one more thing on Ogbene, The way he was disspossed of The ball one on one with The last defender it demostrate he is not a 9. We didnt even shield The ball for a penalty
I think Razor has summed up a lot of my thoughts on it in his last few posts. One of the frustrating things about Kenny is his reluctance to change things or have a plan B (feels like we’ve been saying that since the Trap days anyway). He sets up a particular way and he doesn’t seem to be learning to make dynamic changes. The subs always seem to be that little too late and like for like, even if they’re slightly different players coming in. Knight coming on could have allowed a change to more of a front 2 with him behind but he just went into the same spot as Parrot.
The really frustrating thing is, they’ll almost certainly be much better against Scotland and Ukraine and 4 or even 6 points wouldn’t be a massive shock. As Razor has said, Armenia are in the same league as us, so they’re meant to be around our level. Yet, for long spells we cruised through the game and hardly gave up a chance. We’ve long struggled to put the ball in the net and that was the downfall again. There’s quick exciting talent coming through, which is great against better teams who play higher up, but those are the very players that can be shut down with a team playing deep. We lack a pure goal poacher and worse a genuine creative midfielder who would be the idea players against a team sitting so deep. Even at that, we had something like 26 crosses according to LiveScore, they weren’t all punts into the box either, in the first half especially there was a few really dangerous ones where we broke their lines but the finish just didn’t come. That’s the type of play we lacked completely in the last five years, when set pieces seemed to be our only chances. Set pieces still look our best chances now, but at least there’s something else being created.
It’s a horrible result. Another box set back, but there was good progress in the previous games and there’s potential now to bounce back again. No doubt Kenny is under pressure with anything less than 5 points from the next three games.
But we have the players he is just missplacing them. Ronan should start there with Long Ogbene and Robinson, Robinson is not a fighter wouldnt say he is a coward but he is not the player to fight back the center backs, Kenny should have subbed on a striker for a defender after 60 minutes, his lack of bit of ambition is what worries me more, he fell in love with a draw,
He have the players he is just missusing them. Today I would have meant a lot with Ronan and Shane Long on the pitch.
Ronan is injured and unavailable.
If you want to comment on the Ukraine game on Wednesday, please post a link to any evidence that it will be broadcast in Argentina beforehand
I watched that liechtenstein as I mentioned and similarities with what they did to Armenia , Armenia did to us today but Armenia were much better at it - and capable of scoring. But no ones going to know that right? And no one's going to care all that people see is the result. And that's all that matters , it's a results business in international football. Our results have really been poor, what positive result sticks out that we haven't achieved for years on end? Now what negative result? Very many unfortunately. We didnt look any more likely today to score than we did against Bulgaria way back at the start of his nations league reign. But armenia and Luxembourg and Azerbaijan had that bit more than Bulgaria when it came to actually attacking intent and how to go about it.
You can say all day long how we held out for 80odd minutes against a very inconsistent Portugal and drew with Serbia. But we were well outplayed in both of those games
What good is a bounce really ? In 2 years we havent come any further than showing we're not guaranteed a good result or even performance against a much weaker nation
Last edited by paul_oshea; 04/06/2022 at 7:28 PM.
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
We do seem to struggle more against the lesser teams but we're not beating the better ones either (and that's been an issue LONG before Kenny obviously). I hope I'm completely proven wrong here and feel free to rub my face in it if so but I think it's bringing optimism to the point of lunacy to see this team as capable of picking up anywhere close to 7 points from the next 3 games. I can't see any way we'll get more than 4 and I wouldn't be shocked if it was half that.
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