I think this paragraph from Ken Early says it all for me:
Ireland’s sterile domination in Armenia had been frustrating to watch but here it was replaced by a kind of entropic nothingness. James McClean, Dara O’Shea, Michael Obafemi, Alan Browne and CJ Hamilton were all introduced as Ireland mounted a feeble late onslaught in which all the best chances seemed to fall, as ever, to Shane Duffy. For all the talk of a vibrant new style of play, this team has never seemed more reliant on him. When the pressure is on, Ireland’s plan still boils down to “ball on largest man’s head”.
The more things change the more they stay the same!
I just saw no shape, pattern, purpose, design or anything last night. I’ll hold my hands up and say now there’s probably more to the Anthony Barry thing than I was prepared to admit before.
I’d have been happier to have been mugged trying to play naïve build-from-the-back tippy tappy but I don’t even know what identity the team had last night. I’m no tactical expert but I thought we made an already big pitch look huge. There were gaps between our various lines and I’d say aerial snapshots would show big distances between our players at lot of the time. Contrast that to Ukraine who got men close to each other, attacked as a pack and as such never really needed to do anything particularly creative. They just knocked it to each other and probed, made clever runs, found nice angles, got between our lines, all with ease.
And – and this is where I give SK a pass – I doubt any of that is down to what they do on the training ground. For me it’s just normal football, stuff you learn as a kid and do instinctively as a result. I grew up in a middle class suburb in Dublin, so not quite the fabled inner city streets where so many Ireland greats learnt street football. But we played footy on the street all the time as kids and there was almost an unwritten rule that you didn’t score unless it was a worldie or a carefully crafted tap in. We tried to humiliate each other and did so by creating what coaches call overloads and we just used our wits.
I saw no evidence of that kind of instinct in our players last night.
Positives were few. I think we should have had a pen in the first half and Duffy should have scored (good save all the same) but they’re just isolated moments. Their goal was a bit waxy but come on, we’ve got to question Kelleher. In the “Embarrassment of Riches” thread I said that I was sceptical of him against a good inswinger and wanted to see him cope with these trickier aspects of goalkeeping on a consistent basis. His handling and distribution were good throughout, but his anticipation and footwork were both awful for the goal. And although the disallowed volley was a great shot, I still think he looks small in the goals.
Originally Posted by Eirambler
Bookmarks