Malta V Republic of Ireland - Sunday, 20th November 2022 - Friendly

[Stuttgart88]

Christ that was a long hard watch, and after a truly dreadful WC opener too. I put myself in the shoes of one of those Americans who doesn't get football and thought maybe they're right.

Sykes looked good in his 5 minutes.That was about as exciting as it got, and added to the frustration - why not take a look at guys like this for longer?

I don't think any player played particularly badly. We had almost total control of the game, it was just the continuously slow, laboured, unpenetrative build up and recycling never looked like creating any pressure or chances.

[Diggs246]

https://extra.ie/2022/11/19/sport/so...-stephen-kenny

[Jd2793]

the fighting spirit thing is a bit nonsensical tbh. we are crap , sack him for that reason, sack him for his poor in game decisions. not for "losing the fighting spirit" which is at best some imaginary thing we feel is innate to us a nation

[texidub]

Today I feel like a disappointed, red haired Republic of Ireland fan - Infantino

[third policeman]

I think he may have been using "fighting spirit" as a reference to intensity, energy, tempo....... all of which were absent from both these games.

[D24Saint]

Malta after bringing on a guy who didn't work out at Pat's last year, just to put this in context

Very kindly put. Not having the ability to kick snow off a rope is another way of summing up his time in Richmond.

[Stuttgart88]

It was obvious after only a few minutes how bad Malta were. Was their starting XI last night much different than against Greece? Was Greece's XI close to their normal first XI? Because 2-2 isn't a bad result at all for Malta v Greece but on yestrerday's evidence it's hard to see where it came from.

[Stuttgart88]

I think he may have been using "fighting spirit" as a reference to intensity, energy, tempo....... all of which were absent from both these games.

It was there for parts of the Norway game and during those parts we were decent enough.

[Diggs246]

It was obvious after only a few minutes how bad Malta were. Was their starting XI last night much different than against Greece? Was Greece's XI close to their normal first XI? Because 2-2 isn't a bad result at all for Malta v Greece but on yestrerday's evidence it's hard to see where it came from.

Greece had a man sent off

[seanfhear]

Today I feel like a disappointed, red haired Republic of Ireland fan - Infantino

Some people just can’t catch a break.

[Jd2793]

Greece had a man sent off

after 79 mins , they were already 2-1 down at that stage

[2 Year Contract]

Greece had a man sent off

They only got the red card with 10 minutes left to be fair with the game at 2-1 Malta at the time. They got an equaliser with 10 men with 4 minutes to go

[pineapple stu]

Greece had a man sent off

Malta started against Greece with -

Henry Bonello
Steve Borg
Enrico Pepe
Jean Borg
Joseph Mbong
Matthew Guillaumier
Teddy Teuma
Ryan Camenzuli
Paul Mbong
Shaun Dimech
Jurgen Degabriele

I think one of the Borgs, Dimech and Degabriele didn't play against us, though Jodi Jones of Oxford came in and that should have strengthened them you'd have thought.

[pineapple stu]

Other thing that's worrying lately is our defence. Can't remember the goals against Scotland - other than one being a daft penalty against I think Browne? - but against Armenia we conceded two soft goals that Bazunu in particular should have done much better for, then Norway was two really lax set pieces, and last night then Malta had two great chances which a better side would have made Kelleher work a lot more for. The first one in particular was a defender (Coleman?) completely missing a header and leaving a 3v1 break, and then another good chance late in the second; a shot from the D which again a better player will punish

We do play up better than down, and we've done backs-to-the-wall defending reasonably well against Serbia and Portugal. I suspect we'll need to do it against France in March, and if we're not defending as well as before, it could be a very long night

[Jd2793]

Other thing that's worrying lately is our defence. Can't remember the goals against Scotland - other than one being a daft penalty against I think Browne? - but against Armenia we conceded two soft goals that Bazunu in particular should have done much better for, then Norway was two really lax set pieces, and last night then Malta had two great chances which a better side would have made Kelleher work a lot more for.

We do play up better than down, and we've done backs-to-the-wall defending reasonably well against Serbia and Portugal. I suspect we'll need to do it against France in March, and if we're not defending as well as before, it could be a very long night

we do look very open in any sort of counter situation though. even last night early doors got caught twice. its a common theme under SK thats never really been addressed, another issue with our midfielders imo.

[pineapple stu]

Probably do, but in Portugal for example our defence held firm and against Serbia our keeper bailed us out. But they failed us against Norway and Armenia respectively.

They really can't afford to do that against France.

[Stuttgart88]

Other thing that's worrying lately is our defence. Can't remember the goals against Scotland - other than one being a daft penalty against I think Browne? - but against Armenia we conceded two soft goals that Bazunu in particular should have done much better for, then Norway was two really lax set pieces, and last night then Malta had two great chances which a better side would have made Kelleher work a lot more for. The first one in particular was a defender (Coleman?) completely missing a header and leaving a 3v1 break, and then another good chance late in the second; a shot from the D which again a better player will punish

We do play up better than down, and we've done backs-to-the-wall defending reasonably well against Serbia and Portugal. I suspect we'll need to do it against France in March, and if we're not defending as well as before, it could be a very long night

Yes, Browne. Other was a header from a cross after Doherty over-committed himself and was beaten easily.

[Fixer82]

Watching England V Iran here. England schooling them. I'm positive Iran would beat us well

[Stuttgart88]

t's hard to tell what level Iran really are but I'm watching this just depressed on how far off the level required to be competitive we are. It's not just the skill, it's the pace and athleticism.

[youngirish]

I hear Steve Bruce is available.