Id agree that I'd like to have better options available down the line, but I think right now hes a guaranteed started for us. Hes done very well in the last year.Originally Posted by third policeman
Watching it back at the moment and the first 17 minutes really is pretty much perfect. Latvia hardly have a touch. Two well executed goals, positive attacking play and no real mistakes to speak of.
Just spotted the Latvian manager chatting to the midfielder in 19 minutes. I’d spotted that in the ground and whatever little change they made certainly had an impact.
*it looks to me that they asked one of the front two to drop a little deeper and man mark Molumby.
Last edited by passinginterest; 23/03/2023 at 8:12 PM.
Id be curious to see what you think on the watch back about how much changed for us once Smallbone dropped deeper in the second half. I cant say I really thought about it at the time, but that seemed to coincide with us getting a bit more control back?
Probably being harsh on Doherty for the first Latvia goal. He’s under pressure and was one of the best players up to then. We have plenty behind the ball. He probably should have played the easy ball back to Omobamidele but it shouldn’t have been as deadly as it turned out.
The striker who scores is the one who started man marking Molumby and that’s how he finds himself in that space to score. He had been tracking Molumby back, then Molumby drops deeper chasing the ball while he just lingers in the space. It’s a great strike but Kelleher really doesn’t seem to get off the ground at all, starting position probably a bit off and left himself too much to do.
Didn’t play as badly between the Latvia goals as I’d felt in the ground. Actually had a couple of decent chances, Obafemi had a good effort blocked and might have had a penalty with VAR for the Latvia handball.
I thought Molumby was hard done by for the free kick. Thought at the time he was pulled back first and feel the same seeing it again. It is poor defending for the two lads to bump each other and fluff the clearance. Still think Kelleher was a little flat footed and could have saved it.
Overall, it was a positive half and hard to believe it was level going in. Only glaring errors I can think of were Browne missing what was effectively one on one with options either side too, one terrible pass from Ferguson, the Doherty pass leading to the first goal and I think Collins had one bad one.
The Latvian change to cut off the easy out ball to Molumby did make a difference. It meant we couldn’t get the ball out to the wings as often further up because we had to play out through the wingers more often rather than up the middle and then wide.
Last edited by passinginterest; 23/03/2023 at 8:47 PM.
Yes I'd leave Ferguson up top on his own with Smallbone offering support when possible
Folding my way into the big money!!!
mod warning: Kingdom and POS cut it out please.
Out of interest, who do you feel will be our better midfield options in a year or two? IMHO, it's our weakest line.
Hodge, Connell, Coventry, Philips, Lawal are players that could come into the midfield in the next 2 years. If even just 2 from them are good enough thats s decent return.
Sorry mod. Will do.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
I’d add Moran and Azaz to that list.
youd have to hope that hodge is the one to kick on from those mentioned. philips is a really interesting one, looks like a player that needs a full season in l1 to find himself maybe a similar route that hourihane took. he wont be near PL level returning from loan. Not one to question brightons pathways to first team football but youd be thinking moran probably needs a move to a championship contender in the summer aswell. the 6+8 spots are badly short of players we desperately need some depth in there over the next 2 years. one thing is certain , molumby cant deputise for cullen. the lack of any real replacement is our biggest current worry.
If we could find a Ferguson or a Collins for midfield I think we’d actually be well on the way to having a very decent team. If you can project forward 2/3 years when Collins, Omobadele and O’Shea have a couple years more experience, when Ferguson is 20/21 we could be in a much better place. Of the midfielders you mention I’m not really familiar with them. Saw a bit of Hodge in one of the U21 games and I thought he looked good. Have also seen Coventry at that level and thought he looked ok,but not necessarily someone who is going to step up. It’s been mentioned before about the possibility of doing a “Paul McGrath” with Collins and pushing him forward into midfield. It might be worth looking at given the depth of options available at the back. He’s potentially good enough on the ball to do it.
Out for a spell, got neglected, lay on the bench unselected.
100% true, I mentioned it to my pals at the time. It shows that that's how to beat the press - something a bit unexpected even if this was accidental rather than clever.
Coleman a doubt with thigh injury.
Apparently why he missed Latvia game.
You’d think if they knew about it before then that Monday would be time enough to get him right?
Late to this thread after a hectic 48 hours at work.
I enjoyed the game. I thought we played well for most of the game but our habitual brainfarts made it closer than it should have been.
We played some very enterprising football. Smallbone has a lovely elegant nonchalant swagger about him. He and Doc read each other’s games beautifully. It was a fairly easy debut for Smallbone though and his final ball wasn’t always great, but he deserved his MOTM award.
Ferguson yet again shows he has the knack of the ball finding him where it’s easy to score. I think this lad will score a lot of single touch tap ins.
Collins could definitely do a job in midfield if it was ever needed. It’s not something I’d typically endorse but in Cullen’s absence Collins took the ball out of defence into Cullen’s space and developed play. O’Shea is a good ball carrier too.
I think Ireland are a bit like Shamrock Rovers. We play with the right intentions but are vulnerable in transition and we seem to be getting disproportionately punished by half-chances from distance. Defending set pieces is a bit of a worry and individual mistakes are continuing to hurt us.
Doc was very careless for the first goal. I was more than underwhelmed by Kelleher tbh. The first was a worldie but his anticipation, footwork and his actual dive were all poor. And although the second was deflected you could tell by the way he tried to save it that he did see everything early enough to save it – but just didn’t. So Doc and Kelleher were poor for our goals imho. Common theme? Neither is playing regularly.
We had a nailed on penalty denied for a handball at 2-1 and Browne wasted a chance for a super goal from clever build up play.
Kenny’s subs (for once!) were perfect and perfectly timed. Johnston was a joy to watch and at least once took the unselfish option where he might have been better off continuing solo – my guess is because he was debut-boy and didn’t want to appear selfish. I never got the negativity about his call up. I said I had an open mind, and I’m glad I did. He was very highly rated when younger. If what he did was so easy because it was only Latvia, how come nobody else did it? CO’D, McClean…
A few pages back or in another thread I think it was Razor who listed all the players 25 or under who are already regulars in the team. Ferguson, Smallbone and Johnston all look like really good “new signings” to add to an already relatively young first XI. Isn’t that just what we want from these friendlies? I think there was a lot of information value in this game, unlike Malta. I’d have liked a look at Sykes but otherwise it was very worthwhile.
New kit looked just fine too.
Yeah not giving Sykes minutes seems like a wasted opportunity. What did we find out about Browne and Hendrick that we didn't already know? The former isn't good enough and the latter is no longer good enough.
Perhaps they've looked at Sykes in training and he's hesitant. I'm trying to think how many squads was Will Keane in before he got his first run - was it 3(as in 3 windows, rather than 3 games)?
If Coleman is a concern, then Browne would be cover I'd imagine, along with Ogbene in a 343 if we're chasing the game. Not ideal, and would question (again would question the reluctance to have involved Danny Mc at this stage - without even intimating that he's at the level of the incumbents);
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
I have only seen the first half in any good detail. From a Latvian perspective I was impressed with how they played the game considering their players are mostly from the lowest league in europe and it hasn’t even started yet. They are an extremely well coached team. Compared to us, they had a good tactical plan and were purposeful in carrying it out.
They pressed high, didn’t allow Ireland to play out, kept the press on, were mobile all around the middle, easily shut out any possession in center midfield. Browne and Molumby were effectively made redundant.
Their positive pressing led to both their goals and in general they were prepared to attack when it was favorable. Tactically they reminded me of Iceland in 2016.
Ireland had a huge hole in centre midfield where nothing was managed in the first half except for one ball driven forward which incidentally happened to lead to the first goal.
Ireland have an ineffective press, Latvian defense bringing the ball out could spread it with ease. I still don't get what game Kenny wants Ireland to play, we are going to cough up the ball in splutters.
If Latvia can do that to Ireland, what then? Apart from the new kids I was overall disappointed with the first half performance and the managers tactics.
Obafemi is still a ? Browne and Molumby are just not good enough.
There’s a big onus on Cullen to perform, and which other midfielder will support him?
I suspect he just wanted experience on the pitch for the last part of the game given how naivety had cost us a lead once already.
I think this is definitely worth a try and I wonder have they experimented in training. The way Collins strides out with the ball, communicating to his team-mates about where he's going to play the ball makes me think it could work. He's so composed. And we've a shedload of centre-halfs.
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