Ireland squad to be announced on Thursday at 12
The Dutch have come out early with Koeman naming their provisional squad over the weekend and we'll have to wait another week for Frances squad with Deschamps set to name it next Thursday. Probably when ours will be named too after the midweek EFL cup fixtures.
Netherlands provisional squad:
Bijlow (Feyenoord), Noppert (Heerenveen), Flekken (Brentford), Verbruggen (Brighton)
Blind (Girona), Van Dijk (Liverpool), Dumfries, de Vrij (Inter Milan), de Ligt (Bayern Munich), Ake (Manchester City), Geertruida, Hartman (Feyenoord), Botman (Newcastle United), van de Ven (Tottenham), Maatsen (Chelsea)
de Jong (Barcelona), de Roon, Koopmeiners (Atalanta), Simons (RB Leipzig), Wieffer (Feyenoord), Veerman (PSV), Reijnders (AC Milan)
Depay (Atletico Madrid), Bergwijn (Ajax), Malen (Borussia Dortmund), Gakpo (Liverpool), Lang (PSV), Weghorst (Hoffenheim), Brobbey (Ajax)
Aaron Connolly to replace Obafemi is prob the only big change I'd expect
Its really not that complicated!!!
Very late squad announcement isn't it? Given the France game is next Thursday. Don't recall the announcement being as late as a week before the games before, but maybe I've not been paying too close attention.Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
A few injuries for this one of course - Coleman, McClean, Obafemi, Smallbone, Johnston. Parrott I think had been injured and maybe the couple of minutes for Excelsior at the weekend isn't enough to bring him up to match fitness for two games like these.
Realistically we should be getting nothing from these two games, but we've generally managed to play up when required (sometimes even to the extent of getting a result) and it's the games against sides equal to or lower than us where we really struggle badly. Past performance is no guarantee of future performance of course, and you'd be brave to be going to the Parc des Princes confident of getting a result. We could conceivably lose both games next week and that'd leave us all but out of things with three games to go again.
Holland v Greece at the same time as the France game may give us a better indication of Holland's current standing - was the 4-0 against France a freak result or are they in turmoil again?
Is Kenny at any of the midweek games in England? I think I read he was at games over the weekend.
Might explain why the squad isn't being announced until Thursday
Hasn't the squad always been announced on the Thursday before players meet up. Like next window in October there won't be EFL cup games but you'll have midweek championship games. France squad isn't been announced until Thursday at 2pm I believe.
Smallbone and McClean may make the squad though, per that article
Also New Zealand visiting for a friendly in November, four years since we last played them. Mad to look at the team that night - O'Hara; O'Connor, Long, Clark, Williams; Browne, Cullen, Brady, Byrne, Maguire, Parrott. Subs were Stevens, Egan, Whelan, Hogan, McClean, Robinson, Hendrick, Hourihane, Travers, O'Dowda, Judge and James Collins. A lot has happened since!
If I were guessing the squad:
1. Bazunu
2. Kelleher
3. Travers
4. Browne
5. Sykes
6. Duffy
7. Collins
8. O’Shea
9. Egan
10. Omobamidele
11. Manning
12. O’Dowda
13. Cullen
14. Molumby
15. Hendrick
16. Smallbone* (fitness question)
17. Knight
18. McGrath
19. Szmodzics
20. Robinson
21. Ogbene
22. Connolly
23. Ferguson
24. Idah
25. Keane
Could easily see the likes of Hendrick, McGrath, Szmodzics, Connolly, Robinson miss out.
Equally any of McClean, Hogan, Lenihan, Scales could easily make it.
I’d be pleasantly surprised if any of Jon Gallagher, Danny McNamara, Conor Coventry or Festy Ebosele were called up - but not ideal games for debutants. Just we have literally no natural RB/RWB available and a very sparse deep midfield
Doherty is only missing the France game so he's not gonna let him out and McClean returned midweek so he's gonna pick him now that he's fit to play. Think we'll see Enda Stevens return as well.
Duffy and Lenihan preferred as centre-back options to Omobamidele - not surprising really given he's glued to the bench and no sign of a move. Really disappointing last six months for him.
O'Dowda left out despite having started in Greece. OK, he didn't play particularly well in Greece, but to be left out of the squad entirely is a big step. Stevens back - I like seeing former UCD players in the squad, but still, that's a bit meh.
Have we ever called up a fourth tier player before? I remember a couple of years ago we were looking at Travers/Bazunu as the lowest-placed players ever to play for us when they were in a relegation dogfight in the third tier.
No place for Sykes either - is he fated to have about the shortest ever Ireland career? Five minutes against Malta (when he looked quite lively) and nothing since.
We seem to through a regular cycle here -
1) An Irish player under 24 has scored/played a nice pass/is linked with a non-English team - they must be world class potential!
2) The squad is named - Christ but it's crap
3) We end up either doing reasonably well (but not winning) against a top seed, or doing badly (and not winning) against a middle seed. The less said about the lower seeds the better...
Saw an article yesterday saying that Doherty had his ban extended to 2 games by UEFA. Obviously his inclusion seems to conflict with that
Technically was extended to two games. Gibraltar and France, probably just a **** way to explain it rather than say Doherty's ban has been extended by another game to include France.
Call ups for Manning and Festy will please some.
Thankfully after these two games we can get back on track with a proper manager.
Regardless of all he has done, calling a guy up from League 2 to face 2 the best sides in the world is just embarrassing. McClean simply should not be there.
Aaron Connolly???!!!
You have to laugh at this point.
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