Truth been told, Ogbene been a bit wasteful/frustrating in good positions. An easy sliding pass would have set Collins free
The Idah experiment has worked wonderfully well for Kenny so far....not. This game is crying out for Will Keane
Stevens so loose defensively. Would have played O’Shea there. He did a solid job for West Brom there everybody time i saw him play there
Will Keane has no place in an international arena
Agree he could have played that pass but other than that and one other sloppy touch, he’s provided a fantastic out for us and has won possession and free kicks in good positions. Harsh enough take there, Tommy.Originally Posted by tommy_c12000
“A bit wasteful” nothing drastic!
Might well see Stevens hooked at half time for O’Shea. He’s struggling big time against Dembele. Jason Knight is putting in a great shift getting back to help him.
Out for a spell, got neglected, lay on the bench unselected.
Bazunu - not much he could do for the goal but has had a couple of shaky moments that could be put down to lack of communication.
Browne - has done very well. That slide tackle was excellent.
Collins, Egan and Duffy - have more or less done fine. Under the cosh and holding fairly steady. Poor clearing header from Collins for their goal.
Stevens - started well but has looked way off the pace in the last 20 mins. Who else there? Ebosele? I think he’d be murdered.
Cullen - doing fine. Was it he or Molumby that jumped early from corner they won in the lead up to their goal. Whoever it was gave them the space to get the cross in that led to their goal.
Knight - fairly anonymous but working hard.
Ogbene - see my earlier posts.
Idah - wasn’t in my starting line up but I think he has worked well with Ogbene when we’ve had the chance and has worked really hard.
Haha fair enough!
I very much doubt Deschamps thinks France are cruising it.
Stevens definitely needs to come off. Hard to criticize Kenny here, he has the tactics right and is doing the best he can with the players at his disposal. I love how the camera focuses in on Duffy every time we have a free kick in their half though. Everyone knows his head is our only hope of a goal here. We'll be lucky not to concede three or four more.
Idah and ogbene been ok so far , feeding off scraps with no support they’ve by and large done well.
Stevens is beyond awful, total bottle job.
Browne and the centre backs have done well but as usual we have zero presence , offensively or defensively with that weak midfield.they go missing when we need cover and stifle every attack.
Bazunu has been ok if a bit shaky sometimes
O’Shea an option to replace Stevens actually as per Tommy above. Not his natural side but he has played there at club level.
All down hill after the first 10 seconds.
It's gone as you'd expect. We defend in depth, they spend the half in or approaching our final third, we break occasionally. They look like they've another 3 gears in them so they were always going to get a goal, and our only chance is from a set piece or an error or something.
The second half will probably be just the same, as any other approach would just make us more likely to concede.
Grim stuff, but they are just far far superior in every way.
Last edited by osarusan; 07/09/2023 at 7:47 PM.
Soooo if anothe manager was in charge, one of those that have been given the nod by a few people here, what would they do different, how could they get more out of this Irish side against a superior side. How would they have prevented a pure class strike (closing down not a call as it was a short inside pass, no back lift and sailed in to the side netting). What should be changed for the 2nd half. Yup calling on a little more better decision making up top, using the space available wide - but a world class manager, what is their master class?
Bit of a strawman argument. I don't think there's anybody on here who has suggested that a different manager would have us going toe to toe with France. These aren't the games where we learn much about our manager's (or players') qualities.
I didn't think Idah was fouled in the build up to France's goal, he felt the contact heavy enough as it was but he dived to the floor. The ref has done good so far.
I’d be inclined to do Stevens for Manning after about 10 mins or if he gets a booking
Could see Connolly replace Idah and Smallbone replace Knight when legs tire. Hendrick is the only option to replace a deep midfielder I guess, so if Molumby gets a booking or his legs go…
Could see Ebosele replace Browne when we need a bit more attacking threat.
The top managers get the points against the other teams.
James McClean
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