I'd bite your hand off for sideways.Originally Posted by Jolly Red Giant
In fairness even if the right wing back is nominally, say, Omobamidele, then they will end up tucking in naturally and even get support from Ogbene so becomes a flat back 4 quite quickly. Bigger concern for me is who goes left wing back as they will need to provide something good for us going forward. Would love a Festy wildcard.
That could work in the way that Ogbene disrupted them in Dublin. Pace is about all we have to offer by way of a threat
Personally would prefer the stability of Stevens in there for France and Holland but think Festy needs to get some minutes at some point and needs to be integrated in the upcoming games against Greece and/or Gibraltar and, for sure, against NZ.
I'd also start Ogbene this week for the wildcard effect.
I'd be surprised if we didn't set up against France in a similar manner to how we did in Dublin, which was effectively a 5-4-1 that became a 3-4-2-1 on those rare occasions when we tried to get forward, with Molumby and Cullen sitting deep and Ogbene and Knight stationed in front of the wingbacks and asked to get forward and support the loan striker, (probably Idah) when they can.
Nathan Collins played rightback/right wingback at Stoke, so it would make sense to play him there against the French, given our lack of options. Then, do you go with Egan-Duffy-O'Shea in the centre, or Omobamidele-Egan-O'Shea?
It's a tight call. Duffy's has been playing more regularly than Omobamidele, is more experienced, poses a greater threat in the opposition penalty area and is probably better suited to the kind of backs-to-the-wall defending that's likely to be needed.
At left wingback, I'd probably plump for Enda Stevens, given his experience. Whilst he's not as good going forward, he's a better defender than Manning/Festy, who could be brought on later in the game if we're behind and in need of some attacking impetus.
It'll be interesting to see how Kenny sets up.
Last edited by Trequartista20; 06/09/2023 at 6:04 PM.
The problem with Duffy is that he can't handle pace - and France have a lot of pace
Will his lack of pace really be exposed when we're likely to be defending deeply and in numbers, though?
He won't be any higher than the edge of the penalty atea
This match is like having a dentist's appointment coming up - dreading it and it's likely to be painful at times, but has to be done.
And then ~ Stephen Kenny turns out to be the dentist ! ! !
We'll do well not to get clobbered. A 4-0 loss is about the best we can realistically hope for.
Reach for the sky ~ ~ But don't pull it down.
We're going to get thumped. All that can be realistically hoped for is that this is the end of the road for Kenny.
FWIW
Bazunu
Ebosele
Collins
Egan/Duffy
O'Shea
Stevens
Cullen
Molumby
Smallbone
Ogbene
Connolly*
*Would have picked Sinclair Armstrong here if he had been called up. We may as well take the opportunity to have a look at him.
Last edited by backstothewall; 07/09/2023 at 7:50 AM.
Bring Back Belfast Celtic F.C.
You have to feel a bit sorry for Kenny going into these games - we've a thin enough squad as it is and when you're missing multiple key players in the same position it really hurts. OK, you can argue that he should have blooded some wing-back options before now - it wouldn't make them any better than the average enough players they are, but at least we'd have a couple more average enough options readily available to us. But it's very hard for a small country like us to take losing arguably our two top forwards (including Obafemi when he's in the mood) and two experienced wingbacks. All on top of a midfield which is never quite the sum of its parts of course.
Hard to see this being anything other than ugly alright, but then I thought the same back in March.
Are the French susceptible to over confidence ?
I hope so.
Egan and O'Shea are hardly flying machines either. Collins is the only CB we have who clearly has decent pace, with Omobamidele (who hasn't been playing) thereabouts too.
Either way, I think too much is made of pace in football at times, as much as it can be frightening when players are isolated. There are loads of speed merchants in the game at every level and our guys have plenty of experience playing against players who are quick. Organisation and reading of the game (plus a bit of experience/cuteness) matter most from a defensive perspective, particularly when sitting in against a team like France. Italy won a European Championship final against England with Chiellini and Bonucci (who were both in the mid-30s and hardly speedsters). England had plenty of flying machines, but it didn't matter in the end.
End Apartheid Now! One Team in Ireland!
The issues at wing back have obviously been coming for a while.
Coleman is 34
Doherty is 31
Stevens is 33
McClean is 34
I feel no sympathy for Kenny in this regard. He knows how Mother Nature and Father Time work. This should have been addressed long before we ended up at a crisis point where we're trying to choose between a CB at going out to RWB to mark Killian Mbappe, or finally giving a debut to Ebosele.
And there have been options available to Kenny. This was entirely avoidable.
Festy should have 5 caps by now. Danny McNamara has played 99 games in the championship without a sniff of a call up.
Left back has been trickier, but there have been options available. Joel Bagan played 21 games at left back for Cardiff during 2021/22. His career has gone off the boil since, but who knows what could have happened with the extra exposure he would have got from being made a full international during that period. Luca Connell can play there and is uncapped. Dennis Cirkin and Aaron Donnelly are playing in the championship & SPL this season without any public attempt from Kenny to recruit either.
Bring Back Belfast Celtic F.C.
You're a colder man than I backstothewall!
I completely agree with the first part of course; I've been saying it here for a while. I've been in the "Why isn't Manning getting called up/played?" camp but against that I don't think it'd improve him to be suddenly Champions League standard, or marking Mbappé in Paris standard. It would make it easier to slot in someone with a dozen or so caps who knows the players, etc.
But I think it's still unfortunate to miss so many key players in the same position at the same time.
Ebosele was an unused sub in both Nations League games against Ukraine in June last year, not sure why he didn't make the match day squads against Armenia or Scotland. Kenny made five subs in the home loss, it's a coin toss whether or not he should have been introduced instead of CJ Hamilton, who came on for Cyrus Christie, but it's a lot to ask a 19 year old to make his debut while the team is losing.
He really should have come on in the away game, Alan Browne played the full 90 minutes, had been booked on 65 minutes, and Kenny only made use of four of his five substitutions in the game.
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