That was Turley. That was his third time going down with cramp. Vata had gone off the pitch a few seconds earlier.Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
Mad they didn’t make changes sooner. 3 games come quick and fast and was obvious that there were tired legs out there and good players on the bench (Moore, Whitmarsh, Doherty, Melia).
McManus didn’t make the bench. Not sure what the deal is there but a further blow to an already weakened midfield
O'Mahony is progressing well
If we can keep Slovenia to 0 shots on target we should get a draw and maybe even sneak a win!
It finished 0-0 between Ireland and Slovenia
Belgium beat Albania 2-0.
Ireland currently top the group because we've one fewer yellow card then Belgium, last game to come on Tuesday against Belgium
Last edited by tetsujin1979; 18/11/2023 at 3:24 PM.
A win or high score draw (of 2-2 or higher) would guarantee Ireland a top 2 finish. If Ireland draw its important it's at least a 1-1 draw as even if we end up finishing 3rd it would mean we have a good chance of being the best 3rd place side.
Not finishing at least second would be an underachievement for this group surely, it's supposed to be one of our stronger Under 19 squads in recent years.
It would although the issue is Belgium and this particular Slovenian side I would rate higher than anything we faced in the u19s last year. We have every chance of qualifying but we are in such a group that we simply can’t afford to screw up as it’s very unforgiving.
It's a decent group in terms of star talent, less so in terms of depth. 2002 was a year of star talent (Bazunu, Omobamidele, Hodge, Ebosele, Parrott, Cannon) but a real lack of depth beyond the stars and loads of holes in squads. 2003 was a year with much more depth - many many good players, often 3-5 per position who could be good enough for an underage side but very few unmissable stars. If you compare the list above to guys like Moran, Armstrong, Garcia-McNulty, O'Neill, Lawal, Adaramola - the 2003 lads have one single cap between them but the 2002 lads have 50 caps between them (and for reference, this time last year, when they'd have been the same age as the 2003 lads, they had a collective 35 caps)
Anyway, tangent over, the strength of the group is hugely diminished by losing Curtis, Heffernan, Ferizaj, Murphy, Gibbard, Zefi and Fraser. That's five of the starting 11 - still some really good players there like Vata, Umeh, Moore and O'Mahony - but some years, we just don't have the depth that other years have - and we have to pull a lot of players from a younger age group into the squad, much more than is generally the case in europe. so when we lose players to older age groups or to injury, it can derail a promising group
Kone-Doherty is still only 17 and has another year at 19s. I wouldn't worry too much, the forwards to choose from are stacked. No shame in being behind Vata and O'Mahony.
Yeah, I know. The forward players in the squad can all make a valid claim to be in the starting XI. Just thought it was strange. He's probably playing at a higher level than any other non-LOI player in the squad, but didn't start any of the three games
0-0 in both games at half time
As things stand, Slovenia will go through as the best third placed side
And funny enough both games Belgium and Slovenia score almost at identical times...
Out of the Championships after losing 1-0 to Belgium, Slovenia beat Albania 1-0 to finish second. The draw against Slovenia really cost us.
I know it's a bit of a stretch, but is this a knock on effect of Moran getting promoted to the senior squad? Adam Murphy of St Pat's was originally named in the squad, but was called into the U21s to replace Moran. I don't know how important he is to the team.
FWIW Murphy didn't play against Norway on Friday, we'll see if he features against Italy later on today.
Now that the 2005 age group are finished with the U19s early the FAI should look to organize something for the 04/05 age group or some lads will go awhile before making another underage appearance for Ireland.
This - I mean, I don't think Moran should have been called up.
Separately, Crawford still had no reason to call up Murphy. All of Goodrham, McJannett, Vaughn and Coleman are of a very similar level to what Murphy gives you (Henry-Francis too but I believe he's injured) and all would be fine for the 21s as a sixth midfielder - he's unlikely to be used by Crawford - I could see him bringing in fresh legs vs Italy and he might go for the better defensive work of Murphy over Gilsenan. In normal circumstances, the 19s could have managed without Murphy but they were missing Ferizaj and Gibbard too, so you end up losing 3 of your 4 true/deep midfielders (not number 10s) that you want to take.
So what we are saying is that the u19s losing is Kennys fault... For the record I still think it was right that Moran was called up to the seniors, but he should have played against the Dutch. This is also why I think the new manager has to have awareness of our underage teams and not be solely focused on the seniors like O'Neill and Trap
Its really not that complicated!!!
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