Finland v Republic of Ireland - Thursday, 10th October 2024 - UEFA Nations League

[tetsujin1979]

Got asked this on another forum. Quite possibly the most pointless stat I've ever had to look up

[elatedscum]

Really happy to win. Hopefully it’ll spark something. A few thoughts:

- Finland are a really bad team. I genuinely don’t think a single Finnish player gets into our starting 11. They’re a much much worse team in terms of players than they were 4 years ago.

- the difference the press made in the second half was huge. Night and day, couldn’t understand why we sat off them so much in the first half, especially at 1-0 down and made their life so easy

- Nathan Collins is a wonderful footballer but he has a real tendency to commit absolute howlers. The goal was inexplicable and he nearly had another where he took it off Kelleher and headed it straight to a Finn. I don’t think he’ll be dropped cause he’s captain but there’s at least a question to be asked

- Scales on the other hand was excellent, made some really excellent tackles, headers and took his goal really well. Excellent performance.

- we were unlucky with the disallowed goal. Pretty clear it wasn’t over the line. But equally, that header at the end was an absolute let off. An inch wide of the post which would have won the game for them.

- Evan Ferguson wasn’t fit. He had flashes of quality but he wasn’t at all sharp. It was obvious once we got the equaliser that he needed to be subbed and it was a long long time coming.

- Finn Azaz struggled and similarly should have been taken off once we got the equaliser. The consequence of waiting to make that change was Szmodics and Ogbene were already knackered by the time Parrott and McGrath came on. You’d have been better making the first changes after 57 mins and the second after 70-75 mins. Would like to see one of the midfielders (Taylor, Molumby, McGrath) come into the midfield at his expense

- Robbie Brady’s deliveries were really good. I know he can be inconsistent at times but he had 4 from set pieces which were really good tonight

- Cullen was knackered at the end. Molumby was available off the bench, seemed an obvious sub

- you’d also wish we had an actual orthodox options at right back, for as well as Dara O’Shea did, when you’re chasing a game, you’d like a more attacking options than a centre half in that slot. And similarly for game 2, Robbie Brady may well tire and the only option seems to be Liam Scales moving across

- The injury to McGuinness meant we couldn’t fill our bench. A little careless

- it all worked out well in the end and a win is a win

[Snapshot]

Excellent summary.

[samhaydenjr]

Got asked this on another forum. Quite possibly the most pointless stat I've ever had to look up

Are you kidding? That's one of the best stats I've ever seen! It even beats out the first time we had two Daryls in the team! We have to get Bazunu on the pitch with all those lads... And promote Babajide Ezekiel Adeeko, Zak Gilsenan, Armstrong Inya Echezolachuku Oko-Flex, Naj Razi and Ike Orazi. Can't believe we don't have a decent Fitzgerald playing at a reasonably high.

[Olé Olé]

A win is a win but it's a tough job picking your starting team for Greece away after that.

I wouldn't change the back 7 players myself. I think you have to reward Festy's contribution with a start. It doesn't set a good example if you don't. Unfortunately that has to mean Ogbene drops out.

You also have to keep Szmodics if you want to exert the same type of energy and pressing.

Azaz and Ferguson are the challenging ones - I don't think either played particularly well. But the problem for me is that, individually, Ferguson could do with minutes. And if he fancies that combo then he might want to give them more time on the pitch collectively.

Parrott and Idah could push for a start. But would you have Parrott in the same role as Azaz? Parrott in the Azaz role behind Ferguson would be an intriguing partnership going forward. You would have more goal scoring potential but it's asking a lot of Parrott.

[brine3]

We were a better team.. but we were poxed.. they missed 3 great chances to go 2-1 up

Their goal came from our mistake, and we had a goal disallowed for no good reason. We had 15 shots on goal vs their 7, and 10 shots on target vs their 3.

It's a case of making your own luck.

[texidub]

Brady redeemed himself. Ebosele had an explosive dream cameo - what does that mean for Ogbene? Great to see Scales score - he's up there with Ogbene for likeability and graft.

Feels like we might be in a brave new world of winning matches now, but (and this is going to sound familiar) we'll know more after the Greece match...

[Acornvilla]

Finland were an even worse football team than I expected, and were given far too much respect for most of the first half. Decent stuff afterwards, it is nice to win a football match. At least we're likely to have that 3rd place playoff now, and a kind draw to give the lads a solid shot at another win would be nice. Would still largely feel we'll lose badly in Greece and England, but should beat the Finns at home, the team needed this, definitely something to build on.

[Bungle]

Finland are probably a high quality 4th seed. So basically in or around our level. Very good result.

Greece going on their results would seem to be a good 2nd seed quality team. Hopefully we can build on this result and get confidence and nick a point on Sunday.

For me, there are a lot more positives than negatives. Coming back away from home is impressive and there was a much better 2nd half than 1st half. Heimar spoke well after the match rather than talk ****e. I feel we have a competent manager.

A major annoyance for me over the past number of years has been how our team, which has been mostly made up of premier league journeymen and good championship level players can be so clueless and out thought and out fought by lesser quality teams. The players should take a lot of the blame, but you can see how a good manager can change things such as last night. I've commented several times how Northern Ireland with a far more mediocre player base have often looked a far more competent team than us in recent years.

[Eirambler]

The Ogbene/Ebosele thing is interesting and they give us good options on the right. I feel like both could be better as impact subs, but it's good to have the ability to have one of them running at a defence for an hour to tire them out and then the other coming on to finish them off. So for Greece there might be merit to starting Ebosele and then bringing on Ogbene. But then that could change around again in future games.

[ifk101]

I didn’t think we were great. We had about 25-30 mins of good play on the night with that good play coming from upping the tempo post a half time chat, and taking encouragement and momentum from individuals having a go. Collectively we were disjointed as didn’t really see patterns in our play, unclear what we wanted to do with the ball beyond passing it to the next guy. It was slow and laboured. Lots of examples of players receiving the ball static and not knowing what to do with it. There was constant need to look up and around to see where teammates were, and there were plenty of glances towards the bench looking for guidance. A well-coached team knows where teammates are, what runs they should be making, the purpose of our play. That’s not us.

That said, extremely happy with the win – it’s a big result as it should mean we avoid relegation. And it is something to build on. Who knows – win in Greece and we have put ourselves in the promotion hunt.

[Eirambler]

Collectively we were disjointed as didn’t really see patterns in our play, unclear what we wanted to do with the ball beyond passing it to the next guy. It was slow and laboured. Lots of examples of players receiving the ball static and not knowing what to do with it. There was constant need to look up and around to see where teammates were, and there were plenty of glances towards the bench looking for guidance. A well-coached team knows where teammates are, what runs they should be making, the purpose of our play. That’s not us.

I think that takes time though, the players are still learning what the new manager wants. And they're so used to the lateral short passing nonsense after four years of it under Kenny and O'Shea/McCarthy, that it's too easy for them to naturally fall back to that during quiet periods in the game.

What we need as a team is to be pretty much constantly looking to go forward, because we have pace in the team and physical strength up front, even if that means we cough up possession sometimes as a result. We just don't have the technical players to play the other way, even if it is the more fashionable way to play the game at the moment. It's just not us, and the danger when we fall back into that is that someone does something ridiculous like Collins did for the first goal - because pretty much all of our defenders and midfielders are technically limited enough that they're capable of doing something like that.

[ifk101]

I think that takes time though, the players are still learning what the new manager wants.

Yes, but the head coach has been there the guts of two years now. Still very much O’Shea’s stamp on that team, Azaz starting was an O’Shea decision for example.

The Collins goal. That’s bad coaching rather a technical ability failing. It came about from a passage of play starting with our throw in. O’Shea throws it to Collins, Collins passes it back. O’Shea stands on the ball for 5 seconds looking to play it but there is no movement, everybody is just standing looking around so he gives it back to Collins because there is no other option. Collins moves it onto Scales who moves it back – again because there is no other option. Collins gets put under a bit of pressure, loses composure, perhaps knowing he had no out ball other than back to Kelleher – and goal. Sure, Collins made a huge individual mistake but ultimately it was the failing of a badly coached team.

[jbyrne]

Yes, but the head coach has been there the guts of two years now. Still very much O’Shea’s stamp on that team, Azaz starting was an O’Shea decision for example.

The Collins goal. That’s bad coaching rather a technical ability failing. It came about from a passage of play starting with our throw in. O’Shea throws it to Collins, Collins passes it back. O’Shea stands on the ball for 5 seconds looking to play it but there is no movement, everybody is just standing looking around so he gives it back to Collins because there is no other option. Collins moves it onto Scales who moves it back – again because there is no other option. Collins gets put under a bit of pressure, loses composure, perhaps knowing he had no out ball other than back to Kelleher – and goal. Sure, Collins made a huge individual mistake but ultimately it was the failing of a badly coached team.

what pressure was he under that led to that mistake? If anything he looked far too casual, not the actions of someone who felt under pressure.

[ifk101]

what pressure was he under that led to that mistake? If anything he looked far too casual, not the actions of someone who felt under pressure.

Kamara and the striker were pushing up and closing space. Collins saw that and was signalling to Scales to play it back to Kelleher. As he was signalling pass it back to Kelleher, he lost composure when Scales played it to him knowing the striker was pushing up and he had no out balls (other than back to Kelleher). Yes agree, Collins was too casual and the individual mistake is his (not his first mistake from being too casual in an Irish jersey btw). But my point is, there should have been out balls throughout the passage of play and the situation Collins found himself in should not have unfolded.

[pineapple stu]

Still very much O’Shea’s stamp on that team, Azaz starting was an O’Shea decision for example.

Was it? Before the match it was suggested Azaz starting was a HH decision because he was left out of the last squad entirely (which was supposed to be JOS' squad). I don't think both of those can be true.

[tetsujin1979]

YouTube video won't embed in the tweet for some reason

[pineapple stu]

That sounds about right. Jamie McGrath (never played a first-team game for us, granted), Andy Boyle, Conor Sammon and Enda Stevens all yet to score an international goal. Jason Byrne never managed one either. Moran is the only player to play for UCD and score for Ireland - though Peter Lorimer (Scotland), David Norman (Canada) and Kaleem Simon (Montserrat) have managed the feat for other countries. Lorimer did it the other way around though - scored his international goal before coming to UCD.

[ifk101]

Was it? Before the match it was suggested Azaz starting was a HH decision because he was left out of the last squad entirely (which was supposed to be JOS' squad). I don't think both of those can be true.

Let’s take HH for his word. He does come across as straight talking, honest and genuine, and my statement that Azaz starting was O’Shea’s decision is therefore wrong. But context. O’Shea has made no secret of his admiration for Azaz. He knows of him since the U21s and it was O’Shea that gave Azaz his senior debut. HH is not up to speed on the players and has publicly stated he is leaning on the knowledge of O’Shea. And a replacement for Smallbone was needed.

[Eirambler]

I'd be amazed if O'Shea is making any significant decisions to be honest. His role seems to be limited to helping with training and the odd press conference or interview. I don't think he actually has much more than that in his locker. It was almost definitely Paddy McCarthy that was calling the shots between Kenny's departure and the England game - you could see it in the breaks in play, he was the tactical genius that had them set up like that and was doing all the talking. He seems to have been relegated in terms of his importance now and I wouldn't be surprised if we hear that he's moving on/focusing full time on his club role in the coming months.

O'Shea will stay on as a loyal number 2 and do what is asked of him by HH. He won't rock the boat and seems popular with the suits, but I think it's a stretch to suggest he's behind any setup or selection decisions that are made.