Republic of Ireland V Senegal - Friday, 6th June 2025 - Friendly

**elatedscum** · 08/05/2025, 6:38 PM

Less than a month to the squad and with about half of our players off for the season, might as well make a thread for it.

Goalkeepers -

Kelleher
Travers
O’Leary

Unless there’s an injury/withdrawal, that trio picks itself, especially with Bazunu injured. Keeley and Harrington are probably next in line if there’s an injury. Would be good to see O’Leary make his debut. I’d play Kelleher against Senegal and give Travers and O’Leary 45 each against Luxembourg

Right back -

Doherty
Coleman

Doherty is guaranteed, the other slot is a question mark. Coleman is fit but not playing at the moment. In the past, we’ve played centre-halves there (O’Shea, Omobamidele, Dunne, O’Brien), so you could envisage playing one of them there. If you’re looking for an orthodox right back, you’re gonna have to look outside the box. Josh Key played in 45 of Swansea’s 46 league games, starting 39. Might be worth a look and this is as probably as good a time as any. Jon Gallagher is still plugging away in MLS. I do think we’ve probably got to be better and taking a look at lads playing over there. Sides better than ourselves have plenty of mainstays playing there and we

Centre backs -

Collins
O’Shea
O’Brien
Omobamidele
Scales

You probably have 4 or 5 call-ups, depends a bit if there’s any chance we’ll play a back 5 at any point. All of Collins, O’Shea and O’Brien are lock-ins. Beyond that, you’ve got a lot of players pushing for 1-2 slots. For me, Omobamidele is worth including given the fact he’s playing in a decent league and his age, footballing ability, physical attributes and versatility. Scales has played every game since returning from the broken cheekbone and I think it’s also useful to have a left footed centre-back in the group. In terms of alternatives, Shane Duffy seems to have had an excellent season at Norwich. Jimmy Dunne did well making his debut against Bulgaria, Mark McGuinness did pretty well against England earlier in the season, James Abankwah received his first call up in March. In terms of the uncapped, two left footers are probably just outside selection: Anselmo Garcia McNulty who recently met with HH and Eiran Cashin who made his premier league debut for Brighton but probably hasn’t done enough to get a call-up. John Egan is back playing for Hull as well.

Left backs -

Brady
Manning

To me, Brady is playing well enough that he makes the squad. Manning is playing for Southampton and did well against Bulgaria when called upon, that they’re the obvious choices. Callum O’Dowda is another option. Josh Honahan is probably next in line. Don’t really see any viable options after that - all of Joel Bagan, Will Ferry, Sean Roughan, Tayo Adamarola - none of them are ready as far as I can tell.

Midfielders -

Cullen
Knight
Azaz
Taylor
Molumby
Smallbone

Knight, Cullen, Azaz and Molumby all had good seasons in the championship. Will Smallbone had another injury hit season but hard to look past him. Jamie McGrath is injured with a shoulder injury. Lawal hasn’t had the season we would have expected him, mostly due to injuries. John Joe Patrick Finn has had a good season but you’d imagine he’s also on the outside looking in. Luca Connell still probably needs a championship move to earn a call-up - I think he’s good enough. Alan Browne is back fit - curious to see how he looks in the playoffs. Andy Moran has had another forgettable season despite looking good off the bench against England.

Wingers -

Szmodics
Johnston
Ebosele
McAteer

There’s a real lack of options here. Ogbene is injured. Adding Szmodics here because of a lack of options and he can play wide left. Ebosele is just back from injury and hasn’t played much but serious lack of options. McAteer is playing premier league football and doing well. Johnston is a guarantee as well due to a lack of options. Sykes is injured. Vata and Callum Robinson are probably the viable alternatives. Beyond that, maybe Marcus Harness.

Strikers -

Parrott
Idah
Ferguson
Cannon

Troy has had the best season and premier league teams are sniffing around. Idah has had a mixed season but he’s still scored 18 goals and did score an important goal for us against Bulgaria. Not the time to lose faith in Evan. Last spot, Cannon is the best player - but hasn’t fully adapted to his move to Sheffield United (I blame Wilder). Alli is a realistic alternative. Armstrong and Emakhu are probably next down the line. Obafemi and Connolly are very much forgotten for obvious reasons despite their talent.

**elatedscum** · 08/05/2025, 6:40 PM

Anyone I've missed? Probably need to cull 3 from the squad given the fact since HH has taken over, we've always had max 23 players in a squad

**SkStu** · 08/05/2025, 7:01 PM

I think I read that he is looking at limiting the number of call-ups for Championship players for these friendlies given the length and intensity of the season so a few of those names above may be off the list. Don't think his comments also apply to PL players but suggestions are that it will be a camp with some a few new recruits and/or underage call-ups and possibly a couple of LOI players too. We'll see.

**Eirambler** · 08/05/2025, 7:37 PM

I think we'll see a new name or two. Possibly Louie Barry, though he's still working his way back from injury, or possibly Key. AGM is another possibility. Or Finn, but I don't think he's really ready. Perhaps there will be a surprise name that we're not expecting. It seems like an ideal opportunity for HH to court favour with the support by calling in a domestic based player. Honohan would be my guess on that front.

He's presumably going to have to call up at least some Championship players, as our squad would be fairly thin looking without them.

**elatedscum** · 09/05/2025, 2:04 PM

Originally Posted by Eirambler

I think we'll see a new name or two. Possibly Louie Barry, though he's still working his way back from injury, or possibly Key. AGM is another possibility. Or Finn, but I don't think he's really ready. Perhaps there will be a surprise name that we're not expecting. It seems like an ideal opportunity for HH to court favour with the support by calling in a domestic based player. Honohan would be my guess on that front.

He's presumably going to have to call up at least some Championship players, as our squad would be fairly thin looking without them.

The obvious one to miss out would be Knight and maybe Cullen too. Here's a list of the minutes played this season including internationals. The * refer to the number of games they've got left this season. Just did the 26 lads I mentioned but could also dive deeper:

Knight 4861*
Cullen 4336
O’Leary 4320*
Collins 4085***
Azaz 3861
O’Shea 3743***
Parrott 3685***
Molumby 3020
Scales 2876****
Cannon 2710**
Doherty 2598***
Kelleher 2520***
Brady 2366
Johnston 2364
Idah 2296****
Travers 1980
Manning 1957***
O’Brien 1883***
Szmodics 1611***
Omobamidele** 1414
Taylor*** 1097
Ebosele**** 1028
Ferguson*** 935
McAteer*** 859
Smallbone*** 836
Coleman*** 320

If included, Knight will end up with over 5,000 minutes when you include Monday night and at least 45 minutes across the international break. That's a lot. It's so so much.

**tetsujin1979** · 09/05/2025, 2:29 PM

I remember a stat popping up on screen towards the end of the 2022/23 season when city played arsenal, Odegaard had planned a thousand more minutes than de Bruyne, and was barely able to play above walking speed, de Bruyne was running past him

**Eirambler** · 09/05/2025, 3:22 PM

James McCarthy was another midfielder that played an awful lot of first team football in the earlier part of his career, and he was basically finished by 30. Though he did start playing first team at 16, so that was a couple of years earlier than Knight.