Our next game is away v Portugal don't forget. Dropping Collins could be cutting off our nose to spite our face.Originally Posted by zero
But yeah, if Doherty can be dropped twice, then Collins can't have a guarantee starting spot in a position there's at least some alternatives in
Would Troy Parrott have made, the difference / a difference, over the two games ?
Does he have a bit more guile than Ferguson and Idah ?
It's possible - though Rovers have in recent years lost home and away to Breidablik and Flora Tallinn let's not forget.
This 100% though
Sure. But I could take you up on those on the other forum and don't have the energy. Id fancy that Breidablik team against Armenia fwiw. 😂
You and I will never agree on certain things. At least we agree on something.
Maybe tonight will be good in the long run. Dismal in the present though.
To be honest Roy was getting through so much work in midfield back then that it would have been a bit of a waste picking both of the other two. Our biggest strength back then was that having Roy was like having an extra player on the pitch, it felt like we were playing a 4-5-2 when we had him at his best. That gave us the luxury to play two out and out strikers in addition to Duff on the wing.
Obviously it would have been a huge help to have had him. But the bigger problems were further back the pitch. We couldn't get any control in midfield to create anything.
I think Hallgrimsson probably went too soon with the changes. I didn't particularly like the initial midfield setup, with Taylor so far forward and Azaz pushed wide. But after he swapped out Taylor for Idah at half time we were completely open in the middle and Armenia were finding it easy to play simple balls straight through midfield.
Hallgrimsson's big flaw seems to be that he doesn't place enough value on winning the midfield battle. When your midfield is as weak as ours, that flaw is then magnified.
Looking back on that team, there are times I think they actually achieved less than they should. Controversial but if that talent had been allowed really play who knows, we could have been a bit of a Croatia in recent years. Its kinda funny that after that disaster tonight were discussing the 1994/2002 sides.
Bold prediction for October, we'll beat Portugal. It will be like Germany 2015 smash and grab. We'll get our hopes up, beat Hungary and Armenia and miss out on GD.
Aa a centre half
We actually could potentially undo tonight's damage by winning the return game and winning the 6 pointer in Budapest, as Hungary lost at home to Portugal in the end. But obviously there's nothing in our performances to suggest that's even a remote possibility at this point. Mathematically though, the group could yet end up staying alive until the last game.
It’s the hope that kills ya
I feel like that was the worst game of football I’ve seen Ireland play in my adult life. It was really bad from both the manager and the players.
In terms of team selection, it was a mistake to not play an actual left winger. We are not privy to training but it was clear early in the game that a lot of those players were incredibly tired and shouldn’t have started. Cullen looked gassed, as did the centre backs in the second half. Ogbene is clearly not match sharp, even if he’s fit. He’s a raw player at the best of times and when he’s not match sharp, and his touch isn’t right, then he’s half the player he normally is. It was clear on Saturday even if he was still effective at times and it was worse tonight with more minutes. Pretty clear in the first half why Ipswich have shipped him out. When you think of Ebosele sitting at home watching the TV, the mind boggles.
When it came to substitutions at half time, we left the midfield bare bringing on Idah for Taylor. Taylor was really poor but the sub didn’t help. Obviously two up top worked late on against Hungary but we were dominating against 10 man and they were just dropping deep. I don’t think anyone in their right mind can honestly tell me they’d prefer Phillips coming on chasing the game over McGrath, or Scales over O’Dowda when you need a creative spark from left back. What was the point of calling up Honahan and Kenny (and Dunne). It was obvious that there was literally no chance they’d be used unless we were cruising cause if there was then we would have used them. The brave thing to have done would have been to start Lawal over Cullen given how leggy Cullen was. I honestly think he would have been able to handle himself. He’s playing against better players than these Armenia players and I’ve seen enough of him to think he’s more likely to handle himself ok than the rest. Obviously it should have been Molumby in the squad and then we don’t need to take a risk with Lawal - but even still…
Does anyone think it was a good idea to leave Seamus Coleman out for Jimmy Dunne? Seamus’ leadership was missing across the two games and he played 90 minutes on the Wednesday before the squad met up and came off the bench the day before the squad met up.
I remember us being beaten by Luxembourg and Armenia under Kenny but in both games we were the better team and were rocked by a sucker punch from distance while being totally dominant. Tonight we were totally outplayed.
Kelleher was a saviour. Manning and Ferguson were ok. Everyone else was degrees of poor to awful.
The darkest of nights…
That's not controversial at all. A better manager in 2002 flies us straight into a world class training setup in Japan, and has the foresight to pack the midfield
Given
Finnan - Breen - Cunningham - O'Shea
Keane Kinsella
Reid Holland Duff
Keane
Mick's problem is that he valued his friendships over everything else. Gary Kelly started ahead of Finnan. McAteer ahead of Steven Reid. Duff on the wrong side to accommodate Kilbane. Staunton in the starting XI despite being well past it.
Wouldn't be surprised if Armenia finish second
I wouldn't be surprised if Armenia didn't win another point in the group.
cant believe im saying it but.... we need Duff
PS, I don't tend to take your opinions too seriously, but thanks for making an effort anyway. More effort than the Ireland "captain " made last night anyway
Shamrock Rovers- Where trophies are won and envy is scarce
That's obviously not going to happen. We are being run by a bunch of incompetents.
We really need to demand better.
One of the worst display I've seen from an Ireland team, TBH I thought too much had been made of the Hungary draw, Hungary are well above us in the FIFA rankings and yes Irealnd were terrible in first 30-45 min but Hungary had been time wasting and doing everything to slow the game down from 10-15 min in. But last night was truly shocking couldn't string more than 2 or 3 passes together , lacking imagination up front and lacking concentration at the back. Being out played my a team almost 50 places below you in the ranking is dreadful.
Is it the manager, is it the players or what but our hopes of qualifying for the world cup have gone from slim to almost non existent
Well Ferguson scored in both game and Idah scored in one, I doubt having Haaland & Isak up front would of made much difference we created very little.
Last edited by Neish; 10/09/2025 at 9:58 AM.
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Yep. While some of the players/options have arguably improved (at club level), we've gone backwards from a bad position. Kenny probably would have lost that game, but we wouldn't have been outclassed from start to finish. Absolutely humiliating.
We actually have an in form Ferguson and we can't set up a team behind him to beat Armenia. I know he's scored in both games but only by being clinical.
Id agree that that's the worst I've seen us play in my lifetime. Selection wrong, set up wrong, tactics wrong, subs wrong and players awful.
The rest of the campaign is now an exercise in damage limitation. If we could afford to pay off Heimir I'd do it but.....what's the point really? Wouldn't trust the FAI to find a manager on our budget who can do much anyway. Duff might do it on the cheap but I doubt he'd work for this FAI and I'm not sure he'd be any use regardless.
HH needs to step down. He talked up 6 points and delivered 1. If that’s the culmination of one year’s preparation, he’s not doing his job. I like him as a person, and think he talks a lot of sense, but let’s be real here and move on.
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