You’d have to wonder how a team with three club captains starting can have so little leadership. It feels like they’re all captains because they’re “good pros” rather than traditional leaders.
I’d question the managers decisions in terms of the wider squad too. He’s left out Molumby who seems to be a character, loud a bit obnoxious on the pitch. He’s left out Festy, another lad who’s not afraid to fight his corner. I thought he was the type who’d go looking for those qualities, the bit of a ******* for want of a better term. But he’s gone the other way and picked the quiet and obedient types ahead of them.
I never thought I’d see the day I’d try to make a case to have James McLean recalled but at least he’d bring that bite. The same with Coleman, he might not be fit but he brings real leadership. As has been pointed out, he’s included players like Dunne and Kenny, who it seems he was never going to give any minutes to, so why not go with the experienced characters who bring urgency to the squad. I know it’s a hard sell and I’d have probably been moaning about it at the time, but it certainly looks like something that needs to considered for the next squad.
Just on taking Taylor off, I did say during the first half that he was bringing some much needed physicality in the middle, but was sloppy with it and giving away silly fouls. Taking him off just made it worse. It looked like there was a last minute decision to try something different with the shape of the team and they hadn’t trained it at all. I think it was a panic response to the awful start against Hungary rather than a considered tactical decision and it really showed in the complete lack of coherence.
Was it? 😊Originally Posted by passinginterest
For me, it’s on the coaching. I feel we were way too stretched and leaving too much space between our lines. It made it difficult for us to play combinations and get momentum, and made it easy for Armenia to play through us. Of course, lack of pace, urgency, aggression, coherent plan of attack, individuals having nightmares etc etc plays into it as well but the buck stops with the coaching and HH.
His contract is up in November isn't it?
Could easily be back into another 8 months of managerless limbo ahead of the Nations League in September.
Yay.
The only argument in favour of him staying on is that last night was the first real bad competitive result. Up to now we've done what was expected - beat Finland and Bulgaria home and away, recovered to take a point off Hungary, even held England scoreless in Wembley until a silly red card.
Equally though, the last three games have been pretty dismal - the draw in Luxembourg (a June friendly), the first half against Hungary, and now last night. Eloratings has us 5 points lower now than after Kenny's last game, and 1 point lower than our lowest rating under Kenny (after the draw with Azerbaijan)
Coleman and Festy are hardly march sharp either in fairness. Coleman has six league appearances in the last year, mostly as a late sub. That recent 90 minutes was against Mansfield. Festy has started only four games all year and was taken apart more than once when Basaksehir lost to Craiova in the Conference League last month.
Not to say you don't have either in the squad - though if we're relying on a practically finished 37-year-old Coleman to turn things around in Portugal next month then we're clearly in big trouble - but just that I think the problems are way deeper than just one or two squad selections. And how you fix a problem that big, I really don't know.
But I still expect that squad not to be torn apart by Armenia.
HH's substitutions just felt totally random to me. It's really hard to see how Molumby and Ebosele could have been left out completely, Ebosele's fitness maybe a mitigant.
Collins, O'Shea, Azaz and Cullen were just dreadful. Ferguson and Kelleher were very good. Idah showed some quality early in his stint but got dragged down to everyone else's level. The rest meh at best.
As said by others, HH is very likeable but he had one clear job and already it's virtually over for us. I wouldn't be sad if he went but we don't have a functional FAI so what chance is there of getting anyone better? I have seen nothing in John O'Shea that makes me think he has any managerial credentials at all.
Separately, I was watching the Armenian build up to their disallowed third goal. They played it short at the back, we pressed and their left back passed the ball under pressure to a midfielder deep in that corner. The midfielder took a difficult pass with ease, quickly turned 180 degrees and suddenly he had the whole pitch to attack. They worked the remaining passage of play well but that was the moment that did it. I thought all night our midfielders laboured with their first touch and rarely had the courage to turn. We really lack technique and courage on the ball in midfield, one of the real basics of the game. We slow everything down and can never find space between lines. It's been the same since 2002 or shortly after.
Scanning Peter, it's called scanning. Irish players have an issue with it, whether it's at centre-back or centre-midfield. It's either not being taught, or it's not being heard. Because the Hungary goal on Saturday to put them ahead doesn't happen with cb's scanning, and we - whether its the MNT vs Armenia, or the U21s vs Andorra - don't have a problem creating, if we scan and communicate.
Here they come! Its the charge of the Thanks Brigade!
What was that clear job?
Here they come! Its the charge of the Thanks Brigade!
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