Drogs vs Kiev the match part

[Rovers Maniac]

Was at the game last night. Heard Roddy say this morning that Drogheda deserved to be beat and he talked about how bad they were. Sadly he was right.

When people say they don't watch the EL because it isn't proper football, last night proved their argument. Kiev were leagues ahead of Drogheda and could have won 5 or 6. Furthermore, it highlighted how Drogheda are a really badly coached team.

First ten minutes it was obvious that Drogheda were 5 yards too deep. Kiev's sweeper was an out for them every time they had the ball because Zayed was never near him. The number 5, in front of the defence, also had acres of space every time he got the ball. Doolin did nothing till half time.

Watching Kiev making angles for passes, have two options for a pass and attacking with more than one option at a time showed the eL up for what it is. The prime example for me was that every time Kiev attacked they had a man hugging the touchline, a player coming short at the edge of the box and one in behind. They dragged Drogheda's defence all over the place and had two to three options each time.

In contrast, Hughes picked a ball up in a good position in their half at one stage in the second half and every Drogs player charged for the box like schoolboys. Box was crowded. The obvious ball played in was easily dealt with. That was just one example of the brainless football they played. There were countless more.

We aren't talking rocket science here lads, all it takes is a couple of players to move a couple of yards into a position to receive a ball with some sort of idea where he going to play a five, ten yard pass. Drogs had no idea what they were at for the most part.

If they were going to be that clueless, they should have played five yards higher up the pitch, bombarded Kiev with long balls and hoped to turn them or pick up the second ball.

It just shows how bad coaching is in this country. Last week I was at the Pats-Rovers game and the kids played at half time. The fella coaching Rovers instructed his defenders and keeper, every time, to launch the ball long every time they got it. It made me laugh in one way but sad in another because I love the el but that's where we are at and that's where we will stay.

Drogs will be battered next week if Kiev have the inclination to put them to the sword. They have no hope of keeping it tight at the back.

Good post, Drogs were destroyed last night. I see Kaunas drew with Rangers at Ibrox now that is a good result. Anorthoisis beat Rapid Vienna 3-0 another good result, what do we get super Drogs losing at home we are a million miles away from the group stages of these tournements.

[Saint_Charlie]

Good post, Drogs were destroyed last night. I see Kaunas drew with Rangers at Ibrox now that is a good result. Anorthoisis beat Rapid Vienna 3-0 another good result, what do we get super Drogs losing at home we are a million miles away from the group stages of these tournements.

Do you ever post anything positive? I'm not saying your wrong in this thread but every post i've seen from you on this site seems to make out you think the sky is about to fall on the LOI...

[Sheridan]

He's a pathetic troll, ignore him. He'll get bored or banned soon enough.

Barney, there's a master-class for you on the previous page, thank me later.

[Rovers Maniac]

Do you ever post anything positive? I'm not saying your wrong in this thread but every post i've seen from you on this site seems to make out you think the sky is about to fall on the LOI...

God sorry but there has been nothing to positive to speak of late, i am not normally to be honest but you would be correct in what you say and will get no arguing from me. But honestly i found the whole thing about Super Drogs quite condescending. Yes they had a go 2nd half but they were out of their depth big time.

I also thought Doolin had a poor game last night in the way he set up his team as well as the changes he made.

[barney]

He's a pathetic troll, ignore him. He'll get bored or banned soon enough.

Barney, there's a master-class for you on the previous page, thank me later.

I don't think anything you've written there is anything I would disagree with or contradicts what I've posted to be honest. Maybe you can point out exactly where it does.

Maybe the non-proper football jibe gave rise to your initial response. Well it's time to get real in that sense. I'm a big eL fan but if you compare the football Drogheda played last night, it was completely brainless, to how Kiev play then it shows the eL in a bad light. Remember this is a Kiev side that lost all their games in the group stages of the CL last season. I'm not saying I expected Drogs to beat them but the contrast in football styles was embarrassing.

The eL is struggling for attendances. We can bury our heads in the sand and say 'well people are idiots for not going'/'they are barstoolers and don't know anything' but that simply isn't true. The level of football is very, very poor. Yes the atmosphere of live football is great and following your team from your town cannot be replaced by anything else but some people don't really want that from their football; they want a bit of quality as well as something they can identify with. Hence the 'barstooler' phenomenon.

I'm not claiming I know more about football than Paul Doolin, Johnny Mac or whoever but watching last night you had to wonder what Doolin was at and what he does with his professional players all week.

[sonofstan]

I take it your talking about Glenn Ferguson?

He was behind me in a queue at Seaworld in Orlando 2 days before they played Zagreb!

Clearly, you don't take the league seriously.....

[Rovers Maniac]

He's a pathetic troll, ignore him. He'll get bored or banned soon enough.

Barney, there's a master-class for you on the previous page, thank me later.

Pathetic? You can't even make keep the reply on football, now that is pathetic

[Saint_Charlie]

But honestly i found the whole thing about Super Drogs quite condescending. Yes they had a go 2nd half but they were out of their depth big time

But everyone knew before the game they were outclassed. When a team you are playing can spend more money on one player than it takes to run your entire club for a season (or more) than you're not really on a level playing field are you?

Drogheda did themselves proud last night.

[higgins]

Anyone who has read my european posts in the past will know I'll always support the Irish team. I watched the Drigheda Kiev game and wanted Drogheda to do well but I don't know how Kiev didn't get 5 or 6 to be honest.

They had 20+ goal chances!!
That's crazy stuff.

Some people compare it to Deportivo and say we have progressed ?? Facts are Shels were the better team the night we played Deportivo, kept chances to a minimum and looked stronger as the game went on.

Drogheda last night gave the ball away over and over and over and over. Ollie Cahill putting his head down and running fast into the corner is not MOTM stuff. I'm sure Kiev were delighted to see that type of player. He lost the ball and left too much room for them on nearly every run he made.

I'm sorry but as much as I like to praise the LOI I just can't say that we did ourselves proud last night. We can do a lot better than that. It was only pure luck that had Kiev miss sitter after sitter. Wasn't expecting Drogheda to win the game but they just didn't seem capable of holding onto the ball for longer than 3 passes.

[Big Ears]

Good post, Drogs were destroyed last night. I see Kaunas drew with Rangers at Ibrox now that is a good result. Anorthoisis beat Rapid Vienna 3-0 another good result, what do we get super Drogs losing at home we are a million miles away from the group stages of these tournements.

What did you realistically expect when a team currently 5th in our league played a side who will either finish first or second in Ukraine this season ?

A side that has only twice failed to qualify for the Champions League proper in the last 16 years btw .

[ciaraa]

What did you realistically expect when a team currently 5th in our league played a side who will either finish first or second in Ukraine this season ?

A side that has only twice failed to qualify for the Champions League proper in the last 16 years btw .

most sensible post so far.

FAO barney, have you been to a drogs match recently or seen them on tv? they struggled to beat UCD a couple of weeks ago doing exactly the same stupid things you're saying they did against kiev. They're not going to become some super euro team capable of challenging kiev overnight. Not too sure what people expected them to do but anyone who knows anything about football can see this drogs team have many weak areas as I'm sure the kiev backroom staff identified straight away.
The positive feeling people have for drogs is that they took care of tallinn (winning away to boot) and gave kiev a bit of a game. For a mid table premier team which is capable of playing some truly awful stuff I would consider the representation of Ireland in european football a success.
people can harp on all they want about kiev should have murdered them or ireland is so off the pace in europe but most people who have a basic knoweldge of the domestic game already knew this.
I would also say that with the exception of Fenerbache Kiev were probably the strongest side in there .... maybe Pana too.

[swinfordfc]

most sensible post so far.

FAO barney, have you been to a drogs match recently or seen them on tv? they struggled to beat UCD a couple of weeks ago doing exactly the same stupid things you're saying they did against kiev. They're not going to become some super euro team capable of challenging kiev overnight. Not too sure what people expected them to do but anyone who knows anything about football can see this drogs team have many weak areas as I'm sure the kiev backroom staff identified straight away.
The positive feeling people have for drogs is that they took care of tallinn (winning away to boot) and gave kiev a bit of a game. For a mid table premier team which is capable of playing some truly awful stuff I would consider the representation of Ireland in european football a success.
people can harp on all they want about kiev should have murdered them or ireland is so off the pace in europe but most people who have a basic knoweldge of the domestic game already knew this.
I would also say that with the exception of Fenerbache Kiev were probably the strongest side in there .... maybe Pana too.

Lads,
if Drogs got Anderlecht or SK Brann Bergen, they would beat them and even give Glasgow Ragers a run for their money based on last night result!

[Duggie]

might not beat them but would have a better chance. these are still huge clubs in fairness compared to our teams.

[thischarmingman]

Jesus Christ, what the hell were some of you expecting? Seriously?

Kiev were leagues ahead of Drogheda and could have won 5 or 6. Furthermore, it highlighted how Drogheda are a really badly coached team.

what do we get super Drogs losing at home we are a million miles away from the group stages of these tournements.

I'm not saying I expected Drogs to beat them but the contrast in football styles was embarrassing.

Seriously? Some of these comments are laughable lads, you surely cannot be for real. What were you expecting to happen; a draw was about the best thing we could have hoped for, they almost got it. Will you get some perspective ffs, you know they were playing Dynimo Kiev, yeah?

[barney]

Jesus Christ, what the hell were some of you expecting? Seriously?







Seriously? Some of these comments are laughable lads, you surely cannot be for real. What were you expecting to happen; a draw was about the best thing we could have hoped for, they almost got it. Will you get some perspective ffs, you know they were playing Dynimo Kiev, yeah?

If you ignore Kiev's performance for a minute and ignore the result and look at how Drogs played then you'll see what I mean. The result was far from embarrassing, I expected nothing less, but the way Drogheda played was awful at times.

I'll give you another example of what I mean. Hughes played a ball to Keegan in the first half in the middle of the park and charged past him into a position where Keegan couldn't pick him out for a return pass. No one else moved, Keegan lost the ball.

If Hughes had a brain in his head, he'd have just stopped, looked for the return ball and a Zayed or Baker would have moved into positions to receive a pass. That's just basic football. Drogs, at times, played like schoolboys and, to me, that's down to bad coaching.

We can dress it up how we like but if we are looking to progress and eventually reach the group stages of a European competition, then the ethos and level of coaching has to change.

[Dodge]

We can dress it up how we like but if we are looking to progress and eventually reach the group stages of a European competition, then the ethos and level of coaching has to change.

Or the level of players. Without being unkind, we simply aren't as good as Kiev. Drogheda played as well as could be expevcted but the fact is they aren't good enough. No disgrace, and no real need for tribunals to find out why. The best team in Ireland (last year by a stretch) but not a top class european side. Anyone who was embarressed by that performance is either an idiot or detached from reality. Possibly both

[pete]

While I don't agree with Barney Rubble I do think it is worth debating the tactics of LOI teams. In the long term it would be good if we could attract coaches from foreign countries (not just the UK) to offer something different.

[gspain]

In some ways the criticism of Drogheda is in reality a compliment. Yes Dyanmo Kiev are a better team. I thought Drogheda were worth a draw on Tuesday night and the goal was a bad one to concede however they did ride their luck on occasions.

However it is nice to be even comparing our champions with the likes of Dynamo kiev who have won 2 ECWCs and a Super Cup and reached the semi finals of the EC/CL on 3 occasions. They expect to at least reach the Group stages and normally do. They are a much bigger club and hence can afford to spend €8 million on a player.

Our league is currently ranked 32nd of 53 in Europe. Ukraine are 11th. They do benefit from the fact that Shaktor and D. kiev are significantly better than the other clubs (like Rangers and Celtic in Scotland) coefficient wise. We suffer a little coefficient wise from not having the same 2-3 clubs dominate but it does make our league a better league from a competitive point of view.

The standard is going up and hopefully will continue to do so.

[bigmac]

Drogs were unlucky not to get the draw, but by no stretch of the imagination did they deserve it. If you were a Kiev fan would you be saying that a 2-1 win flattered Dinamo? Of course not, you'd be saying that they were lucky not to pay a higher price for missing so many chances.
I think Drogs can be proud of the effort they put in, clearly they didn't play football as well as they can, or some others in the league can, but it was good to see them play with confidence and have a real go at attacking a dodgy defence. Let's also remember that the simple option against better teams isn't always a simple option. It may be easy against a team at the bottom of the EL to pass your way forward, but at this level, if you don't get forward quickly then the opposition is too organised to break down. Drogs did well, any barstoolers watching the game will have found it end to end and a good spectacle, and it is a good advertisement for the league.

[Straightstory]

'Drogs, at times, played like schoolboys and, to me, that's down to bad coaching'.

Great! So it's just bad coaching. Get in Jose Mourinho and Drogs can win the Champions' League.

Even by the standards of Foot.ie, Barney, your post reaches new depths of mean spiritedness, gracelessness, vindictiveness, begrudgery, spitefulness, small mindedness and petty abuse. Why do you go and watch a 'standard of football' which you obviously despise? I can only presume you're a GAA bigot in disguise.

By the way, Kiev might have had 22 shots at goal, but only 8 were on target (due to some heroic blocking efforts by Gatland and Ewing, who should be given some credit). Drogheda had 5 shots on target and managed 48 per cent of the possession... and lost by a margin of ONE goal.