His decision-making could be better st times, but he is a legimiate threat and a handful.Originally Posted by Olé Olé
There was a great 4 v 3 break around 60 mins where he had Ferg, Knight and Molumby all in support and he should have rolled the ball.in front of Evan. It was an excellent opportunity from where we were.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
His decision-making could be better st times, but he is a legimiate threat and a handful.
There was a great 4 v 3 break around 60 mins where he had Ferg, Knight and Molumby all in support and he should have rolled the ball.in front of Evan. It was an excellent opportunity from where we were.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
Hopefully last night will end the talk that our players can't compete. They've been talked down constantly by management teams and supporters. We may not have many players near the top of the premier league anymore but that's because the landscape has changed, we have players that are as good or better as we've had in the past. Also, the talk that we can't get results from games against anyone at home should end. Like I said before the game, a full house in Lansdowne and anything is possible. It's been the same for 40 years.
Last night the atmosphere was like the Denmark game under McCarthy and our best performance since then. Against Denmark we came up short and unfortunately, we did again last night. That has put us on the back foot in the group, we have to go and beat Greece next. France were there for the taking last night. I think they were a bit complacent and they made numerous mistakes. A few of them were really rattled by the pressure from our players and the noise from the crowd. So it's disappointing not to get a draw at least. Collins effort goes in against most keepers.
But even with defeat, this group isn't over. Holland may be missing a few players but they are struggling. Only 3-0 at home against a 10 man Gibraltar after a whipping in France. After last night is anyone saying that we can't beat Holland at home? We can qualify from this group. Let's have confidence in our players. Coleman was outstanding last night. Every player gave every last bit of energy they could, Molumby is a warrior, as is Knight. They all are. Let's not have any talking up of teams like Greece next. We should expect to go and beat them and obviously Gibraltar a few days later. Because of the defeat we're going to have to beat Holland at home I think but it can be done. Hopefully some supporters who were calling this group over before a ball was even kicked have changed their tune. We're going to the Euros!
BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!!
A very decent effort and the players can be proud of their performances. However, in the context of the group it's a point dropped nonetheless, I doubt France will win all their away games so someone will take advantage of the fact we ultimately took nothing from the game.
In the context of the group it is one of five huge games for us - France away is a free hit and everyone will beat Gibraltar twice - so the other five games are the ones that matter. Having taken nothing from the first of the five we really need to beat Greece in June now. In another group a point there would be a good result, but not in this one. If we're only on one point after two of our five critical games, we're already all but gone unfortunately.
The playoff picture is looking bleak at this point also, it looks like we're going to miss out by one or two places sadly.
Keane O'Shea Given Best Smallbone
I think you actually get a better idea in the stadium of how much someone has left in the tank. A couple of shots of someone on TV can give an impression that isn't real. At that stage I felt it was the midfield where we needed fresher legs. Molumby was great but he looked like he was running in treacle.
In any case I don't think it matters. Running on fumes or not, he's demonstrated he has a poachers instinct and we needed a goal. IMHO we needed to get him more support, not hook him. I'd have gone to 4 at the back and thrown Obafemi or Parrott on beside him and at that stage.
Given how important set pieces were obviously going to become, I'd also have liked to have had Smallbone on the field.
Bring Back Belfast Celtic F.C.
We are very lucky in this small football fan community of ours to have people that are such experts they are able to see what no one else can. I wish word could have been communicated to the coaching staff that their monitoring of a player was wrong and he in fact was not too tired at all. Everyone else watching the game who could see the player was out on his feet were wrong too.
Blessed we are to have such experts!
Ferguson was definitely spent at that stage. It was also far too early to go more offensive or 4 at the back. That plays right into their hands to make one quick counter attack and get mbappe away, game over. It was vital to keep it at 1-0 and try make one chance stick, which Collins almost done
Beaten by one of the outstanding teams in World football who didn't seem to move out of first gear.
Wouldn't cross your mind to consider they were kept in low gear by a team who didn't allow them to get out of it?
impartial analysis
It was actually our first home defeat in European qualification since 2010 and we've played some excellent teams in that time. Including beating the reigning World champions in 2015. So although there were some encouraging signs, in the cold light of day, it's really disappointing not to get a draw at least. But we should be looking to pick up maximum points from our remaining home games and then we're going to have to get victories on the road. Then it will go down to the game in Holland on the last day.
If we played like last night all the time there wouldn't be a whole pile to quibble about. A magnificent performance. Defensively excellent but unfortunately not perfect - but not far off either and when we condensed the game down to that last 15 min spell we were a touch unlucky not to salvage a result.
Looking back to go forward - consistency is an issue for us but I really think the change from 3 game windows to 2 game windows is going to help us a bit. We can treat both Greece games like cup finals as we play Gibraltar 3 days after both and the last game away to the Netherlands is a stand alone game for us. Kenny may wish to "throw" the game in Paris to keep his best XI for the Dutch game 3 days later on the 13th of Sept - it will be interesting but the fact that we could maximize our limited resources into those 4 games with Greece / Netherlands after the effort last night gives me some hope anyway. The Greece away game becomes crucial - the championship finishes 6 weeks before the Greece game so we should be well prepared and acclimatized by the 16th of June anyway! Its the hope that kills you.
It's just a pity none of those experts raised concerns about exposing him to a needless friendly in the buildup to a massive home qualifier.
Perhaps if he had been rested for that game he might have made it through the 90 minutes.
Bring Back Belfast Celtic F.C.
France were not there for the taking last night, not even close. And we will not beat Greece - we will melt in the heat of Athens. And after that we'll struggle to score more than one against Gib. Last night may well have been the highlight of our campaign
One more thing. The last creative midfielder we tried to incorporate into the team was Jack Byrne. How far are we removed from that.
we played smallbone vs latvia...
Here we go, it's begun already. We're playing Greece at night. It'll be 30 degrees during the day but fine at night. And France were there for the taking, did you watch the match?
I could tell all the rest of the players were heavily impacted by playing 5 days previously too. The French could hardly stand having played 3 days before.
Enough with the crap. Ferguson was exhausted as was Knight (who didn't play last week) and Molumby because they worked their ar$es off. They put in a massive performance for the team and thankfully now we are getting some good depth to the squad so had excellent replacements off the bench. We used all 5 subs yesterday, which I believe is pretty unusual for Kenny? Everyone of the 16 players used contributed to an excellent performance and we really deserved a draw.
Coleman proved there's life in the old dog yet. I thought Doherty was immense, especially in 1st half. Collins was great throughout the whole game and proved that he has what it takes to be a top class player. Molumby was my motm, he was everywhere.
Ogbene keeps proving me wrong time and again. I've never rated him, but he's so effective. He was brilliant. There was 1 time he should have got his head up and played Ferguson through the middle, that frustrated me but he worked his socks off all night. Wouldn't have given him Motm but I wouldn't argue too hard against it either.
This was Kenny's best performance as Ireland manager, even if we did lose. The team he picked was right, our shape all night was excellent and his in game management was spot on, which has been my biggest criticism of him.
Last night was positive, if a loss can be positive, but this has to be the beginning of something now and not just a once off. Greece away in the heat of the summer will be exceptionally hard, but we need a draw at minimum and look to beat them at home.
I wish the next game wasn't months away
Last edited by Razors left peg; 28/03/2023 at 10:17 AM.
If Ireland had scored they would have went up through the gears. They rested Tchouameni and Kounde and didn't even bother bringing Coman on. It was a very handy night for them. 2 shots on target from Ireland, both at the very end of the game.
But another glorious defeat for Kenny. Lets see how he gets on against Greece, will he continue his record of having Ireland out of contention for qualifying after 2/3 games.
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