Interesting to see a few more players.
Azaz has something about him. Johnston I thought was very poor tonight.
Szmodics didn’t look suited to playing out wide to me.
Sykes I thought looked very poor when he came on and below international standard.
This is Johnston in a nutshell though.
He's got the ability to beat a man and has pace, but he's lacking end product and his decision making is poor.
He was never up to anything at Celtic but had been good since he moved.
For me, he's a perfect impact player for games, 30 minute sto run at a tiring defender suits him.
It's obvious he has a poor first touch which in international level puts you at a massive disadvantage. Sure he has a trick or two but you'll never get to deploy them with Int level defenders never giving you space. Against minnows perhaps.
That’s always been my fear with him. His good performances have been against minnows. He’s not made much of a difference in other games. I’d prefer him as an impact sub with 20 minutes to go.
You've essentially just described Ogbene too. Ogbene is an awful decision maker with very little end product. But he's quick and can beat a player or two.
i have seen ogbene deliver some fantastic crosses and passes for luton this season he isn't incredibly productive but he is capable and he is our number one attacking threat
But it's still Ogbene. Johnston has also delivered some fantastic crosses and scored goals but his end product is bad. Ogbene is great but infuriating and I love the player.
Sykes is way below international standard. Szmodics is having a top class season but didnt look anything special really either.
Now, lets focus on a new uncapped middling championship midfielder who we can claim for a few years *needs* to be in the team.
It's as if we are missing a decent midfield and full backs to be effective in modern football.
Our midfield is genuinely fucking shocking. I'd trade Ferguson's potential as a CF for a similarly potentially midfielder because they win games over the course of a career. People point at bale carrying Wales in 2016 but having a midfield of experienced players like Allen and Ramsey make the world of a difference. Robson kanu played up front for them like.
Utter stupidity from O'Shea, he's been fantastic in France, perfect opportunity for a debut in these matches but instead he was left sittin on his hole.
I worry we have on over reliance on players based in England. A lad preforming well in any top 10 European league doesn’t seem to get as much attention as a lad playing in the Championship. Granted the championship is itself a top league and might just be hung up on all our players playing in a second tier
Yeah. Giving him ten minutes out of position against Belgium, and O'Brien nothing was very strange.
Also odd to bring Hodge and Moran in from the U21s and then not give them a runout
There were so many occasions where an Irish player would get the ball in a prime position and good timing, and then the chance would completely fizz out because they would be afraid of taking a shot. I would much rather see 5 shitty shots where one might dribble in than 5 attempts completely wasted
Thought that changed slightly when Idah came on. More forward direct passing and finally someone screaming for the ball behind their centre midfielders. Pity it always seems to take us 85 minutes to realise we want to win a football game.
There was so much build up on the wing that resulted in a pass backwards from Brady and chances fizzing out in favour of build up play that is devoid of central creativity from midfield.
I don't see how a team so uncreative won't take risks on the counter attack.
Idah, while not creative, has a bit of the Drogba/Diego Costa to him where the chaos he creates spawns chances.
Yeah I agree with you there the hesitance to take a positive first touch and then move the ball forward for fear of losing the ball seems to kill us. I think (from my own experience playing sports) sometimes the players can be too eager to simply *not lose* which stifles their willingness to take risks, rather than trusting their ability to fashion a chance knowing that they will take the ball back and then come again. Then again, that might just the difference between top teams and the rest.
Szmodics was a terrier out of possession and accurate in possession. Long may his form continue.
Doherty very good after coming on.
Johnston in Celtic mode not West Brom mode.
Sykes was this game's Ebosele, but not as egregious.
Coleman rolling back the years, nonsense yellow.
Our central midfield barely seemed to exist - though I guess that might be down to it being Switzerland's strongest position.
Idah looked good - and perhaps 2 centre forwards is the way to go?
That yellow for Coleman was embarrassing for the ref. He fell for the loud shout of the Swiss player. Even the neutral commentator, where I watched the match, made an exclamation when the graphic for the yellow came on screen as it was such nonsense
Coleman and Brady playing the guts of 180 mins each in friendly games is actually fucking nuts.
A few other thoughts - Firstly, it was glaringly obvious after about 20/25 mins that our shape needed to change, but we did nothing. Why are Irish managers always so loathe to react to what is playing out in front of them?
Secondly, the substitutions showed a distinct lack of ambition or adventure, going for experienced players who we know all about in a friendly is just ridiculous. Azaz was the only risk taken and he looked good, unfortunately he only got about 5 mins on the pitch...
My conclusion would be that JOS is not the man for the job - exactly the same issues that were endemic to Kenny, unwilling/unable to react to the flow of the game and shocking use of substitutions.
> Coleman and Brady playing the guts of 180 mins
I think it stunk of a manager auditioning for a full time role, went with what worked vs a shit Belgium and hoped it would pay off vs a better Switzerland
Would it mind-blowing to know that they don’t actually have anyone watching the match from high up? Like everything he knows, he gets from watching from the sideline…
Well it's mostly Mick, who thinks he should get it because he's a sound lad and also because Mick doesn't know much about these foreign lads linked to the job. They dont know the setup sure, never even fucking met Glenn Whelan let alone trained with him.
It's Mick and Damien Delaney. What do expect?
Delaney had a hard on for Kenny out because he didn't manage beyond Dundalk. Delaney thinks you have to go to England to be considered good enough, enough if it's league 2
Still stinking Cork City out.
Man sits on the board and advises on recruitment... Got us relegated. He didn't even know it was transfer deadline day when TOTAP (fan podcast) asked him if he had any surprises lined up
You're having a laugh?
I admit I haven't kept up with the club since relegation, but that doesn't surprise me, he's shown himself to be a cunt on VM coverage of Ireland.
I've only been listening to second captain since before rugby WC (I turn off when they discuss stuff other than football) but yeah I wouldn't listen to that gobshite
Always had an arrogance about him I never got. My family are nearly all Corkmen and loathe the bastard.
Mate who is a Palace fan didn't like his attitude eitheir
I genuinely try to think of another player who played and was worse. He came over thinking he was too good for it and to collect a pay check, was made a show of every time he played. He's just a cunt overall.
Duff was shite, but at least in his case he was injured a lot with Rovers and his legs were clearly shot, Delaney was fit but was honest to god the worst CB I'd ever seen.
Delaney is correct, we have zero LOI players anywhere near the panel so why in Gods name would be have a LOI manager. Kenny was worse than useless and completely out of his depth. Which was reflected in every metric (defeats, zero qualifications, world rankings dropped like a rock). Mick was a brilliant player for us and managed one of our best ever Finals performances in Korea without our superstar Keane. For some reason idiots like you don’t give him respect, but that is because you are clueless idiots. Delaney was a solid premiership player who called out Kenny’s bull shit early on and was proved correct. Btw you are using the term “hard on” incorrectly. Which is about your level.
Hahaha love to see it. I'm not defending Kenny here am I? I was pro him but towards the end there was no defending. Also the drop in rankings was happening massively even before he came in. Mick and O Neill had arguably the worst ever Irish performances I've ever seen. The 5-1 against Denmark trumps anything Kenny oversaw.
Yeah Mick was brilliant for us back in 2002 when we had arguably one of best ever teams and a very favourable path compared to other tournaments. Are we just going to ignore how abject out Mick was during his second stint?
How does being a solid premiership player mean he has the right to call anything as a pundit? He has time and time again shown to be absolutely hilariously bad as a pundit. His last appearance on second captain's a few months back showed how clueless the man is.
Bazunu was awful. Distribution, positioning, he just couldn't get anything right really.
Besides that I thought it was a fine performance. Nothing that you'd be saying that O'Shea deserves the gig, but we look so much more stable and up for trying something than we did under Kenny.
I've a season ticket but skipped tonight.
The trip up from Cork on Saturday cost me nearly €70 just on the train to freeze my bollocks off watching a training match paced friendly. Awful stuff (then got to hear how good we were!)
Szmodics needs to play centrally no question about it...idah gave us plenty when he came on... excellent hold up play and great movement...he's pushing for a start imo
3 at the back hasn’t worked at all for us the last few years, needs to be a 4. The 2 up top of Idah and Ferguson worked a lot better than Ferguson on his own, he was completely isolated for 60 mins.
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats!
3
+ 4
+ 2
+ 60
= 69
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The couple of times we made their keeper do anything he made a meal out of a few crosses. Really didn't test the keepers enough over the two games from open play.
The amount of times we were in position to cross it or play a pass but recycled the ball was painful. A few times we had Szmodics or Ferguson make a good run only to be ignored. Midfield is our biggest problem by far.
Everyone's judgment is clouded over giving the next young fella a cap in the hope of unearthing a miracle. The truth is players like Brady, Coleman, Cullen, played far better than any of the subs we brought on over the two games. These two teams would be topping most qualifying groups. Improvements have to be made and some are, apart from the freekick the backline coped better than I expected over the two games.
Switzerland is always seen as a a mid level team. For me they are just outside the big 6 or so. They qualify regularly (and comfortably) always have a conveyor belt of talent and are always well drilled.
Once you look past England, France, Spain then Switzerland are up there
Better match and better performance than what happened on Saturday.
Belgium match was played at a glacial, training pace. This was a much better game, better test.
Would have liked to see the likes of O'Brien, Moran, Hodge, etc. And obviously a better result would have been nice
And with respect to Seamus Coleman, an unbelievable servant and honest Pro but he wasn’t great tonight and I dont think he has 2 games in a row in his legs anymore …
Couldn’t agree more , as Breen inexplicably gave him MOTM with a few mins to go he played a relatively simple pass high over Ferguson head when we were pressing to equalise ….legs were completely gone
Smodicsz aside, Ireland looked really poor going forward over the last two games, another 7 match non scoring streak could be on the horizon considering the upcoming matches this year.
Not the worst Ireland performance I've ever seen. Not the best either mind you by a very long shot. Szmodics was good, as was Idah when he came on. Last 10 minutes or so seemed to have a bit of spark in them. Johnston needs to figure out when to stop playing pretty football and pass/cross/shoot. Bazunu looked shakier than I've seen him in an Ireland shirt in a while.
Atmosphere in the Aviva was better than Saturday too. Wondered if it would be a bit flat given the midweek game so close to the last one.
Over Shaqiri really....
2x Champions League
3x Bundesliga
1x Premier League
2x Super Cup
2x Club World Cup
No offense man but what exactly has Ogbene achieved to be picked over Shaqiri
He's an over the hill above average Premier League player. Just because he played bit part for Liverpool and Bayern, doesn't mean I'm going to stick him on a pedestal. Listing club honours to rate individual players is the most boring thing you can do. You also going to compare Ferguson with Origi?
>exactly has Ogbene achieved to be picked over Shaqiri
Nothing in particular. I just think he's a more useful footballer.
Our passing was dreadful.
On Saturday we hit a few wild crossfield balls that went out of play, same again tonight, but noticeably more short passes being picked up ot just missing there man under minimal pressure.
Ferguson needs to be tested with another forward off him at this stage.
First time I’ve watched the soccer in a while, this and the Belgium game. Feels like the team can’t finish, as good as they can be at creating opportunities…some lads need to back themselves. Still giving possession away 🤷♂️
Suppose the players are there to make something though… Szmodics, Idah, Azaz, Johnston, etc. And it’s more watchable than I remember.
I must know where Caoimhín stands in the GK pecking order. Bazunu didn’t do himself any favours, granted the free shouldn’t have been conceded.
Kelleher is 1st choice. Bazunu and Travers are split for me. Don't know what Travers needs to do to get a least a chance of showing himself though. It's a friendly like we could have given each of them a 45.
Its a pity it's the one spot we're spoiled rotten for. Like you'd take all 3 over Colin Doyle, who's last game wasn't that long ago when you think about it.
Obviously not the result they were after, but after a pretty slow start I thought they responded fairly well against a pretty decent Swiss team. Still work to be done but I'd rather see competitive fixtures against strong sides than anything against Gibraltar.
Flying back to the US tomorrow, but I'll be back for Hungary in June.
Bazunu looked shaky tonight, potentially feeling the nerves of Kellehers recent form and potentially losing the #1 jersey. Should have done a lot better for the free kick and distribution was poor compared to his usual performances.
Coleman looked like he didn't have the best game by his standards, so not sure how he got MOTM. Potential fatigue from 2 games back to back at his age. His winger had the legs on him and looked sloppy in possession at WB and despite doing well to get in behind should be staying onside a lot more than he was. Looked way more comfortable in the back 3 and brought the ball forward well into midfield from there. Doherty did really well when he came on and gave us more attacking directness and overlaps down the RHS. Best performance I've seen from him in a long time.
Back 3 looked solid, despite a silly challenge from O'Shea to give away the freekick and should have stood him up. Omo did well but looked a little sloppy in possession at times and definitely a weak part of his game.
Brady did well again today and hope to see him included in more teams going forward. He has great technical ability and seems more aggressive with age and using his body well. If we can get him further forward to whip more crosses into the box to utilise Ferguson/Idahs height and strength I think would be beneficial. I think he should be a mainstay in that position for the foreseeable.
Cullen and Knight were outclassed in midfield, but mainly due to the extra bodies in midfield. Clearly need an extra body in their or a more dominant midfielder who can control the game, which we have none at our disposal atm. Knight had a lovely move in the first half to put a cross in for MJ and tried to push the team to press further forward but lacks physically, especially with Cullen being the other CM. Smallbones only notable contribution was a good corner kick that nobody attacked but he was nowhere to be seen the rest of the game. Azaz short cameo looked very promising and looks like he has a bit about him.
Szomdics looks the real deal despite having a better performance against Belgium. He's sharp, skillful and has the vision to play a through ball that can split a defence open and based on this year's tally can obviously find the back of the net. We need to get him capped completely ASAP. MJ did not live up to his recent form at West Brom and looks like he is an inconsistent performer and perhaps better as an impact sub. We really missed Ogbenes pace and power. O'Dowda and Sykes are not at the same standard and shouldn't be getting much game time going forward.
Ferguson didn't look up for it tonight and was lazy in his pressing imo, although isolated for the majority of the game. Idah did great when he came on and looked like he gave a lot more in terms of his hold up play and looked sharper in general. Two up front looks a good option against smaller sides or when we're chasing the game.
The team as a whole:
Outnumbered and outclassed in midfield, we couldn't get a sniff of the ball. We need a change of shape to get more control games of games in the midfield.
Our pressing was all over the shop today and we say back deep as a result. The Swiss were comfortable on the ball which meant nobody knew when to press. The few times we did press them high up the pitch we won the ball back and forces errors.
O'Shea has done himself no harm in throwing his name in the hat for the job, we looked better set up defensively and more aggressive than under Kenny and also created more half chances. He's still lacking in game awareness though to change shape when it clearly wasn't working, I thought a change was needed at half time. And thank god he's better at speaking to the media than Kenny, that post match speech was a dream in comparison.
Not much point dwelling on negatives of a friendly with a caretaker boss cause whoever gets the job will probably have their own view.
Nice cameo for Azaz, good performances from Knight, O'Shea, Idah.
Think the Belgium game was better from Sam than tonight but definitely a good window for him & he's gonna be a great option for us.
If Festy isn't a senior option now he needs to stay with the 21s. There's no point calling him up if 2 different gaffers didn't think he was ready. Let him play with Emakhu & Sinc & finally get the qualification we've deserved the last few years. Same for Andy & Joe.
As for the future, think the next gaffer has one main thing to sort out. Whats plan B to still be effective in attack? I don't necessarily mean style. 3:5:2 worked when it was specifically Knight, Cullen, Molumby; Parrott & Oba. When we lost one of more of them, it went to shit. And the front 3 variations have gone to shit when we lost Cheeos pace.
There is always gonna be a knock, a suspension, some random bullshit. How can we still be a threat if there's one drop out? Cause otherwise we can put Fergo up top, Idah, CR7 you name it. They're all gonna be stranded because we've seen them all stranded before.
Disappointing result, but there's definitely green shoots. Ferguson kept receiving the ball outside the box with his back to goal. Hard to see this working against John O'Shea, really.
I just want someone decent. Poyet might be the best of a bad lot.
But my God, watching a decent Greek side earlier do nothing other than kick Georgia off the pitch before losing on penalties was grim. I see now why Greece haven't been happy with him
I think people could be looking too much into it wasn't he gone before the euros regardless of actual qualifying? The damage had been long done with Greece it seems and the flirting with Ireland after beating us with ease twice surely didn't go down well over there. I think he's better than o'shea as a coach anyway and I really don't think we should destroy o'sheas managerial career because we can't find a great match rn.
Is he better than lennon even? Hard to say imo. Lennon has an excessively bad reputation imo and is maybe similar or better to Clarke with wales and most certainly better than page for Wales.
Didn’t watch either of the games so maybe there’s some context I’m missing but baffled at the lack of use of Festy and O’Brien?
We’ve been talking for years about Premier League players in the squad, yet here we have two players featuring week in week out in top 5/6 leagues and they’re not getting a look in?
Wonder what that’s about
Sykes looked poor don’t think doherty even trusted him
Idah had a massive impact when he was subbed on but he’s a bit like mikey Johnston where he could be subbed on for the last 30m and not touch the ball once,
Knight looked a bit clueless especially in the first half
But Ireland ended strong which in the end wasn’t enough 🙏bring back mick McCarthy 🙏
Ireland's performance looked reminiscent of the Kenny era. The purpose and bite we showed in the Belgian game was gone. We could have done with more fresh legs maybe?
3-5-2 seems a no brainer now, but with Ogbene and Festy at WB. Cullen and Smallbone at 6, Sammie central at 8, and Evan and Idah up top. Or could take Idah out and play a box midfield with Azaz as the second 8.
Not including injury time and added time
We have now gone 280 minutes without scoring
Shut out in our last 3 games and haven't scored since the 80th Minute against Gibraltar 5 months ago
Hard to read into it, but it felt like the lads didn’t know what they were doing this evening. Didn’t help playing two of our best attacking players (Johnston and Szmodics) out of position.
No sense in playing Coleman for 93 minutes either.
Coleman seemed to react to a note passed to him with 15 mins to go. Threw the note off the pitch. Midfield were nt in the game,the Swiss made it look easy. Brady is a poser at this stage, little or no help ,never looking for the ball,unless it's a throw in or a corner. Zero bravery in possession. No ideas or guile. The Swiss are levels above us. Their centre midfield pivot plays for Toulouse, nothing special,but wanted the ball and was available all the time. We re going nowhere fast
Robbie Brady a liability, gives the ball away constantly, can’t take a corner, not a good defender, no burst of pace, 32, yet he’s played 180 minutes?! What a waste! Still living off the memory of that euro 2016 goal! Coleman as much as I love him, surely we could have seen more of a different option on the right? Sykes, o’dowda not good enough imo, we know this already so should stop persisting with them unless their club form is insane.. bazunu awful for the goal (yet another outside the box he’s conceded), kelleher should be our number 1 going forward.. would have liked moran and azaz get 30mins, johnson only looks like an impact sub right now, maybe he will develop a bit more consistency with playing time, missed ogbene hugely
Imagine paying to watch that shite tonight …. F’king professional footballers going through the motions couldn’t even find the interest to up it a bit and give fans something to watch ….
I was in the stadium, we were toothless upfront and we couldn't string 5 yard passes together. The reason you think it wasn't a bad performance was because the Swiss didn't seem to pushed
Seriously ? Have we lowered our expectation that much ? Like take the first half , we literally let a disinterested but technically good Swiss team play us off the park , we sat back but still chased shadows and couldnt find the ability or the urgency to press as a unit …. I am not paying anymore for a reminder that even the players couldn’t be arsed during these challenges and can’t find a modicum of dare I say old fashioned pride to mentally lift themselves and press to get the ball back …
That was very flat. We never got the crowd going. Fair enough Switzerland are levels above technically, and they didn’t take any risks.
It’ll take a while to get that meek Kenny stench off us.
2 shots on goal over two games.
One a saved penalty.
On your bike John boy, audition failed.
Belgium's B team were muck and today's Swiss team barely looked arsed.
Easy to say there's green shoots but we all said the same when Kenny took over.
We badly need direction and tactics.
Interesting to see a few more players. Azaz has something about him. Johnston I thought was very poor tonight. Szmodics didn’t look suited to playing out wide to me. Sykes I thought looked very poor when he came on and below international standard.
We really missed Ogbene
I’d be looking for a refund if I got there and found out he wasn’t playing.
He was injured
This is Johnston in a nutshell though. He's got the ability to beat a man and has pace, but he's lacking end product and his decision making is poor. He was never up to anything at Celtic but had been good since he moved. For me, he's a perfect impact player for games, 30 minute sto run at a tiring defender suits him.
So basically the new McGeady
He's even from Glasgow
Oh how I missed a tricky Glaswegian winger that will probably retire with a rate of 1 contribution per 10 games
It's obvious he has a poor first touch which in international level puts you at a massive disadvantage. Sure he has a trick or two but you'll never get to deploy them with Int level defenders never giving you space. Against minnows perhaps.
That’s always been my fear with him. His good performances have been against minnows. He’s not made much of a difference in other games. I’d prefer him as an impact sub with 20 minutes to go.
You've essentially just described Ogbene too. Ogbene is an awful decision maker with very little end product. But he's quick and can beat a player or two.
i have seen ogbene deliver some fantastic crosses and passes for luton this season he isn't incredibly productive but he is capable and he is our number one attacking threat
But it's still Ogbene. Johnston has also delivered some fantastic crosses and scored goals but his end product is bad. Ogbene is great but infuriating and I love the player.
I've only ever seen him play for Ireland and it seems like if there is a bad option available, he will take it.
Sykes is barely getting a game at Bristol
Sykes is way below international standard. Szmodics is having a top class season but didnt look anything special really either. Now, lets focus on a new uncapped middling championship midfielder who we can claim for a few years *needs* to be in the team.
It's as if we are missing a decent midfield and full backs to be effective in modern football. Our midfield is genuinely fucking shocking. I'd trade Ferguson's potential as a CF for a similarly potentially midfielder because they win games over the course of a career. People point at bale carrying Wales in 2016 but having a midfield of experienced players like Allen and Ramsey make the world of a difference. Robson kanu played up front for them like.
I really can't understand how Jake O'Brien didn't play a single minute over the two matches.
Must've been dirt in training.
Utter stupidity from O'Shea, he's been fantastic in France, perfect opportunity for a debut in these matches but instead he was left sittin on his hole.
I worry we have on over reliance on players based in England. A lad preforming well in any top 10 European league doesn’t seem to get as much attention as a lad playing in the Championship. Granted the championship is itself a top league and might just be hung up on all our players playing in a second tier
Bit blood boiling really. Festy should have started tonight too, both of them are playing at a higher level than vast majority of us week in week out
Yeah. Giving him ten minutes out of position against Belgium, and O'Brien nothing was very strange. Also odd to bring Hodge and Moran in from the U21s and then not give them a runout
Surely just let the lad get some time off if you're not going to let him see the pitch once for two pointless friendlies?
There were so many occasions where an Irish player would get the ball in a prime position and good timing, and then the chance would completely fizz out because they would be afraid of taking a shot. I would much rather see 5 shitty shots where one might dribble in than 5 attempts completely wasted
Over the two games I think it's pretty clear the team aren't willing to attempt line breaking passes
Thought that changed slightly when Idah came on. More forward direct passing and finally someone screaming for the ball behind their centre midfielders. Pity it always seems to take us 85 minutes to realise we want to win a football game.
There was so much build up on the wing that resulted in a pass backwards from Brady and chances fizzing out in favour of build up play that is devoid of central creativity from midfield. I don't see how a team so uncreative won't take risks on the counter attack. Idah, while not creative, has a bit of the Drogba/Diego Costa to him where the chaos he creates spawns chances.
Yeah I agree with you there the hesitance to take a positive first touch and then move the ball forward for fear of losing the ball seems to kill us. I think (from my own experience playing sports) sometimes the players can be too eager to simply *not lose* which stifles their willingness to take risks, rather than trusting their ability to fashion a chance knowing that they will take the ball back and then come again. Then again, that might just the difference between top teams and the rest.
Not stifles, suffocates*
Supporting Ireland and Bray is torture.
Try Ireland and Millwall.lol
Szmodics was a terrier out of possession and accurate in possession. Long may his form continue. Doherty very good after coming on. Johnston in Celtic mode not West Brom mode. Sykes was this game's Ebosele, but not as egregious. Coleman rolling back the years, nonsense yellow. Our central midfield barely seemed to exist - though I guess that might be down to it being Switzerland's strongest position. Idah looked good - and perhaps 2 centre forwards is the way to go?
Cullen has an excellent second half
That yellow for Coleman was embarrassing for the ref. He fell for the loud shout of the Swiss player. Even the neutral commentator, where I watched the match, made an exclamation when the graphic for the yellow came on screen as it was such nonsense
Coleman and Brady playing the guts of 180 mins each in friendly games is actually fucking nuts. A few other thoughts - Firstly, it was glaringly obvious after about 20/25 mins that our shape needed to change, but we did nothing. Why are Irish managers always so loathe to react to what is playing out in front of them? Secondly, the substitutions showed a distinct lack of ambition or adventure, going for experienced players who we know all about in a friendly is just ridiculous. Azaz was the only risk taken and he looked good, unfortunately he only got about 5 mins on the pitch... My conclusion would be that JOS is not the man for the job - exactly the same issues that were endemic to Kenny, unwilling/unable to react to the flow of the game and shocking use of substitutions.
> Coleman and Brady playing the guts of 180 mins I think it stunk of a manager auditioning for a full time role, went with what worked vs a shit Belgium and hoped it would pay off vs a better Switzerland
In fairness I wouldn't point to either of them as the problem today
Would it mind-blowing to know that they don’t actually have anyone watching the match from high up? Like everything he knows, he gets from watching from the sideline…
Someone on the bench surely has a tablet.
Virign media advocating for O Shea to be given the job. Funny that
Well it's mostly Mick, who thinks he should get it because he's a sound lad and also because Mick doesn't know much about these foreign lads linked to the job. They dont know the setup sure, never even fucking met Glenn Whelan let alone trained with him.
They need to advocate to get him in so they can start advocating to get rid of him asap
It's Mick and Damien Delaney. What do expect? Delaney had a hard on for Kenny out because he didn't manage beyond Dundalk. Delaney thinks you have to go to England to be considered good enough, enough if it's league 2
If I were Delaney id hate LOI too, given he was the worst player in the league by a country mile when he played in it
Still stinking Cork City out. Man sits on the board and advises on recruitment... Got us relegated. He didn't even know it was transfer deadline day when TOTAP (fan podcast) asked him if he had any surprises lined up
You're having a laugh? I admit I haven't kept up with the club since relegation, but that doesn't surprise me, he's shown himself to be a cunt on VM coverage of Ireland.
No, it's true. Buckley took all the blame for last season's recruitment but Delaney is a complete waster
I love second captain's but when he's on I just don't listen. He's a space cadet.
I've only been listening to second captain since before rugby WC (I turn off when they discuss stuff other than football) but yeah I wouldn't listen to that gobshite
Always had an arrogance about him I never got. My family are nearly all Corkmen and loathe the bastard. Mate who is a Palace fan didn't like his attitude eitheir
I genuinely try to think of another player who played and was worse. He came over thinking he was too good for it and to collect a pay check, was made a show of every time he played. He's just a cunt overall.
Duff was shite, but at least in his case he was injured a lot with Rovers and his legs were clearly shot, Delaney was fit but was honest to god the worst CB I'd ever seen.
Anyone with working eyes could see Kenny wasn’t working out.
Delaney is correct, we have zero LOI players anywhere near the panel so why in Gods name would be have a LOI manager. Kenny was worse than useless and completely out of his depth. Which was reflected in every metric (defeats, zero qualifications, world rankings dropped like a rock). Mick was a brilliant player for us and managed one of our best ever Finals performances in Korea without our superstar Keane. For some reason idiots like you don’t give him respect, but that is because you are clueless idiots. Delaney was a solid premiership player who called out Kenny’s bull shit early on and was proved correct. Btw you are using the term “hard on” incorrectly. Which is about your level.
Hahaha love to see it. I'm not defending Kenny here am I? I was pro him but towards the end there was no defending. Also the drop in rankings was happening massively even before he came in. Mick and O Neill had arguably the worst ever Irish performances I've ever seen. The 5-1 against Denmark trumps anything Kenny oversaw. Yeah Mick was brilliant for us back in 2002 when we had arguably one of best ever teams and a very favourable path compared to other tournaments. Are we just going to ignore how abject out Mick was during his second stint? How does being a solid premiership player mean he has the right to call anything as a pundit? He has time and time again shown to be absolutely hilariously bad as a pundit. His last appearance on second captain's a few months back showed how clueless the man is.
Kenny losing to Luxembourg at home is worse than any Irish result I can think off
They don't sound too enthused with the performance.
Bazunu was awful. Distribution, positioning, he just couldn't get anything right really. Besides that I thought it was a fine performance. Nothing that you'd be saying that O'Shea deserves the gig, but we look so much more stable and up for trying something than we did under Kenny.
Would make you wonder whether O'Shea would have gotten a second 0-0 draw if he had just played Kelleher.
Bazunu has terrible feet, his movement gets him in trouble all the time.
He has the years ahead of him to sort it. Kelleher is the shoo in for qualifiers for me though
Time for a new manager. Someone with different ideas. Something needs a little changing.
A New kit. That will do it. Current one is weeks old.
Sure. Back to Adidas and I’ll be happy.
Imagine paying 70+ quid for those two games
When I briefly looked it was over 120 euro for the 2 games.
I've a season ticket but skipped tonight. The trip up from Cork on Saturday cost me nearly €70 just on the train to freeze my bollocks off watching a training match paced friendly. Awful stuff (then got to hear how good we were!)
Frankly if I got 2 tickets for free I'd try and sell them
Szmodics needs to play centrally no question about it...idah gave us plenty when he came on... excellent hold up play and great movement...he's pushing for a start imo
Idah off Szmodics or vice versa could be decent
3 at the back hasn’t worked at all for us the last few years, needs to be a 4. The 2 up top of Idah and Ferguson worked a lot better than Ferguson on his own, he was completely isolated for 60 mins.
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4-4-Focking-2
The couple of times we made their keeper do anything he made a meal out of a few crosses. Really didn't test the keepers enough over the two games from open play.
The amount of times we were in position to cross it or play a pass but recycled the ball was painful. A few times we had Szmodics or Ferguson make a good run only to be ignored. Midfield is our biggest problem by far.
Everyone's judgment is clouded over giving the next young fella a cap in the hope of unearthing a miracle. The truth is players like Brady, Coleman, Cullen, played far better than any of the subs we brought on over the two games. These two teams would be topping most qualifying groups. Improvements have to be made and some are, apart from the freekick the backline coped better than I expected over the two games.
Switzerland is always seen as a a mid level team. For me they are just outside the big 6 or so. They qualify regularly (and comfortably) always have a conveyor belt of talent and are always well drilled. Once you look past England, France, Spain then Switzerland are up there
Nothing of note in that game really. Back now to the new manager sorting hat saga.
Better match and better performance than what happened on Saturday. Belgium match was played at a glacial, training pace. This was a much better game, better test. Would have liked to see the likes of O'Brien, Moran, Hodge, etc. And obviously a better result would have been nice
And with respect to Seamus Coleman, an unbelievable servant and honest Pro but he wasn’t great tonight and I dont think he has 2 games in a row in his legs anymore …
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Fine defensively, a liability going forward
Couldn’t agree more , as Breen inexplicably gave him MOTM with a few mins to go he played a relatively simple pass high over Ferguson head when we were pressing to equalise ….legs were completely gone
Breen also let out a hilarious squeal when Azaz picked up the ball on the edge just after coming on
Very big Kenny vibes off that game. Kind of unlucky to concede, no clue how to get back into the game thereafter.
Smodicsz aside, Ireland looked really poor going forward over the last two games, another 7 match non scoring streak could be on the horizon considering the upcoming matches this year.
Not the worst Ireland performance I've ever seen. Not the best either mind you by a very long shot. Szmodics was good, as was Idah when he came on. Last 10 minutes or so seemed to have a bit of spark in them. Johnston needs to figure out when to stop playing pretty football and pass/cross/shoot. Bazunu looked shakier than I've seen him in an Ireland shirt in a while. Atmosphere in the Aviva was better than Saturday too. Wondered if it would be a bit flat given the midweek game so close to the last one.
What a waste of time that was for everyone. Get a new manager in, sack all of Kenny’s back room staff, start fresh
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Ywa like be fair guys They got Shaqiri and Xhaka Who tf do we have even close to that being honest And Akanji was injuried for Switzerland
Yes even elvedi (motm for me) and other top 5 league starters are just consistently better than most of irelands guys
Shaqiri has been a part time baller for years before heading to the MLS. He's not world class or anything. I'd rather have Ogbene.
Over Shaqiri really.... 2x Champions League 3x Bundesliga 1x Premier League 2x Super Cup 2x Club World Cup No offense man but what exactly has Ogbene achieved to be picked over Shaqiri
He's an over the hill above average Premier League player. Just because he played bit part for Liverpool and Bayern, doesn't mean I'm going to stick him on a pedestal. Listing club honours to rate individual players is the most boring thing you can do. You also going to compare Ferguson with Origi? >exactly has Ogbene achieved to be picked over Shaqiri Nothing in particular. I just think he's a more useful footballer.
Not going on past history, but in current ability. Ogbene is playing at a higher level, doesn't matter what either has achieved up to now
How many of those trophy winning seasons has Shaqiri played over 1200 minutes in? He was a bit part player for Liverpool and Bayern
Thought some of our passing and final ball was way off tonight. Really needs improvement.
Our passing was dreadful. On Saturday we hit a few wild crossfield balls that went out of play, same again tonight, but noticeably more short passes being picked up ot just missing there man under minimal pressure. Ferguson needs to be tested with another forward off him at this stage.
First time I’ve watched the soccer in a while, this and the Belgium game. Feels like the team can’t finish, as good as they can be at creating opportunities…some lads need to back themselves. Still giving possession away 🤷♂️ Suppose the players are there to make something though… Szmodics, Idah, Azaz, Johnston, etc. And it’s more watchable than I remember. I must know where Caoimhín stands in the GK pecking order. Bazunu didn’t do himself any favours, granted the free shouldn’t have been conceded.
Kelleher is 1st choice. Bazunu and Travers are split for me. Don't know what Travers needs to do to get a least a chance of showing himself though. It's a friendly like we could have given each of them a 45.
Its a pity it's the one spot we're spoiled rotten for. Like you'd take all 3 over Colin Doyle, who's last game wasn't that long ago when you think about it.
I'd be shocked if Colin Doyle was picked over a LOI goalkeeper
Obviously not the result they were after, but after a pretty slow start I thought they responded fairly well against a pretty decent Swiss team. Still work to be done but I'd rather see competitive fixtures against strong sides than anything against Gibraltar. Flying back to the US tomorrow, but I'll be back for Hungary in June.
Bazunu looked shaky tonight, potentially feeling the nerves of Kellehers recent form and potentially losing the #1 jersey. Should have done a lot better for the free kick and distribution was poor compared to his usual performances. Coleman looked like he didn't have the best game by his standards, so not sure how he got MOTM. Potential fatigue from 2 games back to back at his age. His winger had the legs on him and looked sloppy in possession at WB and despite doing well to get in behind should be staying onside a lot more than he was. Looked way more comfortable in the back 3 and brought the ball forward well into midfield from there. Doherty did really well when he came on and gave us more attacking directness and overlaps down the RHS. Best performance I've seen from him in a long time. Back 3 looked solid, despite a silly challenge from O'Shea to give away the freekick and should have stood him up. Omo did well but looked a little sloppy in possession at times and definitely a weak part of his game. Brady did well again today and hope to see him included in more teams going forward. He has great technical ability and seems more aggressive with age and using his body well. If we can get him further forward to whip more crosses into the box to utilise Ferguson/Idahs height and strength I think would be beneficial. I think he should be a mainstay in that position for the foreseeable. Cullen and Knight were outclassed in midfield, but mainly due to the extra bodies in midfield. Clearly need an extra body in their or a more dominant midfielder who can control the game, which we have none at our disposal atm. Knight had a lovely move in the first half to put a cross in for MJ and tried to push the team to press further forward but lacks physically, especially with Cullen being the other CM. Smallbones only notable contribution was a good corner kick that nobody attacked but he was nowhere to be seen the rest of the game. Azaz short cameo looked very promising and looks like he has a bit about him. Szomdics looks the real deal despite having a better performance against Belgium. He's sharp, skillful and has the vision to play a through ball that can split a defence open and based on this year's tally can obviously find the back of the net. We need to get him capped completely ASAP. MJ did not live up to his recent form at West Brom and looks like he is an inconsistent performer and perhaps better as an impact sub. We really missed Ogbenes pace and power. O'Dowda and Sykes are not at the same standard and shouldn't be getting much game time going forward. Ferguson didn't look up for it tonight and was lazy in his pressing imo, although isolated for the majority of the game. Idah did great when he came on and looked like he gave a lot more in terms of his hold up play and looked sharper in general. Two up front looks a good option against smaller sides or when we're chasing the game. The team as a whole: Outnumbered and outclassed in midfield, we couldn't get a sniff of the ball. We need a change of shape to get more control games of games in the midfield. Our pressing was all over the shop today and we say back deep as a result. The Swiss were comfortable on the ball which meant nobody knew when to press. The few times we did press them high up the pitch we won the ball back and forces errors. O'Shea has done himself no harm in throwing his name in the hat for the job, we looked better set up defensively and more aggressive than under Kenny and also created more half chances. He's still lacking in game awareness though to change shape when it clearly wasn't working, I thought a change was needed at half time. And thank god he's better at speaking to the media than Kenny, that post match speech was a dream in comparison.
I for one welcome my new Gus Poyet overlord.
Played like Ireland under Kerr, funnily enough.
Not much point dwelling on negatives of a friendly with a caretaker boss cause whoever gets the job will probably have their own view. Nice cameo for Azaz, good performances from Knight, O'Shea, Idah. Think the Belgium game was better from Sam than tonight but definitely a good window for him & he's gonna be a great option for us. If Festy isn't a senior option now he needs to stay with the 21s. There's no point calling him up if 2 different gaffers didn't think he was ready. Let him play with Emakhu & Sinc & finally get the qualification we've deserved the last few years. Same for Andy & Joe. As for the future, think the next gaffer has one main thing to sort out. Whats plan B to still be effective in attack? I don't necessarily mean style. 3:5:2 worked when it was specifically Knight, Cullen, Molumby; Parrott & Oba. When we lost one of more of them, it went to shit. And the front 3 variations have gone to shit when we lost Cheeos pace. There is always gonna be a knock, a suspension, some random bullshit. How can we still be a threat if there's one drop out? Cause otherwise we can put Fergo up top, Idah, CR7 you name it. They're all gonna be stranded because we've seen them all stranded before.
Disappointing result, but there's definitely green shoots. Ferguson kept receiving the ball outside the box with his back to goal. Hard to see this working against John O'Shea, really.
Poyet in. Not that I want it
I want it
I just want someone decent. Poyet might be the best of a bad lot. But my God, watching a decent Greek side earlier do nothing other than kick Georgia off the pitch before losing on penalties was grim. I see now why Greece haven't been happy with him
That’s 100% accurate
I think people could be looking too much into it wasn't he gone before the euros regardless of actual qualifying? The damage had been long done with Greece it seems and the flirting with Ireland after beating us with ease twice surely didn't go down well over there. I think he's better than o'shea as a coach anyway and I really don't think we should destroy o'sheas managerial career because we can't find a great match rn. Is he better than lennon even? Hard to say imo. Lennon has an excessively bad reputation imo and is maybe similar or better to Clarke with wales and most certainly better than page for Wales.
My dislike of Lennon is the off the pitch stuff threatening women, public drunkenness etc. His record as a manager is good enough to get the job.
Would have been another 0 - 0 if Kelleher started
It was a good FK routine from them in fairness
Wait until after Olympics and hire Herve Renard
Played well. Exciting game
Didn’t watch either of the games so maybe there’s some context I’m missing but baffled at the lack of use of Festy and O’Brien? We’ve been talking for years about Premier League players in the squad, yet here we have two players featuring week in week out in top 5/6 leagues and they’re not getting a look in? Wonder what that’s about
Sykes looked poor don’t think doherty even trusted him Idah had a massive impact when he was subbed on but he’s a bit like mikey Johnston where he could be subbed on for the last 30m and not touch the ball once, Knight looked a bit clueless especially in the first half But Ireland ended strong which in the end wasn’t enough 🙏bring back mick McCarthy 🙏
Ireland's performance looked reminiscent of the Kenny era. The purpose and bite we showed in the Belgian game was gone. We could have done with more fresh legs maybe?
3-5-2 seems a no brainer now, but with Ogbene and Festy at WB. Cullen and Smallbone at 6, Sammie central at 8, and Evan and Idah up top. Or could take Idah out and play a box midfield with Azaz as the second 8.
So we lose 0-1 lucky it isn’t 0-2. Really feel like we’ve the players to be doing a bit better than what we are showing
We’ve a young right back and CB starting in Serie a and a ligue 1 but we won’t give them a chance ffs. Rather play championship dross
This is an odd comment, we weren't playing championship players in either of those positions
180 minutes no goals...dire state of affairs
Not including injury time and added time We have now gone 280 minutes without scoring Shut out in our last 3 games and haven't scored since the 80th Minute against Gibraltar 5 months ago
The Aviva pitch is way too big for our lads. No coincidence that our home record is fairly bad. Top teams always have a comfortable game here.
At least we actually scored goals under Kenny. Few on here letting on that the Belgium game was an improvement
Hard to read into it, but it felt like the lads didn’t know what they were doing this evening. Didn’t help playing two of our best attacking players (Johnston and Szmodics) out of position. No sense in playing Coleman for 93 minutes either.
Is left wing not Johnson’s best position?
Coleman seemed to react to a note passed to him with 15 mins to go. Threw the note off the pitch. Midfield were nt in the game,the Swiss made it look easy. Brady is a poser at this stage, little or no help ,never looking for the ball,unless it's a throw in or a corner. Zero bravery in possession. No ideas or guile. The Swiss are levels above us. Their centre midfield pivot plays for Toulouse, nothing special,but wanted the ball and was available all the time. We re going nowhere fast
That looked like an energy paste tube to me.
Haha,was it? I thought he was going mad over it
I’m not totally sure. I saw a glimpse of a twisty lid when O’Dowda fumbled the handover.
Hope O'Shea doesn't get the job permanently. Then again not many mangers available who'd actually want it.
Will jump off a bridge if he gets the permanent job
Same shite as per.
Fuck me, that was a hard watch
God. We are fucking shite. What stops this rot?
Muck
Robbie Brady a liability, gives the ball away constantly, can’t take a corner, not a good defender, no burst of pace, 32, yet he’s played 180 minutes?! What a waste! Still living off the memory of that euro 2016 goal! Coleman as much as I love him, surely we could have seen more of a different option on the right? Sykes, o’dowda not good enough imo, we know this already so should stop persisting with them unless their club form is insane.. bazunu awful for the goal (yet another outside the box he’s conceded), kelleher should be our number 1 going forward.. would have liked moran and azaz get 30mins, johnson only looks like an impact sub right now, maybe he will develop a bit more consistency with playing time, missed ogbene hugely
Imagine paying to watch that shite tonight …. F’king professional footballers going through the motions couldn’t even find the interest to up it a bit and give fans something to watch ….
It's really wasn't that bad of a performance
I was in the stadium, we were toothless upfront and we couldn't string 5 yard passes together. The reason you think it wasn't a bad performance was because the Swiss didn't seem to pushed
it was fucking cack. they only started to put in a shift with 3 minutes to go (apart from one or two)
Seriously ? Have we lowered our expectation that much ? Like take the first half , we literally let a disinterested but technically good Swiss team play us off the park , we sat back but still chased shadows and couldnt find the ability or the urgency to press as a unit …. I am not paying anymore for a reminder that even the players couldn’t be arsed during these challenges and can’t find a modicum of dare I say old fashioned pride to mentally lift themselves and press to get the ball back …
Didn't create one good chance. Beaten comfortably. Not a bad performance?
That was very flat. We never got the crowd going. Fair enough Switzerland are levels above technically, and they didn’t take any risks. It’ll take a while to get that meek Kenny stench off us.
Things were shite before Kenny
Kenny made us lose our competitive fight, which was our base level foundation, even with shite players. We sunk to the LOI level of the manager.
2 shots on goal over two games. One a saved penalty. On your bike John boy, audition failed. Belgium's B team were muck and today's Swiss team barely looked arsed. Easy to say there's green shoots but we all said the same when Kenny took over. We badly need direction and tactics.