Post up the McDonnell article from last Saturday you mentioned elsewhere. As an ex-auditor, I retain a healthy scepticism about the regime but this international break has been overwhelmingly positive. Not just results but the confidence and cohesion. You can see the intent and the body language etc. They seem a united bunch and they’re playing with belief and a bit of freedom too.
Collins or Omobamidele in a holding mid role?
ill have to find it there and do a few photos
You’d think Cullen would play that more disciplined role against better teams.
Hendrick was clearly given licence to get forward and Hourihane’s not really defensive minded.
When Spock plays wing backs and 1 striker through the middle then there’s scope for McGrath to play that role where he’s nominally on the left but comes infield into THE HALF SPACES.
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John Egan is very very underrated center half as well
Duffy or Omo are getting the headlines ( they have stories) but this fella is consistently excellent for us
You;d wonder what’ll become of him at club level, no idea of his contract situation but you’d hope he coould compete at a better level thane where he currently is
Egan is all in as well, like Duffy there are no half measures
punching the ground after Ronaldo scored in anger… i loved that
A weakness for me in terms of the football Kenny wants to play is Egan’s status as a right footed left centre back. Even against shite tonight he couldn’t play out on his left and kept turning back and playing it square. It’s very predictable and limits the ability to build up from the back. The Serbs were all over that for most of the last qualifier game, for example. His nuts and bolts, bread and butter, egg and chips defending has largely been very good though alright.
Gavin Cooney was making the point the other day that Spock has become a lot more pragmatic since the start of his tenure and also that the Chelsea lad Anthony Barry is probably a big reason for the change in formation as it is a similar system to what Chelsea play
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the 3 at the back that becomes 5 means the cover in front isn’t as vital as if it was a 4. the half spaces have been a problem alright against better teams and we do get countered by committing so many forward of the ball. the balance was better against Serbia and Portugal recently, he is after doing a lot of looking and experimenting and looks like he is finding a chemistry.
12 months makes a world of difference. That was a huge boost there tonight. Not the scoreline or any of that, just the manner of it. They stuck out their chests and played ball
They absolutely completely dominated from start to finish and never let up. That’s what impressed me the most. The confidence to do it. We’ve not seen that in a long time. People will say Qatar are shit but we used to look equally as shit when we came up against those types of sides and usually scraped a 2-0 win playing lump ball and not looking at all convincing.
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Good point
I never noticed that at all…wrt serbia
Ok guys, it was 
We will finish below Luxembourg 
in the group
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sorry. its in the black bin
she purges newspapers there after the weekend and it’s gone.
I’ve managed to hang on to the Racing Post’s betting guide to the football league season and an issue of the UK times from Feb 01 2020 when UK left the EU.
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Obama Dembele will end up as our holding midfielder with O’Se etc coming in centre half instead. I think he could be a proper World class standard player in a few years. He needs to get the fuck out of Norwich pronto.
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He was genuinely electric in his season for Limerick, 5 levels above what he was playing against and only a boy, I was expecting him to kick on to massive things. Hopefully it can happen for him now
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yeah I saw him.a lot for cork and limerick and really liked him.
I’ve obviously never seen him play for Rotherham.
my worry is he could turn into a James maclean type with headless or directionless runs around the place…I sincerely hope not now tho…I really really hope he can kick on
What I most like about Kenny is that he seems to really work hard as a manager.
He instilled a passing and pressing system focusing on exploiting space in this team. He did it pretty much since the start although it has taken, and is still taking, time to bed down.
I think Irish managers previously were happy enough to get players for a break, work through some basic drills and put a team out, probably relying on our better players to get it through. You can see with Kenny that he is constantly working and I would imagine is ready to hit the ground running with ways of play and situations when the players come over for a break.
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Rotherham must be using him wrong he’s a lot of games and fuck all goals for them
Ah Jesus . He was very good at Lk but was very raw and at times peripheral . He is doing well but lads need to be a bit more nuanced .
I reckon Ogbene could be a Ballon D’Or contender in 2 seasons
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