SRFC employee Duff is good
Richard Sadlier moaning about absolutely everything, including moaning about Martin O’Neill moaning. A negative, whiny, bore.
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O’Neill’s antipathy to O’Donoghue is great to watch. Refreshing not have to listen to Dunphy and Giles. A good night all round.
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Ashman seething it was LOI boys that won it for us
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Hamann and Duff were good alright. Sadlier has made a strategic error. When Dunphy goes, the public appetite for that all-out negativity will disappear. Sadlier has tried to position himself as the heir to that, but doesn’t have the capacity for wild, sweeping, somewhat amusing statements that Dunphy uses to pull it off. There’s a kind of nostalgic, residual goodwill towards Dunphy among the public at large too.
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I thought we were fairly good tonight, but have a major problem at centre back that got exposed again. I’m also hoping that Westwood will replace Randolph in goals when he’s fit again. Hoolahan, McClean, Coleman all good. Thought we were decent second half on Thursday too for what it’s worth.
Group going well so far. Think we are going to continue conceding goals against the better teams, so will be a challenge to find enough goals to get all the necessary results.
State of the Serbian defence in those highlights. Tadic seemed to be on fire but their back four were all over the place - some pushing up and others dropping off and leaving Austria to have several clear cut chances. Austria have that giant Janko upfront so it could be a reason to retain Duffy over there.
Effin Eddie would do a better job at punditry on this highlights programme than Stephen Hunt. Atrocious accent and diction with a speech impediment thrown in as well for good measure. Makes Clinton Morrison sound like a keynote speaker.
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His shirt and tie combination is ridiculous too.
At the moment, Duffy is an absolute bombscare. Seems to completely act on impulse all the time, goes charging in like a headless chicken and does misjudge situations.
You’d hope he’ll learn with experience as he does have the physicality and he is strong in the tackle and good to make blocks etc. But at centre-back, if you make mistakes, they often lead to goals. I’d rather have a less talented but more composed/less error-prone player if given the choice, It is something that can be learned but I’m not sure I’d start him against the Austrians.
O’Dowda looked lively when he came on, but was he the only attacking option on the bench? How the fuck did we let ourselves get into that situation? That was silly.
Coleman was much better tonight, I thought he was really good. Still did a couple of stupid things, but with the lopsided formation, he doesn’t get a huge amount of support.
A win is a win, the goal was a disaster and we were shit for about 10 minutes after half time but other than that, we played alright and did create chances. McClean in the right place to get the goals, fair play to him.
Aberdeen duo Jonny Hayes and Adam Rooney were the other attacking options on the bench.
you know, that’s ok really 6/6 , result,
ok look, ill get the obvious out of the way
shane duffy is a very poor center half, lads look , a few of ye were with me in Lyon when he fucking did that and then got sent off , ok that was against Greizmann, tonight he did it against Bugayov, a lad with 9 goals in 40+ internationals, they only scored 4 in their last campaign, the result was the same tonight tho, there are 2 issues, positioning/reading of the game and pace… he has not got either , 2 players , 1 with atletico madrid and the boy tonight playing in the moldovan league haven’t mugged him off, they just capitalized on shockingly poor play really,
lads, give over talking about hoolahan not holding the ball of some shit for the goal, you do not expect your center half to do that, it breaks all the fucking rules, its a joke, its like a guy who isn’t taking it seriously, he shouldn’t be in the team end of… a few people on here have played football, really u cant do this as a center half, no other analysis needed, we need to get clarke and keogh playing togther, clarke is a work in progress, duffy is not, he turns like a tugboat…
it was like Eitan Tibi the other night for Maccabi in Tallaght , problem is Tibi is 35…
i think that o neill is showing some kind of extended loyalty towards him but he must go at this stage, u cant manage that, what he does isnt o’neill’s fault, he just isnt good enough and we should leave it now
aside from that we did ok against very limited opposition, to put it in perspective, 8 of their starting 11 playing the Moldovan league , that league has a UEFA coefficient I think of 34, LOI is 37, EPL is 3, ok you get the drift, it’s a pretty low level of football these boys are playing at
you’d worry about Randolph allright a bit, his decision making is Predrag Raijkovic esque who has been dropped now by both Serbia and Mac TA, we don’t have such luxuries now… its match practice tho, that incident where he ran out at coleman is classic of a fella who isn’t used to playing a lot of football
coleman was great, wonderful enthusiasm back there… I think Randolph dosent talk to the lads in front of him enough and the problem is coleman dosent look like the sort who be giving lads a bollucking and he is too enthusiastic to think about things like holding a line , but when u have a lad like duffy there who is thick as shite then u are off to a bad start… u cant manage duffy end of
I thought james mac, Whelan did the necessary. Wes had a fine game, he always has moments where you say oh fuck, like these fresh air shots but he is the only bit of creativity we have there 90% of the time and ill forgive him that, we just are a lot better side with him in it , its always easy to knock the lad who tries to play a bit, he did very well last night and is in my team
Long took his goal well, a classic long finish, he’s not a poacher as we know and that is what we lack, Walters is chugging along and takes some battering in fairness, he has no pace at all and you can see the lack of match practice, Maclean had a stormer I thought, again like wes you have a series of oh fucking hell moments but this will always be the way im afraid
O dowda’s cameo was good
I still think Horgan, MacMillan and Kilduff should be in there, as discussed both are now doing it on a higher level than the likes of Macgeady and O Dowda ( dont get me started on fellas from Aberdeen in the squad) , Macmillan at this stage is someone who Id be trying if walters is bollixed given that Daryl Murphy seems out and given Newcastle’s squad I cant see him featuring there at all… we are thin on attacking options and these boys now not only deserve but need to feature in the squad
Onwards to Austria, where we wont loose,
That point in Serbia will prove to be a result, they’re getting up a head of steam now but at any stage it could come crashing down… the absolute mad bastards, i love that mitrovic, his goal celebrations are epic. that’s a man who fucking his country rigt there
We’ve nothing to fear lads,
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there is no reason to retain duffy anywhere at any stage any time
im wondering the same,
we seem to play better and get results when he is involved for some reason
You know well why Hoolahan doesn’t start every game, you old messer. He’s 35 and rarely plays back to back matches at club level. Astute management by O’Neill in his use of him over this sequence of games.
O’Neill has tended to prefer physically imposing centre backs at club level (Balde and Melberg to name two) and he didn’t seem to mind too much if they lacked pace (Varga to name one).
Duffy’s positioning and decision making is certainly a concern. There was one quite fortunate interception by him at 1-1 in the second half too where he ignored a runner but dangled out a leg to prevent the ball being fed through to him for a run in on goal.
agreed on wes’s age allright and interesting observations on O Neill’s history with center halves
He loves a big man to get on the end of a set piece
Duffy is a bit of a carthorse but he’s a great man defending with the backs against the wall, he will put his head on everything, get the blocks in etc.
Great call from Hendrick to get his suspension out of the way the other night.
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Balde was class.
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