Ireland 1-1 Azerbaijan. Another awful performance under Stephen Kenny. A weird 5-2-3/3-4-3 formation with Parrott and Connolly played out wide, despite both being strikers. No creativity in the midfield, just resorting to endless crosses into a packed box. Dire stuff.
Parrott has quite the bad luck with being played out of position, with him played as an AM at Ipswich last season, now as a winger for Ireland At this rate he'll be competing with Dele to play CM in spite not being a CM
please log in to view this image Lloris makes his 131st appearance for France in a slightly weird team, if that's the actual formation. No idea how Martial is getting into the team, for a start. Rabiot on the left and Pogba deep? Ok...
France played Rabiot at a LWB during the Euros, presumably in the hope his mad mother would cark it It also has to be said they're actually playing a RB at RB for this match - but only because Jules Kounde got sent off in their last game, presumably because he kept badgering the ref for a move befitting his opinion of himself all match long
Oh good, PEH getting a rest against the Faroes Oh balls, Stevie B isn't getting a good chunk of minutes against Montenegro
'Dire' is a bit or an exaggeration tbf. Ireland battered them 2nd half although let down by some dreadful decision making, particularly from Horgan & McLean at times. There isn't a really creative MF, but this is feckin' Ireland for fecks sake! What we do have is a tremendous prospect Bazunu in goal and the CF Idah is set for a decent career. Doherty struggled fitness wise late on but did ok back at RWB. Maybe he is still suffering long-covid symptoms? But it was a must win after the Portugal reverse, so no hope for the Finals now.
I don't see what he contributes. He's got no goal threat. I think he's scored in about two games ever. I don't think the keeper had a serious save to make. Lots of possession and no threat. It was like watching Arsenal. Should have alternated games with Coleman, rather than picking both for both matches. They're both struggling with stamina at the moment. It's not all Kenny's fault. He doesn't have a great range of players to pick from. The team just doesn't look like scoring under him, though. The six strikers in the squad have scored 5 international goals and I think they're all in **** friendlies. I get that he's trying to bring through the youth but he looks miles out of his depth.
Be right back, going to make an anonymous post on Spurs Community about how Levy blocked a move for the entire Irish attacking midfield and see how many people swallow it...
He's strong and holds the ball up well. In a better team he would get chances and provide for others. He's only 20. No goals at international level and only a few for Norwich, but too early to write off.
I'm not writing him off, I just don't think that he should be starting for Ireland. He's done nothing to put himself in that position and there are better options. Robinson's scored nearly as many goals against Chelsea as Idah has in total. Parrott looks like he's got more potential, to me, but you could argue that they both should be in the U21s. Connolly could also join them and he needs to move to play more often. There's a shocking lack of good options there, but they're also not getting any service.
The problem with the Ireland team in general right now is that it's hard to see where the goals will come from based on the forwards they've called up in the last few months Shane Long - 88 games, 17 goals Callum Robinson - 18 games, 1 goal Sean Maguire - 12 games, 1 goal James Collins - 11 games, 2 goals Troy Parrott - 6 games, 2 goals Adam Idah - 8 games, 0 goals Ronan Curtis - 7 games, 0 goals Aaron Connolly - 7 games, 0 goals Graham Burke - 3 games, 1 goal With the exception of Long, that list is either Championship or even League One strikers they're hoping raise their game when called up, or youngsters they're hoping develop into...well, anything but a Championship or League One striker they hope raise their game when wearing the national kit
