Forget What's Been Said In The Past, There Is Talent In This Ireland Squad
It was a largely forgettable opening 60 minutes at the Aviva Stadium last night, and yet there was a sense that Ireland were playing reasonably well. The level of opposition was not the highest, but the way Ireland kept the ball was impressive.
They stroked it about with conviction and confidence, showing the type of patience that has been missing from Ireland teams in recent years. The killer conviction in the final third was lacking at times, but that would come later.
Players were given the opportunity to impress and many of them took it. Even though this was a meaningless friendly, it told us plenty about the state of the Irish football at the minute.
Despite this being a second choice Irish XI, there was plenty to keep the spectators interested. John Egan continued his meteoric rise to captain his country, Josh Cullen and Alan Browne finally got a chance in the Irish midfield, while Jack Byrne represented the League of Ireland in the matchday squad.
After a qualification campaign that has featured largely the same group of core players it was always going to be interesting to see how some of the fringe members of the squad performed. You can only come away encouraged with what you saw.
For many years we have been told that we don't have the players in Ireland to perform at the highest level, that we should temper our expectations and expect a certain brand of football. The U21s did their part in dispelling such notions, but so did the players who took to the Aviva Stadium pitch last night.
John Egan is a player who in five years has gone from being released by Sunderland to becoming a key player in a Premier League team and captaining his country. His performance last night was everything you want to see from a central defender: strong on the air, quick on the grand, the ability to carry the ball into the midfield and pick out a pass. He is going to be Shane Duffy's long-term defensive partner within the next year.
Alan Browne is a creative midfielder who Preston fans rate as one of the best players in the Championship. You could see why against Bulgaria.
At international level, many players struggle to deal with the speed of the game. When Browne got on the ball, everything seemed to slow down around him. He took the ball down in difficult positions, playing positive passes when other would have just cleared their lines. He bagged his first international goal. He's 24-years old and will be an important player for Ireland in the coming years.
Ronan Curtis (23-years old) looked really promising up front, even if his final ball let him down at times. The same could be said of Callum O'Dowda (24-years old).
Five players made their senior international debuts last night. Mark Travers and Kieran O'Hara had little do during their respective stints between the posts, so their performances were impossible to judge.
There were no such doubts about the other three.
Josh Cullen, the 23-year old West Ham midfielder, earned man-of-the-match honours. He displayed everything you would want to see in a holding midfield role. He was combative, ferocious in the tackle and aggressive in pressing the opposition. When he got on the ball he could play the simple forward pass, or hit a long switch of play. He's a real prospect.
The cutting edge that was lacking earlier in the game was certainly provided by Jack Byrne. Many had questioned the Shamrock Rovers man's ability to step up to the international stage, but such notions were gone within five minutes of his introduction.
The 23-year old was magnificent. His touch around the box was incredible, and he was always on the lookout for a defence splitting pass. Byrne provided the assist for Long's headed goal, and it was his beautiful lofted pass that allowed Enda Stevens to set up another debutant for his goal.
James Collins caused huge problems for the Bulgarian defence after is introduction, immediately transferring his club form onto the international stage. His movement, work rate and finishing ability were all on show, and he was deserving of his goal despite his short time on the pitch.
With the exception of Collins, all of the players mentioned above are 26-years old or younger. In fact only Egan is above 24-years of age.
Hunger, passion, talent. This group has it all in abundance.
This was a team of supposed fringe players, and yet their performance offers huge encouragement for both the short and long term future of Irish football. Couple this with a supremely talented group at U21 level and perhaps the future of Irish football is not so bleak after all.
Don't let anybody tell you Ireland doesn't have the players. It may only have been against Bulgaria, but there was no shortage of talent on that pitch last night.
IronsForever wrote: ↑Wed Sep 11, 2019 7:56 pm
Wish him the very best and hope he proves me wrong because i dont see him as premiership standard. Nor are most of the Bulgarian players
I tend to agree. He's 23 now and if he was the required standard he would have been knocking at the 1st XI's door for 3 or 4 years now - but there hasn't really been any sign of it in all honesty. He may be a late developer you never know but I suspect he'll end up carving out a decent career for himself in the Championship somewhere.
Who the fuck is General Failure and why is he reading my harddisk?
From what seen of him I quite rate him....got a little bit of Parker about him,very busy and quick,
gets stuck in when needed...he's a good player...
But Like Grady D(who maybe we should be getting back after what happened to Mickey)has next to
no chance of getting a little run in side,cos always gonna be back up to the back up...
Can chuck Ben Johnson in there as well,prob 3rd choice either side..Holland maybe same,he
might be seriously good,but not gonna get in.
It's the PL at the moment ..all about Spending Millions on what should be established players..
there's shitloads of talent already at clubs,but they will never get the chance,best get yourself
a good loan deal,play regular football,and work your way back to Pl that way,at another club.
Am I right in thinking this lad is a DM and if he is, that leaves him as a third choice behind Rice,Sanchez (one of Manuels's faves)
...and that being the case - might explain why the club didn't recruit anyone else in the summer. Unless of course he is not that kind of DM...I only mention that in passing and mainly prompted by Boxman's review that opened this subject. Which does show that I read the material put under my nose...bit like those Scottish judges
BlackDiamond wrote: ↑Thu Sep 12, 2019 10:56 am
Am I right in thinking this lad is a DM and if he is, that leaves him as a third choice behind Rice,Sanchez (one of Manuels's faves)
...and that being the case - might explain why the club didn't recruit anyone else in the summer. Unless of course he is not that kind of DM...I only mention that in passing and mainly prompted by Boxman's review that opened this subject. Which does show that I read the material put under my nose...bit like those Scottish judges
He's a CM (112 games), occasional AM (21 games) and even more occasional DM (16 games). I get it that people want to see our youngsters break through and do well but as I said earlier, he's not really a youngster anymore. It's a case of now or never for him and I think if he'd have really caught any of the managers eyes over the last few seasons, he would have played more than 6 minutes of PL football. That kinda speaks volumes.
I'm not totally writing him off as he could very well develop in to the next Scott Parker but as things stand I think it's much more likely he'll be a Charlton favourite rather than a West Ham one.
Who the fuck is General Failure and why is he reading my harddisk?
mkhammer wrote: ↑Thu Sep 12, 2019 9:34 am
From what seen of him I quite rate him....got a little bit of Parker about him,very busy and quick,
gets stuck in when needed...he's a good player...
But Like Grady D(who maybe we should be getting back after what happened to Mickey)has next to
no chance of getting a little run in side,cos always gonna be back up to the back up...
Can chuck Ben Johnson in there as well,prob 3rd choice either side..Holland maybe same,he
might be seriously good,but not gonna get in.
It's the PL at the moment ..all about Spending Millions on what should be established players..
there's shitloads of talent already at clubs,but they will never get the chance,best get yourself
a good loan deal,play regular football,and work your way back to Pl that way,at another club.
I was thinking the same about Diangana but then I wondered if we're allowed to call him back. Even though he's still our player can we:
a) Call him back at any time
b) Only call him back during a window
c) Or have we agreed to loan him for a whole season and thereby fucked ourselves ?
Buggered if I know.
Why Is There Only One Monopolies Commission. Isn't That A Monopoly?
mkhammer wrote: ↑Thu Sep 12, 2019 9:34 am
From what seen of him I quite rate him....got a little bit of Parker about him,very busy and quick,
gets stuck in when needed...he's a good player...
But Like Grady D(who maybe we should be getting back after what happened to Mickey)has next to
no chance of getting a little run in side,cos always gonna be back up to the back up...
Can chuck Ben Johnson in there as well,prob 3rd choice either side..Holland maybe same,he
might be seriously good,but not gonna get in.
It's the PL at the moment ..all about Spending Millions on what should be established players..
there's shitloads of talent already at clubs,but they will never get the chance,best get yourself
a good loan deal,play regular football,and work your way back to Pl that way,at another club.
I was thinking the same about Diangana but then I wondered if we're allowed to call him back. Even though he's still our player can we:
a) Call him back at any time
b) Only call him back during a window
c) Or have we agreed to loan him for a whole season and thereby fucked ourselves ?
Buggered if I know.
Pretty certain we've got a recall clause on him.....but not to piss Slav off to much...
We do have Nathan Holland that could step in if Yarmo breaks down...and to be fair he was
first in line to get a chance, then got injured..
We shouldn't be overworking Yarmo...think the plan was to alternate him and Mickey,we need someone
else there....got Snoddy if need be,could do a job..I like snoddy,but not my first team pick..
Unsure about Cullen as he is in the oldest age bracket to be considered a youngster. We also have Coventry coming up who is quite a few years younger.
Diangana I can definatley see make it, either with us or a "lower" PL side ala Stanislas, but should be above champoinship level even next year. I hope he makes it here cause in a few years both Antonio and Yarmolenko will be 32+ and both Diangana and Holland can be viewed as natural sucessors, and will help with the home grown quota.
