The Official UEFA Euro 2024 thread

[Cloudy O'Ranieri]

How is it that Norn Iron seem to be able to squeeze much more from a similarly low quality squad?

They regularly pull off big surprises, whereas most of our big moments in recent years have been routine wins against sides that we should be beating.

In fairness, they've had decades of trying to be a small fish making big inroads, whereas we've spent those same decades going from relative grandeur > having delusions of grandeur > it all coming crashing down.

We'll have to find our way from here. No doubt our lads aren't coached well enough at the moment but hitting rock bottom on the field was always a likely fallout from the FAI scandals and at least thirty years of having our heads in the sand regarding player development.

 

[Philby]

It has it's risks, but one avenue could be to focus on

- Being as meagre as possible at the back. Some of the goals we've given up recently have been Benny Hill stuff
- Build a system which is centred around feeding as many opportunities as possible into Evan

Feels more achievable at international level to keep it tight and hope that your one top quality player can bail you out.

 

[Cloudy O'Ranieri]

It has it's risks, but one avenue could be to focus on

- Being as meagre as possible at the back. Some of the goals we've given up recently have been Benny Hill stuff
- Build a system which is centred around feeding as many opportunities as possible into Evan

Feels more achievable at international level to keep it tight and hope that your one top quality player can bail you out.

There's certainly better scope for being an efficient counter attacking team now than there was previously.

Under Mick, and prior to that, we were just mean at the back and purely hoped for scraps off set pieces in attack. It was dreadful to watch, and became decreasingly efficient.

With the pace of Ebosele and Ogbene, coupled with Ferguson's finishing ability, we could now carry a real threat from open play with the right approach.

Unfortunately, Kenny's approach has become a mess that has failed to play to any attacking strengths the longer things have gone on.

According to Transfermarkt, we have a squad valued higher than Slovakia, Slovenia and Greece, who we either did, or would, fail to lay a glove on with the current regime.

The potential is there, but it would require a concerted assault on the Nations League and qualifying campaigns to come.

 

[TheEarlofPearl]

There's certainly better scope for being an efficient counter attacking team now than there was previously.

Under Mick, and prior to that, we were just mean at the back and purely hoped for scraps off set pieces in attack. It was dreadful to watch, and became decreasingly efficient.

With the pace of Ebosele and Ogbene, coupled with Ferguson's finishing ability, we could now carry a real threat from open play with the right approach.

Unfortunately, Kenny's approach has become a mess that has failed to play to any attacking strengths the longer things have gone on.

According to Transfermarkt, we have a squad valued higher than Slovakia, Slovenia and Greece, who we either did, or would, fail to lay a glove on.

The potential is there, but it would require a concerted assault on the Nations League and qualifying campaigns to come.

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Would Ferguson be swelling the value of the squad though?

 

[Cloudy O'Ranieri]

Would Ferguson be swelling the value of the squad though?

To a fair degree, yeah, but that one player out of kilter with the rest of the squad scenario would be common enough.

Sesko would similarly be inflating Slovenia. Slovakia have a few like Skriniar and Lobotka but again it's 2 or 3 players inflating the whole squad value.

Even if Ferguson didn't exist, we'd be in a similar ball park to the others in terms of value.

 

[Cloudy O'Ranieri]

By the way, the aforementioned Morocco...

 

[Cloudy O'Ranieri]

Median Player Values:

Ireland: €3.5m
Greece: €3m
Slovenia: €2m
Slovakia: €1.5m

There's little doubt that we should have been far more on par with Greece than what we showed over those two games. It was the most damning indictment from this qualifying campaign.

The home game against them was the absolute do or die in terms of showing we could be up to scratch, but it was an epic failure.

 

[Happyhonkaman]

It has it's risks, but one avenue could be to focus on

- Being as meagre as possible at the back. Some of the goals we've given up recently have been Benny Hill stuff
- Build a system which is centred around feeding as many opportunities as possible into Evan

Feels more achievable at international level to keep it tight and hope that your one top quality player can bail you out.

I had typed something along these lines yesterday but then didnt bother posting it. Kenny came in and tried to do the right thing in the main, he has not been able to implement it. At this stage its failing on all fronts so we are leaky at the back, non-existent in the middle, and impotent up front!

The new manager needs to shore the defence up first, that should be achievable. We have 2 decent keepers there in Bazanu and Kelleher. I think we have some decent young defenders as well in Egan, Obladeeobladaa, O Shea, Ebosele and maybe Collins

I dont know what any manager can do with the midfield available to us though! Thats where the obvious challenge in all of this will be. We need at least 3 players who can compete in there and shape the game, I'm not convinced any of the current squad can. Maybe Collins could play DM as he has decent feet, which leaves 2 spots but they need to be link players and that is where Kenny hit a brick wall. We had lots of passing but nothing incisive.

Up front Ferguson obviously looks the real deal and is our target man - Obafemi and Ogbene both look to have some quality as well and Mikey Johnson might add something out wide although he strikes me as McGeady MkII

It looks to me that we should be playing a 5-3-2 or 5-3-1-1 which is pretty much what Kenny sent out in a decent chunk of his matches, but we have to manage to create an attacking threat somehow. Using pace down the wings is definitely an option there as we potentially have the full backs but they will get little or no help from the middle which is a problem. Bypassing midfield like Charlton did is another way to approach it, I really hope the new manager doesn't go there. If someone out there can figure out how you implement any kind of cohesive, threatening game with the midfielders available to us they will be worth their weight in gold.

 

[TheEarlofPearl]

 

[Philby]

We look to be very slow at getting the ball forward & above average amount of passes per sequence.

This clusters us with a lot of high quality nations...the problem is they have the final third quality to break sides down & we don't.

Further supports the point above, that we have a decent amount of raw pace in the squad that we could be making better use of.