John Egan

kevincronin2000 wrote:

Long shot but if we had a couple of more withdrawals there may be a call up for Rochdale's Eoghan O'Connell

He's barely ever fit. You wouldn't be able to build a defense around him.

doherty wrote:

kevincronin2000 wrote:

Long shot but if we had a couple of more withdrawals there may be a call up for Rochdale's Eoghan O'Connell

Your right that is a long shot. Very very long

Ah not really, if Duffy Clarke Long Lenihan Dunne O'Shea Doherty Keogh were to join Egan Masterson and Collins getting crocked he's up.

Edited by Scissors Kick - 16 Feb 2021 at 12:03am

The way we have 3 CBs gone down the swanny in one weekend who bloody knows.

Hotlips_Hoolahan wrote:

Englishborn wrote:

Hotlips_Hoolahan wrote:

Nialler wrote:

Richard Keogh is in decent form too. Might not be bad to have him around?

I'd still have Duffy, Clark, Long and O'Shea ahead of him. Lenihan's a good age as well and has marshaled Blackburn to within touching distance of the playoff positions again.

Thats not true. Hes been atrocious in alot of games. As a Blackburn fan, the defence has been all over the place. The defending against Preston last Friday was laughable. Blackburn are nowhere near the playoffs as they go on a bad run time and time again

He had one relatively brief bad run. He's also had about three or four different partners at CB due to a litany of injuries. He was linked with Sheffield United when they got promoted so he's clearly well regarded at that level.

True hes had two teenage centrebacks alongside him but Blackburn defence is a bombscare

Fruice wrote:

You Tell Me wrote:

It's a bit of a dilemma now for Kenny I suppose alright. It was easier to drop Duffy if you were bringing in someone alongside Egan and Egan alongside Clark as a pairing seemed to make sense. Now he has to either change both his previous first choice centre backs for Serbia or else stick with a woefully out of form Duffy who doesn't suit his system anyway.

Kenny is certainly not getting any breaks since he got the senior job. But I do think he needs to be judged more on performances than qualification in this group. We will almost certainly finish third, it's how we do it that matters in terms of Kenny getting to stay on for a shot at the Euros next time.

It’s clear now Duffy is going to start and Kenny is going to have to adapt his system with him in it especially first day out.

Kenny doesn't ever really adapt his system though, he expects his players to adapt to it. I don't think we'll see any sense of pragmatism to take account of Duffy, if he is indeed selected. Duffy will be expected to do things he is unable to do competently and his strengths will be nullified by Kenny's style of play.

Which is why I think he should take the chance and play Clark and O'Shea. Both very comfortable on the ball and o'shea is going to have to be thrown in at some stage, might as well bite the bullet and do it now if Egan is out.

He'll be criticised less if he plays O'Shea and we lose than if we play Duffy and we lose. He can at least hang an o'shea selection on development of the team.

NewtNewbie wrote:

Just what is Kenny's 'system'? I find myself still at a loss.

And are we really so good that we can afford to choose a 'system' before finding the players to play within it?

I'm not sure even Hand and Charlton had that luxury when we had the best group of players available to us of all time...

System is the wrong word. Ethos would be closer. A system is something that develops over time as an amalgamation of the players and ethos you have.

Saying you want to have a possession based team is not a system. It's a broad stroke of a description. i.e. we want to inflict our game on the opposition. We want to be proactive to opportunity rather than reactive to mistakes in the opposition. We want to be in control of our own destiny... and when done well...

Playing a direct/long game for better or worse is playing the percentages. There's a throw of the dice about it...but equally, when done well... (Which Charlton did. He knew exactly how to play direct football and how to press)

Even after Kenny's first match you knew his ethos, but he'll have to be given at least these qualifiers to establish his system.

By the time his last qualifying match finishes everyone will know whether we're on the right track or whether Kenny has to go.

Dislocated toe apparently 8 weeks out

Fozz wrote:

That's that for March so.
CH pairings selected from Duffy, Clark, O'Shea, Long. That it?

Lenihan too

aviva8 wrote:

Dislocated toe apparently 8 weeks out

Kinda pleased that it's just a dislocated toe rather that anything ligament related to be honest.

He'll make a full recovery from the toe at least.