Mexico v Ireland - 1st June - Match Thread

It's not that simplistic though. Why bring six centre halves and only one full back? There are players such as Matt Doherty who would have jumped at the chance to travel and need blooding. Why only bring two strikers? Why play 3-5-2 but put two wingers in the central mid three instead of the likes of O'Kane who actually play that position? It left us horribly exposed.  Yes, it was a pointless trip but it could have been utilised better regardless of the result.  

 

So were the tramps (female version)

I actually agree with this. 

Martin could have easily deployed us in a 3-5-2 and played two sitting midfielders in O'Kane and Gleeson / Browne, don't think we'd have conceded the first goal, or the penalty if that was the case. 

Think it was a case of O'Neill literally saying 'feck this' and throwing in a few lads out of position just to see how it panned out, I'd imagine he knew that his starting eleven had no chance of getting anything out of that match. 

Pointless game, and now we're staring at another likely defeat against Uruguay on Sunday. I know these are only friendly games, but surely Austria will look at our recent form with confidence as they see a home loss against Iceland, a poor defeat against Mexico, and a likely loss against Uruguay. (Not forgetting a woeful performance against Wales). Not ideal preparation.

If it is a case of 'feck this', and it might very well be, then it was awfully petty and won't have done the players any good. Unless this is some sort of extreme Roy Keane philosophy of they need the hunger that only comes from running after technically superior footballers.

I wouldn't be panicking anyway though, certainly not in relation to Austria. To put it in perspective, the Austrians own friendly record is nothing to get excited about! I think we are all getting excited to watch an Irish team get chased around the park and all of them playing abysmally in the circumstances, if you were to give player ratings there wouldn't be a single outfield player above a 4, but all of that comes from the manager. 

I have pointed out faults in Duffy's game before but I doubt he has played much in a back 3 before last night and was probably more confused then the two next him and as confused as the three in front of him. The only thing I found truly bizarre was him and Hourihane both running away from the man with the ball in the lead up to the third goal, but it was absolute chaos at that stage

 

Absolutely. I'd hardly bat an eye-lid if I saw Austria lost 3-1 to Mexico in some random friendly in New Jersey.