Ireland v Bulgaria match thread

It is bad. Hourihane is a central attacking mid a bit like Lampard. He cant defend that well. Play Cunningham or Williams there if not Manning. even Kevin Long. Mick is lunatic

Hourihan seems to me like he’s afraid of getting hurt in a tackle any time I’ve seen him. There were gaping holes in the midfield last Thursday at times, not that it was his fault specifically, but being snappy in a tackle can break up the play early and it’s important for a central player to have that bit of bite to him. He does have a nice left foot all the same. 

That’s that cleared up so

Mick clearly wants to give Hourihane another ninety minutes because he’s not playing enough at club level. 

Maccatacca wrote: Mick clearly wants to give Hourihane another ninety minutes because he’s not playing enough at club level.  He also wants to give Browne, Cullen and Judge game time in midfield so is managing to do both by playing Hourihane out of position. He has already said that Matt Doherty will start at LB against Georgia.    It’s a friendly against Bulgaria.  What exactly is the problem here?

Egan captaining the team.

horsebox wrote: BabbsBalls wrote: Hourihan seems to me like he’s afraid of getting hurt in a tackle any time I’ve seen him. There were gaping holes in the midfield last Thursday at times, not that it was his fault specifically, but being snappy in a tackle can break up the play early and it’s important for a central player to have that bit of bite to him. He does have a nice left foot all the same.  This has been confirmed by the posters on here and elsewhere to be fault of Whelan and Whelan alone.

Banjaxed wrote: 10 Box wrote: Maccatacca wrote: Mick clearly wants to give Hourihane another ninety minutes because he’s not playing enough at club level.  He also wants to give Browne, Cullen and Judge game time in midfield so is managing to do both by playing Hourihane out of position. He has already said that Matt Doherty will start at LB against Georgia.    It’s a friendly against Bulgaria.  What exactly is the problem here? He can play Hourihane in midfield with Cullen & Browne and put Judge on the wing. I think Mick wants to leave midfield free of the regulars so he can experiment.  Big issue with McGoldrick dropping so deep, I have a feeling Mick might drop the deep lying midfielder and have Cullen/Browne in midfield with Judge/Byrne in the number 10 role behind Collins. Cullen would be the sitter allowing Browne roam forward.  Curtis on the left, O'Dowda on the right.  In the remaining games, Mick might want to deploy a number 10 at some point, Bulgaria is a decent testing ground for this.