Ireland v Portugal match thread

The defence are certainly looking a lot more solid of late.

Good to see.

Don’t worry Andy they’ll continue to move the goalposts to continue their personal nonsense with him. 

Agreed and we have pretty good depth across our Back 6 to boot. We look to be very strong in this Department moving forward, so I think we should and will stick with the current 3 CB formation.

Baz/Kelleher/Travers

Doherty/Coleman/Ogbene?

Stevens/McClean/Manning

O'Shea/Omabamidele/Dunne

Duffy/Collins/Lenihan

Egan/Clark/Scales

But the likes of Duffy, Stevens, Coleman, Doherty, Hendrick, Robinson, and Doherty really have their value mapped out. While the likes of Will Keane and McClean are already in League 1 as slightly aged players.

I think we are short a talisman, the cooperation of players like Duffy and Coleman bring leadership (but it’s a combination), and we don’t have an established striker who is an obvious danger man (Robinson is our most dangerous looking).

The “B Team” argument doesn’t really wash with me, and it is often used to explain away decent results. The exception being the 2017 win over Wales who were minus Bale, and lost Allen early, and at that point both terms were much of a muchness.

It was the same spell where Bazunu was exchanging passes that got progressively less assured.

Save for Ronaldo's header from Silva's cross, that he arguably should've scored, I can't think of many chances we ceded. We also cut down on the number of crosses from the last day, while remaining competitive going forward ourselves - I'm thinking Robinson's cross to Ogbene, the chance from Duffy's header that fell right at Robinson's feet, the goalmouth scramble and the tame Cullen shot.

I questioned the selection of Coleman at CB and Stevens, and I lamented the absence of Idah, but to be fair to Kenny, both Robinson and Ogbene grew into the game while Idah made a strong impact off the bench.

Elsewhere, Coleman got the measure of Ronaldo and looked extremely comfortable paired with Duffy and Egan.

Stevens was inconsistent. Some great passes mixed with awful touches. Did well with Egan down the left and made himself an option, or tried to, down the channel.

Most important is the fact that we are evolving into a mixed style of play.  I don’t go to Ireland games to be entertained but it was obvious for a long time that the long ball game didn’t work.  It just gives the ball back to the other team, unless you have a really dominant target man. Equally though, we will not outdo continental teams purely with tippy tappy football.  We need our own style, combining playing it out from the back, the occasional long ball to keep them guessing, running off the ball to give options, pressing, organisation and sheer hard graft.  When the keeper gets the ball he needs to have multiple options, including a 40 yard ball to a wing back.  I think we are getting there after a slow start.  

I would be happy to see Kenny get a new contract for Euro 2024 at this stage.  There are still some reservations but on balance he has done enough.  

The lack of perspective by some of our fans is ridiculous. Kenny deserved plenty of criticism in the beginning but what more can you expect from tonight? (obviously that question isn't aimed at you Het)