Ireland u19s

Lucky there, none of Ireland's front 4 look like they want to defend, 3-1 up 25 mins to go, maybe time to bring on McManus and stiffen up the midfield

In game subs were slow to arrive, is it just me or do we struggle at all levels to utilise our bench properly since the 5 sub rule came in, especially given this is a 3 game 6 day window. It's not like we were struggling for decent options off the bench, Kone-Doherty, Moore, McManus, Melia etc. Some of the lads looked out on their feet after 80 minutes. Turley who was on a yellow ended up going off injured on 85 odd minutes - he could surely have been subbed off earlier - could miss the rest of the games now.

greenshoots wrote: Great start for the u19s. Looks like some serious talent coming through in the midfield and forward areas, it's great to see. With a bit of coaching organisation at the back, we could become hard to beat and be able to knick plenty of goals at the other end. Big two games coming up now, home to Slovenia and away to Belgium. A win and a draw and we'd be flying!!!

All matches are in Albania, so effectively two neutral venue matches for us.

greenshoots wrote: Great start for the u19s. Looks like some serious talent coming through in the midfield and forward areas, it's great to see. With a bit of coaching organisation at the back, we could become hard to beat and be able to knick plenty of goals at the other end. Big two games coming up now, home to Slovenia and away to Belgium. A win and a draw and we'd be flying!!!

John Nice wrote: In game subs were slow to arrive, is it just me or do we struggle at all levels to utilise our bench properly since the 5 sub rule came in, especially given this is a 3 game 6 day window. It's not like we were struggling for decent options off the bench, Kone-Doherty, Moore, McManus, Melia etc. Some of the lads looked out on their feet after 80 minutes. Turley who was on a yellow ended up going off injured on 85 odd minutes - he could surely have been subbed off earlier - could miss the rest of the games now.

Watching the stream, I thought Akachuchukwu was bigger than everyone else on the pitch, but in the team photo he looks about the same as the rest of the team

Edited by tetsujin1979 - 15 Nov 2023 at 7:28pm

Maccatacca wrote: Akachukwu looks to be a very good player, he impressed me a lot during the 17s euros and good to see that he’s taking to men’s senior football like a duck to water. 17 years of age and scoring a hatrick in a first division play off from midfield is outrageous - that’s a tough old league for veterans, never mind young lads just learning their trade. Not sure how true the rumours are but I think Southampton would be a great move for him. As an aside, is Ike Orazi in any of our underage squads at the moment? He was great in the 17s euros too.

What makes it more impressive is he only came on as a sub in the 60th minute in that game.

Fozz wrote: Maccatacca wrote: As an aside, is Ike Orazi in any of our underage squads at the moment? He was great in the 17s euros too. Orazi is a 2007 so well underage for the 19's. The only 2007 in the squad is Melia who's a big lad with senior experience under his belt, so a proper outlier. Almost the entire squad is 2005-born, bar Kone-Doherty, Akachukwu (you wouldn't know it - he's well comfortable at this level), Turley, O'Sullivan and Razi. The underage structures throw up oddities where players go into limbo - the current U21's is for 2002's and up whereas the 19's is for 2005's and up. So lads born in 2004 find themselves overage for the 19's but two-plus years younger than many of the 21's squad.  Examples include McJannett (not called up), Abankwah (not getting many minutes) and Vaughan (also not called up). Now of course, if yer good enough it's not an issue (Curtis), but there's no doubt some lads just fall between the ages now and then and just have to bide their time.

Probably why having an U20s team is a good idea. I know Crawford organised one game but they played the Irish amateur team.

Given the same affect can also happen with some coming out of the U21s it's probably a good idea to organise another B team game now and then.