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Luckily Moore is suspended for Bulgaria leaving him hopefully fresh for the Preston game.
The worry I have is that a number of the younger players may not be as good as I had hoped. Smith, Matondo, Mepham, T. Roberts and even Dan James seem to be struggling. I do think Ampadu and Rodon are going to be terrific players in the years ahead and Brooks too if he stays fit.
I thought it was a general confidence issue. Ramsey aside there was no willingness to change the tempo or make a penetrative pass. Everything was conservative. No runners going past their markers. Ireland are Wales in progress, moving to a less back to front team but lacking the willingness to move the ball quickly. Still it was quicker than we did.
Ball possession is important at international level but so is the speed with which you use it. Both sides gave it away cheaply and were pedestrian in trying to get into threatening areas. That said I lost a few quid on a flight there but the game wasn't that much different to the two previous I did attend, enlivened only by Harry Wilson's sublime free kick.
Yep. Too many of our players were very conservative in their passing. In good positions to move the ball forward they passed it back and momentum was lost. The passing from both sides was terrible. Really low quality stuff. We obviously miss Bale but Allen is a big miss too. I did think both Rodon and Ampadu looked comfortable moving forward with the ball.
Another clean sheet, another game for youngsters and a point away from home are the positives but “on paper” we should be beating ROI.
Let's count Ireland's Premier League "reserves" too, shall we?
Randolph, Kevin Long, Molumby, Brady and Shane Long.
The only players to start every PL game for their team this season has been the mighty Jeff Hendrick and Enda Stevens.
Edit: you also conveniently missed out that one of our players is playing in Serie A for Juventus too.
I prefer to have our side compared to Ireland's any day of the week, but for all of the talk about our bright young things in attacking positions, we're really struggling in front of goal this season - our record of two goals from four games isn't that bad when you consider we've only had eight on target efforts in three hundred and sixty minutes this autumn.