Limerick FC 2014

TheBeast17

What is a bit worrying is there seems to be more players that the system doesn't suit then there is that it does.

Fireball07

TheBeast17 wrote: »

What is a bit worrying is there seems to be more players that the system doesn't suit then there is that it does.

Well yeah... what players does it suit???


It doesn't get the best out of Gaffney, Curran, Tracy, Galbraith, Coughlan... maybe you could argue Duggan & Nzuzi, but having not seen them in another system with us, I couldn't judge. It suits the backs I guess... but I don't think the defence would be a problem in other systems.

Vision of Disorder

Fireball07 wrote: »

Folan isn't a great player really, he's a big, strong lad and he's good at dealing with high balls usually and defending set-pieces. But at tracking clever, pacy runners... not so much. Not the best on the ball either, although he's improving at that at least.

Agree with most of this though he loses a lot of headers for such a tall guy too. I think he'd more effective if he was more aware of his own limitations but he's still being quoted in the press as talking about going back to England. I don't begrudge anybody a bit of ambition but he'd want to up his game considerably.

Fireball07 wrote: »

Tracy, for me, should be left-back or left-wing, ineffective elsewhere unless he gets the chance to shoot. Crossing and shooting are his two best abilities, ideally we'd get him in a position where he can do those things more often.

Shane is definitely a natural wide player but I think the problem there is that even though he is young he's suffered from some bad injuries already in his career and, as a result, neither his pace or his general mobility are the best. This is covered up somewhat at least in a five man midfield I suppose. In terms of technique and footballing intelligence he's too good to consider dropping.

Fireball07 wrote: »

McGrath didn't excel in the first division tbh, interesting that he's being used now after being ignored pretty much all of last year. Maybe he'll come good, he's still very young. Obviously has technical ability, bit small, and may find it hard to shine in this system.... there doesn't really seemed to be defined positions for the 2 other attacking players.

McGrath did ok in spells in the First Division and I'd rate him far, far ahead of Coughlan but he is small and it'll be interesting to see how he develops. Could go either way. Finished his chance well the other day anyway.

Fireball07 wrote: »

I didn't think Gaffney was brutal, thought he tried his best considering the circumstances, he was up against it. He's a good player and will be key to any success we do have this year. He's the best finisher in the squad too, it's madness that he's basically had no shots to date, we should be trying to get him into shooting positions.

He did try very hard against Pats but that was never the issue. I thought he was very ineffective though that is tempered heavily by the lack of support he got and I'm not wholly blaming him for it. That said he didn't show enough variety or movement and his touch was shocking at times. He remains a key player for us but I'd hope he's pushed wider again when Curran comes back. Curran has far more guile and nous about him to lead the line and Rory can get back to running up and down the wing, dribbling when the opportunity presents itself and shooting/crossing as applicable when the dribbling doesn't bamboozle himself as well as the opposition.

I think the biggest general problem for us has been that the central three have been seemingly reluctant to support the striker and wide players. I wouldn't want all three bursting forward as one obviously but there's a huge gap between our lines at times that is both hurting our attack and giving the opposition time and space to start theirs at their leisure.

Jofspring

I'm a bit more optimistic for this Friday. There are definitely flaws in the team but the only thing Drogheda have to offer is their two centre forwards. If we can stay as solid as the last game at the back then they are there for the taking.

Fireball07

A terrible result last night. But I thought the performance was actually okay, we created chances at least. Really frustrating that we didn't take them, and sometimes we can be a bit impatient.


The goal was an awful one to concede, so scrappy. Barry Ryan was immense again, made a few brilliant saves, and Drogheda seemed to walk through the middle easily enough. But it was an open match, we had chances too.

How did Dave Ryan save that header? It was a fantastic cross and I was sure any touch would direct into the goal. Kelly had a chance far right after a wonderful bit of skill from Gaffney, Duggan missed a one-on-one, McManus put the ball in the net but was offside and there were a few other half-chances.


Ref was really poor, the one where Dave Ryan dropped a high ball and he blew a free was ridiculous imo. Folan had a shocker, just everything he did was poor. I'd say Ryan was our best player, Gaffney did some good things but can still be infuriating, Kelly was decent, Duggan was decent but should have scored. Curran was very good from the bench, uses his body very well.



The Gaffney piece of skill was ridiculous, looked so awkward, but he pulled it off and it would have been a class goal if it had gone in. I still don't understand why he plays Tracy in the middle rather than left-back, everything good he did came on the left-hand side and the game passes him by in the centre. Similarly, Nzuzi slows down the game by cutting inside onto his right every time and he has the pace and energy to play in the middle, would also offer something different. Our midfield was brushed aside too easily yesterday, not by great players, just by more physical players.

TheBeast17

Fireball07 wrote: »

The Gaffney piece of skill was ridiculous, looked so awkward, but he pulled it off and it would have been a class goal if it had gone in. I still don't understand why he plays Tracy in the middle rather than left-back, everything good he did came on the left-hand side and the game passes him by in the centre. Similarly, Nzuzi slows down the game by cutting inside onto his right every time and he has the pace and energy to play in the middle, would also offer something different. Our midfield was brushed aside too easily yesterday, not by great players, just by more physical players.

Nzuzi has been poor in the games he has played in the middle imo. We don't have enough good midfielders Duggan is very good after that id question if we have anyone good enough to be in there with him.

Darragh Rainsford has no business playing LOI football.

A_Sober_Paddy

It all boils down to the fact we miss Joe Gamble, we don't have a real leader in the middle, and we've nobody willing to do the dirty hard work...Bring back Joe

Our Brian

Bring back Joe ! are you serious, we have bigger problems than that.How about we bring in a manager who knows league of Ireland, because Taylor sure does'nt.

Fireball07

TheBeast17 wrote: »

Nzuzi has been poor in the games he has played in the middle imo. We don't have enough good midfielders Duggan is very good after that id question if we have anyone good enough to be in there with him.

Darragh Rainsford has no business playing LOI football.

I thought he looked good in the middle against Pats, and Tracy has been poor in midfield too. Tracy is just not a midfielder, it's not his fault. He is a left-sided player and has to play there, it's madness.


I think you're a bit harsh on Rainsford... I think he has a lot of talent, we're not getting the most out of it atm though.


I think a McManus/Gaffney/Curran front trio is the way forward though, the two lads were impressive from the bench.


Hopefully Leahy will be fit soon, and Galbraith. And hopefully we see Prince get a few mins at some stage, if he's any good.


Duggan is a quality footballer, I think he's a better midfielder than Gamble for sure. But he's trying to do it all on his own too much.

TheBeast17

Fireball07 wrote: »

I thought he looked good in the middle against Pats, and Tracy has been poor in midfield too. Tracy is just not a midfielder, it's not his fault. He is a left-sided player and has to play there, it's madness.


I think you're a bit harsh on Rainsford... I think he has a lot of talent, we're not getting the most out of it atm though.


I think a McManus/Gaffney/Curran front trio is the way forward though, the two lads were impressive from the bench.


Hopefully Leahy will be fit soon, and Galbraith. And hopefully we see Prince get a few mins at some stage, if he's any good.


Duggan is a quality footballer, I think he's a better midfielder than Gamble for sure. But he's trying to do it all on his own too much.

Nzuzi was on the right against Pats though not in the middle. But I would rather him there than Tracy atm. Do you drop Tracy then or put him left back ahead of Williams? I think Williams is a better left back than him.

Rainsford has had at most 3 good games since last season and has done absolutely nothing at all in the rest. I can't see what he offers at all loses the ball the majority of the time he is on it pulls out of tackles and doesn't take people on. Don't want to be so harsh but I honestly don't see what he adds at all.

I agree with the front 3 id have Tam up top with he others either side. Duggan is a very good player but he is in a midfield 3 where he is the only one that is good enough he has to try do others jobs as well as h is own.

osarusan

UCD 1-1 Limerick

We needed a 92nd minute equaliser to get a point.

Table:


(sorry, don't know how to format the table properly, maybe a mod can help)


Cork City 5 4 1 0 9 13
Drogheda 5 3 2 0 5 11
Shamrock 5 3 1 1 3 10
Dundalk 5 3 1 1 2 10
U.C.D 5 2 1 2 -1 7
Bohemians 5 1 3 1 1 6
Derry City 5 1 3 1 0 6
St. Pats 5 1 3 1 -2 6
Bray 5 1 2 2 -3 5
Limerick 5 0 3 2 -2 3
Sligo Rov 5 1 0 4 -3 3
Athlone 5 0 0 5 -9 0

Soulcrew09

Slowly improving and deserved at least a point up in UCD, 2 good peno claims turned down and another 'goal' ruled offside (surprised they stuck 5 past Bray last week) Oji was rock solid again, Robbie Williams had a fine game and Prince had a decent 1st half (subbed early in the second) brought on Curran and McManus in the 2nd half again this week. Hope to see them starting soon.

That said they need 2 wingers and a striker still.

TheBeast17

Its not a good sign to have to scrape a draw against UCD really is it.

ShatterProof

Mondays game is postponed.

Vision of Disorder

Thought the game Friday was the story of our season all over again. Look ok in defence, rubbish in attack, eventually concede, panic for 10-15 minutes, start to play attacking football with a modicum of purpose far too late. Draw was fair.

Barry Ryan was very good overall again though a few kickouts fell quite short. Williams was fairly decent for the most part, Oji immense, Folan better than last couple of games but still made a couple of silly errors at times. Nzuzi was proper rank and UCD exploited it. Ben Mohommed was going past him for fun until he went off injured and then UCD simply switched Chris Mulhall and his haircut over to our right side to do the same. Nzuzi fancies himself as a player a bit too and got caught in possession needlessly at times. Prince was caught on the ball a couple of times too but showed signs that he is a player. Duggan had a few moments but not his best game for us. Jay Hughes worked extremely hard and was lively and looking for the ball throughout. Shane Tracy was fairly anonymous, I'd worry slightly that he's just not able to keep up to the pace of the game. McGrath was ok, Williams needed to help him out quite a lot though. Gaffney did his usual combo of sublime and ridiculous. Off the bench Curran made a difference and it was nice to see Tam getting a bit more time too.

We were probably a little better than against Drogheda and didn't give possession away quite so recklessly but we still looked very flat, midfield was still too slow to get forward and support attacks and there was a real reluctance to get the ball into the box from out wide (possibly allayed to the lack of bodies we tended to have in there). Hard to take too much encouragement from it either though aside from the fact that they kept going til the very end.

TheBeast17

Vision of Disorder wrote: »

Thought the game Friday was the story of our season all over again. Look ok in defence, rubbish in attack, eventually concede, panic for 10-15 minutes, start to play attacking football with a modicum of purpose far too late. Draw was fair.

Barry Ryan was very good overall again though a few kickouts fell quite short. Williams was fairly decent for the most part, Oji immense, Folan better than last couple of games but still made a couple of silly errors at times. Nzuzi was proper rank and UCD exploited it. Ben Mohommed was going past him for fun until he went off injured and then UCD simply switched Chris Mulhall and his haircut over to our right side to do the same. Nzuzi fancies himself as a player a bit too and got caught in possession needlessly at times. Prince was caught on the ball a couple of times too but showed signs that he is a player. Duggan had a few moments but not his best game for us. Jay Hughes worked extremely hard and was lively and looking for the ball throughout. Shane Tracy was fairly anonymous, I'd worry slightly that he's just not able to keep up to the pace of the game. McGrath was ok, Williams needed to help him out quite a lot though. Gaffney did his usual combo of sublime and ridiculous. Off the bench Curran made a difference and it was nice to see Tam getting a bit more time too.

We were probably a little better than against Drogheda and didn't give possession away quite so recklessly but we still looked very flat, midfield was still too slow to get forward and support attacks and there was a real reluctance to get the ball into the box from out wide (possibly allayed to the lack of bodies we tended to have in there). Hard to take too much encouragement from it either though aside from the fact that they kept going til the very end.

Same with the majority of the games he has played for us since we have gone up. How long does it go on before his set pieces are outweighed by the fact he offers nothing else.

Vision of Disorder

TheBeast17 wrote: »

Same with the majority of the games he has played for us since we have gone up. How long does it go on before his set pieces are outweighed by the fact he offers nothing else.

Yeah I'm starting to think he's just not physically able to keep up with the pace of the game in the Premier unfortunately. His mobility is poor, his injuries earlier in his career have really limited his movement.

Fireball07

I'm going to the bang the same drum as always. Tracy is always anonymous in a midfield role and on the right because that's not his position. He's a left-back and that's all. He should play there.

TheBeast17

Fireball07 wrote: »

I'm going to the bang the same drum as always. Tracy is always anonymous in a midfield role and on the right because that's not his position. He's a left-back and that's all. He should play there.

Hes not better than Williams there though.

Vision of Disorder

TheBeast17 wrote: »

Hes not better than Williams there though.

I think he's too slow to excel there these days too (even if he was a better full back than Williams, which he's not) and could be horribly exposed against a quick winger or even a slow, tricky one. I can understand why he was tried in a central midfield three where there'd be others around to make up for his lack of pace and movement but I'm not sure I see a place where he's a natural fit now (maybe as a left winger in an old school 4-4-2 with an adventurous full back behind him but I wouldn't be changing the system completely to fit him either).

banjobongo

slightly off topic...
It can be very cold in Thomond Park and a nice warm bag of chips would be great at half time, I used to enjoy getting a bag of chips from the takeaway van at Jackman Park, but in Thomond Park the only hot food available are burgers which I think they zap in a microwave and by all accounts are horrible. Cant get chips anywhere, am I right or am I just looking in the wrong place?

and back on topic, we are now 2nd last on the LOI table but we do have a game in hand as our match v Cork last night was postponed after the recent Munster rugby match....this time last year where were we on the table relative to now, are we much further back?

Green Giant

banjobongo wrote: »

we are now 2nd last on the LOI table but we do have a game in hand as our match v Cork last night was postponed after the recent Munster rugby match....this time last year where were we on the table relative to now, are we much further back?

Limerick's results at the corresponding change of last season:
0-0 v Cork, 2-2 v Drogheda, 3-1 v UCD, 1-2 v Sligo, 0-1 v St Pats

That's five points versus the three we have now, but if memory serves me correctly we were top half after those opening five games in 2013. It's far tighter in the upper end of the table now than 12 months ago, when Sligo had 4-5 points over the team in 2nd.

Disappointed to be 11th, of course, but fully confident of getting four points from the upcoming Bohs and Athlone gamest that will pull us away a bit from the bottom two.

Fireball07

TheBeast17 wrote: »

Hes not better than Williams there though.

I'm personally not so sure. I don't think Williams is that great, and it's been ages since Tracy has played left-back. I think Tracy is much better at picking up spaces to whip in crosses from deep. It's not as if Williams is a bullet.



Going to Bohs on Friday, get to see Dalymount, hopefully we can pick up 3 points. Hopefully Curran will be ready for a start, we're moving closer and closer to our strongest line-up. Any word on Galbraith?

Green Giant

Galbraith not ready yet, no return date set but apparently making good progress. Ditto Mick Leahy

TheBeast17

Fireball07 wrote: »

I'm personally not so sure. I don't think Williams is that great, and it's been ages since Tracy has played left-back. I think Tracy is much better at picking up spaces to whip in crosses from deep. It's not as if Williams is a bullet.



Going to Bohs on Friday, get to see Dalymount, hopefully we can pick up 3 points. Hopefully Curran will be ready for a start, we're moving closer and closer to our strongest line-up. Any word on Galbraith?

Its not but he moves a lot better than Tracy. Also Tracy crosses well but does not defend as well as Williams.

Green Giant

Home fixture against Cork City rescheduled for Tuesday 20 May, kick-off 7.45

TheBeast17

I see they are not too worried about people trying to go to the Derry game. 3 o'clock of a Monday.

Pandiani

TheBeast17 wrote: »

I see they are not too worried about people trying to go to the Derry game. 3 o'clock of a Monday.

I would have thought 3 on a bank holiday Monday would suit people better than 7.45 to go to a game in Derry

TheBeast17

Pandiani wrote: »

I would have thought 3 on a bank holiday Monday would suit people better than 7.45 to go to a game in Derry

Silly me I have just noticed which Monday it is. I was really wondering about the timing of it.

Fireball07

Super win up at Bohs tonight, great to get our first win of the season, and I would say it was well-deserved.


Far from a perfect performance but we had the better chances, could have scored more and the goal we did get was top class. Bohs were awful, absolutely shocking- no gameplan particularly in the 2nd half. In the first half, at least they tried to isolate our full-backs, Beattie's pace was causing Williams bother and they had him on a yellow card. But in the 2nd half, he got a bit more support and Sammy Oji absolutely dominated physically.

Ryan didn't have many saves to make but was strong in the air, the defence was reasonably solid, Oji majestic.

I thought Prince was very impressive, looks like a proper footballer. Likes the ball on the ground, played to feet and will only get better imo. Having a player who likes to pass is better than what we've had. Desperately unlucky with his dipping half-volley and should have scored in the 2nd, should have put his foot through it.

Duggan wasn't at his best, but still worrying to see him injured. Tracy quiet again. Hughes was good, covered a lot of ground.

Gaffney mixed good with bad, stunning finish for the goal and when it really mattered, he held the ball up well and used it sensibly. Curran- great to have his physicality, thought the yellow against him was ridiculous.



We were the better team, good Limerick crowd up there, great goal- we were at the perfect angle to see it, the one place he could put it to score. Just a fantastic finish. Bohs were very very bad though, surprised how they could be so poor. Worrying thing is that both Duggan and Curran seemed to be limping when we saw them at Junction 14.