Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

Would have him back up to Ogbene rather than RWB. Would be better used playing high up in attack with his speed. His assist tonight he left the LB for dead from a standing start. Can also give the ball away cheaply so we wouldn't get punished as much if it happens higher up the pitch.

Speaking of Ogbene he's starting to improve on his end product and has three goal contributions in his last three games. Tonight he got the assist for Irish U21 Josh Kayode.

Nothing wrong with tying lads down either though to be fair. He'll be there on form and merit at this stage regardless. Considering he can play high up the pitch and further back he would be a decent player to cover a few positions.

Hopefully Dean Smith has found a system which gets Pukki and Idah playing together and doing well. Currently out of the relegation zone as things stand.

Conor Ronan has 3 from 3 after scoring from the penalty spot after his two match winners against Aberdeen and Hibs lately.

Has been said before doesn't qualify. Qualifies for Denmark and Norway. Has been in with the Denmark underage before and can see him declaring for them.

Lenihan sent off

Looking at the latest round of PL, Championship and SPL games midfield is a massive problem. It can't be understated how much of a decline we are seeing. Not a lot to be optimistic about really.

That actually only his third appearance for Brighton's U18s since joining the club. Went straight into their U23s when he joined. Pity he's bypassed our U19s as would loved to seen a partnership of him and Calum Kavanagh in attack.

In any case Brighton are delighted to have him I’d say. Might cure their center forward issues basically for free. Hopefully anyway.

he took a shot from thirty yards last night that fairly stung the hands of the goalkeeper, he also muscled pass two defenders with speed, control and strength. That’s what I mean by an all purpose forward.

Agreed. The PL isn't the be all on and end all. But my point still stands. From having maybe 6-7 PL midfielders available we now have none really. That's a decline.

We've gone from the days of discussing how few champions league players we have to having very few PL players.

Even at championship level it's not as if we are flush for options either. Yeh we have a few but very little depth.

Out of our current squad and recent call ups we are at 5 league one midfielders. It is what it is though. But I'd still fail to see how the positives outweigh the negatives.

7 league 1 players in total and then a good few lads who can't get a game at their clubs currently.

Che Adams ,Liam Copper,Stuart Armstrong,Kenny Mc Clean ,

I wouldn't argue that it's possible to qualify for major tournaments with championship standard players. hopefully Cullen , Browne and Knight for example can kick on a bit and become solid players for us. Having 7 players in League 1 does stand out though whereas Wales had 2 and Scotland had none. I know they had a pile of SPL lads in their squad though. It's great for them though that they have a league strong enough to draw players from. Out of the 11 that started again Moldova only 2 of them were SPL players though. 8 were PL and 1 was Belgian top flight. Then you factor in they have McTomnay, Ryan Fraser and Grant Hanley to come back in they comfortably have a really good team playing at the top level in football. it's not as if we are leaving out PL players either.

It's a worry for us that so much of our squad are at league 1.

Watford looking at ebolse

I hope not tbh. Would love to see more Irish players trying their hand at the top level in other European leagues like Italy, Germany and France etc.

Given the money swirling around the Premier league it's going to attract the best players with the exception of a few other European super clubs and be the hardest for young players to break into.

Ebosele will only go to Udinese in name though. More than likely its watford taking advantage of father owning 1 club and son the other. It all depends on his representation though. If the decision is based on finance and wages he will go. If he wants to develop he would be looking at staying (if derby pull off an escape) or else moving to another championship side. A full season of 40-50 starts would crown him. Still young enough to be a PL player in his early 20's.

Smallbone in Southampton squad again. With Ward-purse linked to a big money move it would be great to see him getting regular PL time next season.

As they say though , cap the chap.

Yeah England aren't going to be kicking themselves they've lost a lad who'd be lucky to get one cap for them. Could be a decent player for us but will need to overcome his injury problems and start getting consistent game time.

Has only played 715mins in 15 games since moving up to the seniors at the beginning of the 19/20 season. Kilkenny has nearly double the minutes played this season than Smallbone has in his third season. Both lads could do with loans next season to push on for both club and country.

Connolly surprisingly selected and the comments on Twitter means he needs a performance. Fans already on wilder’s back for picking him.

Middlesbrough are poor up front and most strikers bar Coburn are on loan. Some fans upset he hasn't been given a chance under Wilder and can see their fans getting more vocal if the loan lads don't deliver and get picked ahead him.

Sporar and Watmore was more what I saw on the comments as the preference to Connolly.

Doesn't sound good for Omobamidele, and hopefully it's not season ending for him. Dara O'Shea has returned at the right time.

Well covered in that area thankfully. We should see jimmy dunne or mark mcguinness getting a chance. Obviously we dont want to push oshea just yet. Let him get himself right.

Coleman is nearing the end now but Irish fans on here have been writing him off for 4 or so years. Same with Duffy. It’s just ridiculous. The Irish squad was so bad for those years and yet fans seem to think our few consistently good players were part of the problem.

In a very disorganised Everton team , showed great leadership as captain in best performance of season

Christie assisted for that one, but has now also gotten on the scoresheet himself.

Charlie McCann got his first taste of first-team action with Rangers at Annan on Saturday. - https://www.the42.ie/charlie-mccann-2-5682118-Feb2022/

Game time in the SPL with Rangers after adding Aaron Ramsey but hopefully one to keep an eye on.

It's exciting seeing the amount of players from here playing in Scotland at the moment.

Manning definitely needs to be seeing game time. Not sure who Kenny sees as his starting LWB but McClean is in the same boat as Coleman regarding age and Stevens has his issues with injuries this season.

One position that worries me the most is what happens if Josh Cullen gets injured. He's first name on the team sheet for me and someone you hope lasts the 90mins because the drop off after him is significant.

Hourihane started there in the friendly against Qatar but the lads probably had higher intensity matches in training that week.