Subject: [NT] Update - Players and Training

As we're coming up to the midway point in the season it's a good a time as any to look at how we can improve the National Team further and make sure we're ok for the future.

So far this season we're unbeaten and on saturday we qualified for the semi final of the Mini World Cup to face New Zealand. This game may be a step too far for us but either way we've done well considering we have one of the smallest user bases in Sokker.

To make sure we can keep up with the larger nations what we need to do is keep developing Irish players for the future and make sure we're covered in all areas. This is where we're at currently-

Goalkeepers - One World class keeper in Cryan with a few more quality trainees around- all in all not a worry.

Defenders - Probably our weakest area atm- we have a lot of players with great defending but lacking in essential secondaries. Once these guys get balanced out we should be a lot better off.

Midfielders- Central midfielders is where we could be caught in the long term as they pretty much need every skill at a high level. Currently we have a good 4 or 5 mids but not many even in training beyond them.

Strikers- Some nice players with more being trained.

If anyone is looking at overhauling their training set up I would suggest midfielder training as a good way to get your players into the national team. If anyone wants some advice on training or on the junior school post any questions here (or skmail me) and we'll see can we answer it for you.

I've arranged a pretty challenging set of friendlies for the rest of the season, mainly to get some experience in playing the top teams for the next set of World Cup qualifiers.

17.06 : Cymru
24.06 : France
01.07 : England
08.07 : Sverige
15.07 : Netherlands
22.07 : Česká republika
29.07 : Canada
05.08 : South Africa

We can expect some cricket scores in some of these games but the idea is that it will help to put together a tighter defence for when we do play a tough team in qualifying.

France 1 - 0 Ireland

Even though we lost in the end today I thought we did well to hold France (with their 850 users versus our 22) for so much of the game. With a bit more luck in front of goal I think we could have managed a draw or even a win.

Next up is England who reached the semi finals in the World Cup recently. If anyone wants to get involved with the tactics and team selection for this (or any other game) your input will be more than welcome.

If anyone wants to get involved with the tactics and team selection for this

Give up now, you don't stand a chance ;).

Alternatively a tactic like this:

x-----x
x-----x
--------
--------
x------x
x-----x
x-----x

Would be fine.

Alternatively, put all of your players in the top right hand corner.
(edited)

Maybe I'll go top left and totally throw your formation...
Personally I think the vanity choice of Corey Bridge in defence leaves some big gaps for us ;) After falling apart to the Irish attack methinks he'll join all the other Corey's in the "where are they now?" file...

Mathew Ferry(718512)
Defender:Outstanding
You looked at him a few weeks ago, and his stamina has well inproved since then, his form is also on the rise.
Might be worth a trial if your interested in another defender

Unfortunately for you, I'm not picking the England lineup, and have been sent a tactic to use by another user. So no bias at all on the lineup, not that there ever has been :).

Ireland 1 - 3 England

The result was never in doubt here really, even with England having somebody fairly inexperienced putting the team together. There were some good performances for us though with Fairclough and Armstrong not looking too far out of their depth. Maybe I should have gone with Mr. G's 2-2-2-2-2 formation :)
(edited)

Link 1

Link 2

Explains what was going on.

Yeah- I had seen those threads ;)

Problem was there wasn't much I could do about anything even with that info. I figured it would be 3-5-2 but our wingers wouldn't have got very far against such quick defenders. So I was stuck playing long balls through the middle and hoping for a break.
I was happy enough with our defence tho- the goals came from a set piece, a long shot and a stamina issue so there wasn't much that could have been done there. It did help that Englands strikers played so deep- usually they had to get through two lines of players to get clear.

---

I think it was a fairly decent result. Well done shane.

Great game against Sweden. Especially the last 10 minutes, you were unlucky, but also lucky at the very very end :).

Sweden positioned the defence far back and your strikers had space to receive passes but then could not go through the defenders.

I was pretty unhappy with the result - we controlled the game and had most of the chances but just couldn't score... Even my offside trap worked :)

Luckily we have an easy game next against the Netherlands which should give us a chance to put this result behind us ;)

"..even my offside trap worked :)"

Maybe it did, but we shpuld have scored at least one more goal. And I am very happy that our defence were in the right place most of the time(at least before they got tired), your attackers couldn't get through(at lest until our defenders got tired..). You are a lot better now then last season anyway. ;)

Our NT-teams is not so different, quick attackers and mostly counterattack(even tough that you use a little more attacking tactics, out midfielders are too bad for that.). Good luck in the future and in next seasons qualifications. =)