Subject: Ireland Vs Norway

Any predictions?

Mathews and Fairclough are starting up front.

I don't think 3-0 was a bad result.

I would have liked to push the midfielders a little further forward so as to prevent the need for the strikers to come and retrieve the ball but that would have given norway more chance up front .

They played 3 at the front and I think our defence did well to contain them. (When our wing backs weren't delievering looping balls into their own box)

Lizzraga showed again how valuable to midfield as he got on the ball a lot.

Overall I'd say our National team could improve a lot from better passing ratings. Norways second goal was the result of a sublime pass and fantastic finishing ability. It's not easy to compete with that.

the usual suspects :)

forwards played like they are out of form and always finding themselves with a ball running against a solid defense line...

Lizgarra was great, divine i would say
Long played like he had low form and tragic PM and passes.

It'll be a while before Ireland can boast a simialar repotoire of players to that of norway.

For now we have to try with the best we have.

3-0 is certainly no disgrace againt Norway. The strikers are getting back into form finally, even today things looked a lot more lively up front. You might want to look at their placement a bit. They were a bit close together and sometimes a bit deep.

A couple of blips. Freyne could be positioned a bit better. He gets too deep at times, other times he goes way down the wing leaving the defense exposed. The other thing was Sanabria and Fairclough having the wrong order set in MID/ATT. I don't think it wuld have changed much in todays result but it could mean a lot against France.

All in all though good job.

Yeah i thought we looked dangerous. Could have done with not being quite so reserved and defensive and supporting the attack a bit more. Norways defence looked pretty shambolic from what i saw and our strikers looked sharp.
We can definitely beat France on that performance.

Hopefully. It won't be easy, France have improved a great deal since we met them last.

Thing is though we have to beat them 21-0.

I was trying a few things to see how they'd work out MID/ATT switch for example. and I wanted to see how freyne would do in that role but messed up his positioning a bit.

That's what friendlies are for :) Unfortunately after Matthews showing last weekend what he can do with even a bit of form he's plumetted down again :(

Players tend to loose form if you play them every match. Especially when then play friednly, league AND and an NT match. They need a break at least one match a week.

Is the game against Nigeria the last game before the elections? I'm looking at when Executor took over and it wasn't until week 2 of the new season i think.

there are 2 friendlies after nigeria wales and sweden/ I'll still be in charge for those i think.

Yeah i thought so :)

Interesting :) I'll give that a try and see if it sorts him out.