Subject: Ireland Vs...

lol I just assumed his first name was Nicholas

I knew about the 3 forwards. I knew exactly what formation Sweden would be using so I'm disappointed with the result. What i'm not sure about it whether it was just an abysmal performance or there was something wrong with the formation. For each of the goals it was the fault of our players. Reidy shouldnt be beaten from that distance when he's in Divine form. Foxton was out of position and got robbed for the 2nd and the 3rd i cant really remember that well but i'm fairly sure the defence failed.

The formation wasn't the strongest I've seen from you imho. When Colbert dropped back from offensive to defensive I felt it left a gap in the transition that we could have done without against 3 strikers. In terms of selection I was a bit surprised as well but I'm not up to date on every players skills and I can see what you were trying with it. I think though that Colbert and Coyne swapping might have made you look a bit more solid. Coyne seemed to miss a lot of tackles and with Foxton behind him missing tackles as well that side looked very dodgy.

I know we don't have many options to have a passing defence but against 3 strikers especially our standard big 4 blockers might have been a better idea. It might have resulted in more throw ins and broken ball but with 2 extra mids we should have been able to cope with that. (Apologies if some of those choices were down to injury/suspension- I haven't checked that)

Don't feel like I'm not condoning your style of play btw- I still feel it will suit the new engine as more of the features of it are brought back. My comments are more a nit pick :)

Great, it's possible to go through in this group, though it won't be easy!
18 points against the three weaker teams is a must, but stealing some points from Spain or Denmark will be needed in order to go through.
Hopefully it works this time! ;-)

I think you've hit the nail on the head there. I swapped Colbert and Coyne in the hope that Colbert would get on Leisten and stop Sweden at their first point of contact. It didnt work and it also left Foxton vulnerable with Coyne ahead of him. As for the defence i think a change was necessary to our normal personnel and i didnt make it. Brunton and Foxton are far more suitable against wingers, against 3 forwards they suffered because they dont have the defending. Hanrahan and Creedon would have been a far better option. I'm annoyed because i knew exactly what they were going to do. I'll put the mistakes down to doing the formation at 6am as i'd been working on the database until then.
I do think that formation would suit the new engine better but god knows when that'll be brought in. I made a load of changes to my formations with the new engine in mind and then they got rid of it.

Ok we were due to play Israel this week but they decided otherwise. To be honest that suits me down to the ground as i want to try a new tactic in preparation for next season. We're now playing Belgium and will probably lose but the result isnt the priority.

"probably" heres hoping mate!

Belgium 3 -1 Ireland

That was interesting. There's definitely some things i can take from that game. I said before i wasnt bothered about the result and i didnt pay that much attention to what Belgium would do but i basically got what i expected. Obviously the defense needs widening for that sort of wing attack and it was unfortunate that they chose to attack Foxton instead of Brunton but i can fix these problems. As for everything else, the midfield did a fairly good job controlling midfield considering how outclassed they were and provided quite a few scoring chances for the forwards. I think we could have stolen a draw if Curley hadn't picked up an injury early on.

quality result against a quality opposition.

that will increase our ranking even will it?

It'll cost us about 8 points i think. No major damage. The result could have been better but after the way we started I'll settle for it.

sweet result against a top team like!
know u always want more..

think it might be a good idea to get the U21 schedule together asap. a few teams are sorting out fixtures already at the moment

Iceland in week 6 arranged

good maaan.. is that all? post on intl forum might be a good idea

EDIT: on second thoughs and looking at taking shanes advice into it, it might be good to pick teams ourselves here.. if a few easy matches could be picked ranking could rise fast..
(edited)

Thats the plan ;) Just looking through some of the weaker nations, trying to find a definate election winner and challenging them. Invited Ghana to week 2 just now.

I thought it the first time i watched but that 2nd goal was offside.
And the penalty was ridiculous seeing as their striker didnt even have the ball.
First goal was my fault. MacGinnis moved up out of the defence leaving a huge gap in the middle that i certainly didnt create. I should have just kept him as part of the line.
(edited)

For the last 3 games of the international season i'm going to try and organise a mini-league between England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.