Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Tue 27th May 20:30 Columbas College -v- Inter yerauldone
Options
-
26-05-2008 12:31pm#1
Comments
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
Nabbing one of your car spotsFrankGrimes wrote: »I can give lifts from Sandyford Luas stop at 19:45.
0 -
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
Yeh Des I don't think you should be shouldering much of the blame. You've experimented with a few things to see what suits the squad available to you. Some have come off, some haven't, that's to be expected and it's only a problem if the same mistakes are being repeated. That's not the case - once you have identified something as a mistake you have addressed it and it generally hasn't re-occurred, that's pretty good management in my book and that's why there's never been any Des Out campaigns
.
There's rarely any surprise on the selection front either and I'd say that's cos the selection generally makes sense with the squad available to you - people will always have their own personal opinions but I don't think anyone can say you're off the wall in terms of selecting the best team available.
As I've said before, only thing I'd disagree with is leaving us short in the middle a couple of times. I'm fairly objective and self-critical (as my posts on here reflect) so I think I generally call it as it is and acknowledge when we get overrun in midfield when it's down to us central midfielders playing poorly or when it's down to the system. This week it was down to us, me in particular though none of us were on form, playing poorly.
There's been a couple of times when it was down to decisions which were mainly made to chase the game which is fair enough when we were left light in the middle. In those cases it can actually look like the 2 in there are playing poorly when it's more that we're under equipped. In my opinion, we don't have many central midfielders that have the experience that's needed to play as part of a 2 man central midfield when we're under pressure. We have a good few that can play as part of a 3 man centre or as a 2 against a weak side, but I feel to play 2 in the centre against a good team, those players need to know the position inside out and that means all the little things that mightn't be obvious to players in other positions e.g. positioning not just yourself but knowing where your partner is at all times. I think I can do that job (hopefully more effectively after the surgery removes some constraints) and Kenny is clearly in that mould of hard-worker who knows the right positioning both for defence and attack and can pick a pass too. Beyond that Neil is the next clear example of that type of player I can remember.
There's plenty of very talented players in our squad and many of those have virtues that serve us really well in other positions and in 3 man midfields,so this is not a criticism of anybody or trumping up those mentioned above, it's just my opinion that when we play only 2 in the middle we're thin on personnell to do that job, e.g as per last few games with Kenny away. I think Des' use of 3-5-2 and 4-5-1 recently was in some way an acknowledgement of that, but on the other hand I agree 4-4-2 does suit us better as a formation, often with a striker dropping off. I don't have a miracle cure for that, getting fullbacks and wingers to press the middle when we don't have the ball always helps and Des has called that out often. At 3 paragraphs on one point that's probably rambling but I guess what I'm getting at is as my aul lad always says, football is like chess - lose the middle and you lose the game and I think losing the middle due to not being correctly equipped there has played some part in the recent results though I don't think Des can regarded as to blame for that, it's just the reality that the strengths in our squad lie elsewhere.
So yeh, don't beat yourself up on it Des, you've done a great job getting the team to this stage - I don't care what results say, there's not one team that has played us in the last year that hasn't left the pitch thinking they were in a tough game so credit to you for building that from such flimsy beginnings. And I know that much as they're far too shy about saying it, all the lads really do appreciate what you're doing for the team.0 -
:D 
Advertisement