New thread as the last thread seems to be broken.
Think HH will prefer the extra body in midfield than playing two strikers and others playing centrally who'll offer more on the counter attack. Even recently it was 3atb and we've saw Ebosele and Ogbene start centrally against Portugal with Azaz and Ebosele against Armenia.
With both fully fit, I can't see why we couldn't start Parrot and Ferguson.
It's not like we have a system or formation so tightly tuned that we can only accommodate one number 9.
if people want to think Parrott is that level of striker to be a starting no 9 for Ireland and can get the goals to get us to tournaments…that this is a likely future for Parrott ….then I just see it differently.
Ferguson is that level of player potentially. If for whatever reason his career hits the rocks then maybe Parrott becomes a better option at no 9…..but if Ferguson fails, Parrott is still not going to develop into that level of player that can get Ireland to tournaments. He’s short of that level.
I added an extra paragraph to my previous post in a wee edit with a bit of a positive read on his ireland time :p
He's also a very strange statistical anomaly in the Ireland team - in all his appearances, he has a 50% win rate! No-one else even comes close. 16 wins, 9 defeats, 7 draws. And of the 16 games he started, we've lost just 4. Mad. Now, obviously a lot of that is correlation rather than causation, but he's such a massive outlier that it does suggest we play better with him in the side (which does tend to match the eye test too).
He's also a very strange statistical anomaly in the Ireland team - in all his appearances, he has a 50% win rate! No-one else even comes close. 16 wins, 9 defeats, 7 draws. And of the 16 games he started, we've lost just 4. Mad. Now, obviously a lot of that is correlation rather than causation, but he's
such
a massive outlier that it does suggest we play better with him in the side (which does tend to match the eye test too).
that’s one read of it. There are positive and negative reads of his time with AZ. No real positive reads of his time in the Ireland shirt compared to Ferguson unless you’re really spinning it. Hopefully 2026 brings better things.
Sounds great for us that they've gone from apparantly being nonplussed with him last year, to being very happy with him now so. Exactly the sort of trend you'd like to see. Though probably not too surprising since he's scored in 8 of his 10 appearances this season so far (with a pretty deadly 11 goals and 2 assists in those 10 appearances - a goal every 55 minutes!)
<edit>
read the last paragraph of the post directly before yours.
anyway, I’m not in the habit of lying. My comments are based on the ongoing comments over last season or particularly over the last months of last season. So it takes a bit of a trawl.
There's a forum on there designated for each player and from a quick read over the last month it seems their fans missed Parrott and are only too happy to have him back.
Because he scores a lot of penalties and scored 4 goals in one game that they won 9-0 anyway. That’s grand but then around March April he frankly had some consistently awful games. The cup semi vs Heracles he was the worst player on the pitch and missed a peno in the shootout but they still scraped through. That could have been extremely costly as the final at the time looked very winnable. In the end they lost that. He didn’t do much vs spurs as they exited the Europa league. For all I watched I thought he looked class in only one game and that was away vs Galatasaray in the Europa league. He looked like a real defenders nightmare that night. I think that was in the middle of a bad run of form as it happens.
To know how good the average player is playing it’s no real use following Twitter etc., you have to watch the games. Twitter etc would have you believe Irish players are in good form for their clubs and Ive watched those games as much as possible and they aren’t.
There are mitigating factors:
I'm confused; if he's banging in the goals, why would he be unpopular?
start digging here: https://azfanpage.nl/forum/international-f23/?sid=359631ee6c1f995db0b85143c4ed02d5
or just start an account and ask them what they think of Parrott.
Where can we read this?
Hes unlikely to play much in November. Ferguson and Parrott are both no 9s. One is in form for Ireland and one is his backup
Oh ya and im just stating that his injury would prevent him for playing.
He played well in March game. If he brings club form to November's games it would be most welcome.
as I say I prefer the lad who’s scoring for Ireland.
When Troy starts scoring for Ireland I’ll believe in the Troy Parrott story more. He scores for AZ and a lot of their fans are fairly nonplussed with him.
Its kinda been hard for Parrott to make impact when he was injured.......
The Ferguson thing is be a lot more nuanced than generally accepted here.
Roma do not score goals or create chances. They are a totally blunt side. Horribly overplaying the ball in midfield, the wide men are awful footballers whose ability to play overhit or hit the first man crosses is laughable. Their set pieces totally exasperate me.
If you don’t watch Roma, let’s face it most people commenting here dont, then you won’t see that.
so we get on to Ireland….
I commented here last year that Ferguson going supernova was Irelands only hope of qualifying for the World Cup. That was a way of saying we had almost no chance of qualifying. People didn’t like that but it’s being proved pretty true. Parrott has made no impact on qualifying to date. Idah is Idah, he can’t play football but an ok penalty box striker who’s got a goal. Ferguson has done his part with 3 goals in 4 games.
I’ve said over and again that Ireland have problems at fullbacks, wingers, not just midfield and that’s being shown to be the case aswell. Yet fans and media still bang the drum that if we had a class midfielder it would come together. Ireland doesn’t even produce one class midfielder a decade so hoping for one is tantamount to wishing for something.
Some of us are fanboys of Ferguson because he’s the only outfield player who has delivered the goods for Ireland in the past year: goals vs Hungary, Armenia, Bulgaria and Finland.
some of ye are fanboys of Parrott because he’s got a decent record for AZ. (If you watch AZ’s games or read their fans comment sections you’ll understand the Irish media narrative tjay Parrott is doing really well in the eredivisen isn’t really the perception in Alkmaar.
I’ll take the lad who’s doing it for Ireland.
Oh no problem with that being people's concerns.
He needs score few goals and fast.
He started off well and all in league. He needs push on or he be out at Christmas.
Don't get me wrong, I like Ferguson in terms of his talent and ability, but the fanboys seem to be forgetting that his new manager at Brighton questioned his attitude, as did his next manager at West Ham. There's something in that: it's something fundamental with the lad. Perhaps he's had too much too soon, and hasn't had the character forming hard knocks etc.? I don't know. But there's something going on below the surface of what we see that's holding him back from reaching anything near his potential.
Great work there at 65 mins 1:1 against the last man, got the shot off great saving block by defender.
In other news…..Parrott strikes again
he came on about the 70th minute. Didn’t score. Never looked like scoring. Starting to think he’ll not score for them as it’s far from looking like a matter of time. They are totally incompetent as a team. Ferguson isn’t helping that but it’s a wider issue with the team. Gasperini has history, when he clicks with a team its magic but when he doesn’t (inter Milan) it’s a horror show
I’d be in two minds whether there is much to be gained in being part of a game like this
Might be a blessing he wasn’t picked. Until roma and gasperini learn that most goals are scored by getting behinds defenses and squaring then I’m not convinced he’d even be better playing,
Already thrown on one additional forward after only 35 mins, so hopefully Ev gets the nod in place of Dovbyk early enough too.
and 2 down, Gasperini is not getting a tune out of that team at all
Ev only on the bench tonight, pretty disappointing as this is a great game to potentially sore a few and build club confidence. Hopefully Dovbyk has another mare like he did against Lille. He has a goal and an assist from his last 2 starts though, so definitely seems to have edged ahead in the battle to be their number 9.
I heard this a few days ago, but now Irish Times have some article about Roma's patience becoming less and less regarding Evan Ferguson's goal drought. I lost the links to the things I read so I can't post them here, but trust me, time's running out.
Can I ask what's your issue with Ferguson?
Or should I say obsession with him?
I appreciate the concerns and your entitled to your opinion but its all negative and solely focused on him.
You have been called out twice in games he has played where you made stuff up about his performance only to make up stupid excuses when it's clear you were not watching the Roma games.
As long as he keeps scoring for us that's all I care about.
https://archive.ph/6feVJ
Sans paywall. Wonder where he'll go next?
