Limerick FC 2014

Disgraceful performance. No effort and the same thing done over and over again with no sign of it ever going to work. Take the Bray game and go down another few levels and you have it.

The style of play is a joke.

Does Roddy Collins fall out with everyone? Wasn't there some trouble with him and Limerick fans back when he was manager of Monaghan?

Vision of Disorder wrote: »

That hadn't much to do with Collins to be fair. He was the subject of a few unpleasant chants and local cop/Monaghan United associate (I believe he was their child protection officer or some such) Paul Oliphant threw his ample weight around and made a mountain out of a molehill. It happened with at least one other club up there around that time too.

Ah okay thanks - I knew something had happened but the story I heard back was probably blown out of proportion.

Vision of Disorder wrote: »

It was a great point and there were definitely pluses to take from it (Ryan's return, Oji's performance) but overall I'd still be a bit uneasy about us. There's a real lack of depth in the squad at the moment (hopefully to be alleviated when Leahy/Williams/Galbraith/Curran can be added in), we lack a lot of urgency and penetration going forward still and there were a couple of fairly brutal individual performances too.

That said, it was a great moment to be there when McGrath scored. And I would obviously have taken 1-1 before the game!

Who were the brutal individuals?

Vision of Disorder wrote: »

Gaffney. His touch was terrible and he showed no initiative to run the channels. He worked hard but his decision making is poor quite a lot of the times. I rate him as a footballer and think he has a big role to play for us but I think that the current team and set up with him very isolated up front, leading the line by himself with no really natural wingers pushing up alongside him doesn't utilise him well at all. I think he'll benefit more than most from Curran returning.

I thought Folan was poor as well. He won a few headers, lost a few headers, never got tight enough on Christy Fagan and generally left Sam Oji with an awful lot to do. Folan excels at physically pointing out where his team-mates should be while letting his own man sneak goal side of him. Again, I'd hope Leahy will ease him out of the first eleven over time.

Those two stood out for me, Shane Tracy was fairly anonymous too for large spells of the game and McGrath didn't offer a whole lot in the first half in particular. He obviously finished excellently when he got his chance though.

Yep hard to argue with what you are saying there. I personally thought Folan was ok not great but not terrible. This sytem absolutely kills Gaffney especially when the plan seems to be either full back getting it and just floating it down the line even if he gets there he has no support and nowhere to go when Curran is back id have him as the man up front with Gaffney playing off him.

I think the system hurts Tracy a bit too as its hard to figure out where to actually play him in it to get the best out of him. Maybe when we get people back and if Prince is what he is supposed to be a change in system may come.

What is a bit worrying is there seems to be more players that the system doesn't suit then there is that it does.

Fireball07 wrote: »

Folan isn't a great player really, he's a big, strong lad and he's good at dealing with high balls usually and defending set-pieces. But at tracking clever, pacy runners... not so much. Not the best on the ball either, although he's improving at that at least.

Agree with most of this though he loses a lot of headers for such a tall guy too. I think he'd more effective if he was more aware of his own limitations but he's still being quoted in the press as talking about going back to England. I don't begrudge anybody a bit of ambition but he'd want to up his game considerably.

Fireball07 wrote: »

Tracy, for me, should be left-back or left-wing, ineffective elsewhere unless he gets the chance to shoot. Crossing and shooting are his two best abilities, ideally we'd get him in a position where he can do those things more often.

Shane is definitely a natural wide player but I think the problem there is that even though he is young he's suffered from some bad injuries already in his career and, as a result, neither his pace or his general mobility are the best. This is covered up somewhat at least in a five man midfield I suppose. In terms of technique and footballing intelligence he's too good to consider dropping.

Fireball07 wrote: »

McGrath didn't excel in the first division tbh, interesting that he's being used now after being ignored pretty much all of last year. Maybe he'll come good, he's still very young. Obviously has technical ability, bit small, and may find it hard to shine in this system.... there doesn't really seemed to be defined positions for the 2 other attacking players.

McGrath did ok in spells in the First Division and I'd rate him far, far ahead of Coughlan but he is small and it'll be interesting to see how he develops. Could go either way. Finished his chance well the other day anyway.

Fireball07 wrote: »

I didn't think Gaffney was brutal, thought he tried his best considering the circumstances, he was up against it. He's a good player and will be key to any success we do have this year. He's the best finisher in the squad too, it's madness that he's basically had no shots to date, we should be trying to get him into shooting positions.

He did try very hard against Pats but that was never the issue. I thought he was very ineffective though that is tempered heavily by the lack of support he got and I'm not wholly blaming him for it. That said he didn't show enough variety or movement and his touch was shocking at times. He remains a key player for us but I'd hope he's pushed wider again when Curran comes back. Curran has far more guile and nous about him to lead the line and Rory can get back to running up and down the wing, dribbling when the opportunity presents itself and shooting/crossing as applicable when the dribbling doesn't bamboozle himself as well as the opposition.

I think the biggest general problem for us has been that the central three have been seemingly reluctant to support the striker and wide players. I wouldn't want all three bursting forward as one obviously but there's a huge gap between our lines at times that is both hurting our attack and giving the opposition time and space to start theirs at their leisure.

Its not a good sign to have to scrape a draw against UCD really is it.

Thought the game Friday was the story of our season all over again. Look ok in defence, rubbish in attack, eventually concede, panic for 10-15 minutes, start to play attacking football with a modicum of purpose far too late. Draw was fair.

Barry Ryan was very good overall again though a few kickouts fell quite short. Williams was fairly decent for the most part, Oji immense, Folan better than last couple of games but still made a couple of silly errors at times. Nzuzi was proper rank and UCD exploited it. Ben Mohommed was going past him for fun until he went off injured and then UCD simply switched Chris Mulhall and his haircut over to our right side to do the same. Nzuzi fancies himself as a player a bit too and got caught in possession needlessly at times. Prince was caught on the ball a couple of times too but showed signs that he is a player. Duggan had a few moments but not his best game for us. Jay Hughes worked extremely hard and was lively and looking for the ball throughout. Shane Tracy was fairly anonymous, I'd worry slightly that he's just not able to keep up to the pace of the game. McGrath was ok, Williams needed to help him out quite a lot though. Gaffney did his usual combo of sublime and ridiculous. Off the bench Curran made a difference and it was nice to see Tam getting a bit more time too.

We were probably a little better than against Drogheda and didn't give possession away quite so recklessly but we still looked very flat, midfield was still too slow to get forward and support attacks and there was a real reluctance to get the ball into the box from out wide (possibly allayed to the lack of bodies we tended to have in there). Hard to take too much encouragement from it either though aside from the fact that they kept going til the very end.

TheBeast17 wrote: »

Same with the majority of the games he has played for us since we have gone up. How long does it go on before his set pieces are outweighed by the fact he offers nothing else.

Yeah I'm starting to think he's just not physically able to keep up with the pace of the game in the Premier unfortunately. His mobility is poor, his injuries earlier in his career have really limited his movement.

Fireball07 wrote: »

I'm going to the bang the same drum as always. Tracy is always anonymous in a midfield role and on the right because that's not his position. He's a left-back and that's all. He should play there.

Hes not better than Williams there though.