We had potentially quite a tough group. Spain, Armenia and the Faroe's. It would be tempting to say that Armenia and the Faroe's shouldn't be a problem but I had lost to Thailand in a friendly earlier. It had served to demonstrate that I was largely at the mercy of the other Ireland managers. Most of my good players had a tendency to be picked for the other squads, senior and U21's. Those that hadn't...some were just too old by the time the next games came around.
The first game was away to Spain....and we won it! A 1-0 smash and grab. We hit them on the counter attack, won the corner, nodded it in. Then it was counter attack all the way as we soaked up pressure. Towards the end of the game Spain got frustrated and had a player sent off. The points were ours.
And nice 2-0 win over Faroe Islands, followed by a 3-0 win over Armenia put us top.
Which means we're now through to the next qualifying round.
The Bad [Leeds]
First 5 games and....1 point.
What is worse is probably how many we've conceded. I know the tactic is bedding in still and it might take a while but that is a horrifying amount of goals to just give away.
A special mention goes to the Sheffield Wed game. We were robbed in that one. Went 2 down to an own goal and a free kick, came back to put it at 3-2 with some wonderful moves, they got a soft penalty at the end.
The Ugly [Leeds]
I think I can explain The Bad. The players are utter bastards. They hate each other. They really don't get on. They're a team in a mini-crisis all because of poor morale and personality clashes. One of them doesn't like Gosling as captain. Two of my defenders seem to hate the striker, Nilsson. I put the Swede on from the bench one game at half time and they suddenly lost confidence. Which was a bit rich seeing as they had both, Pearce and Hanlon, cost us the game with the worst defending I have seen.
Which brings me round to the defence. Kane Ferdinand is injured but still there's no excuse for how bad they are. Pearce and Hanlon are terrible. The board want me to play attacking football and when we get forward we show brief glimpses of some good stuff. But it's all hampered by the fact that the defence can't look after itself, and we quickly end up chasing the game from the off sometimes.
I have the rebuild the back before I can do anything else really. But that has to wait until I can find the players to come in. And for me to have the money. I think I can shift some of the more useless bastards in January but until then I won't have the money to bring more in (plus you know, transfer window).
I need to stamp my image onto the squad but I need to survive long enough to do that.
No comments:
Post a Comment