SHANE KEEGAN TAKES a look back at some of the tactical issues and key statistics on a disappointing night for Stephen Kenny’s side.

Irish shape and personnel

Stephen Kenny sprung somewhat of a surprise in his decision to select Adam Idah to play up top alongside Evan Ferguson. I expressed my opinion on last week’s Football Family podcast that with Chiedozie Ogbene ruled out, I expected Kenny to select a replacement with a similar skill set such as Mikey Johnstone.

In doing so he could ask him to get high and close to Ferguson when we had the ball but could retreat out to a wide position and give us a 5-4-1 shape when out of possession.

In Idah though, he opted to go with an out-and-out front two. Whatever you may think of him, Kenny is a deep tactical thinker, and I would be interested to hear the thought process behind that decision.

Evidently, this clearly didn’t work, confirmed by Kenny’s decision to replace Idah with Johnston at half time and switch shape.

Despite losing the second half 1-0, the new set-up did improve the majority of Ireland’s underlying numbers. Possession went up from 38% to 56% while passing accuracy increased six points to 89%.

Most significantly, xG conceded dropped from 1.47 to 0.36. Even allowing for the first-half penalty, and in the context of Greece leading for the majority of the second half, this was still a substantial improvement.

You can’t but wonder could Ireland have got a draw, or possibly even more given their set-piece threat, had this been a tighter game.

Midfield passing range

I also expressed my concern on last week’s podcast that the Irish football public seemed to be unaware of the quality that this Greek side possessed and nowhere was that more evident than in the performances of both sides’ midfield units.

Despite not being household names, Kourbelis, Mantalos and Bakasetas gave Greece a passing range that I’m not sure Ireland can say they have had in the last 20 years!

Kourbelis, the deepest of the three, was like a metronome and fell one stray pass short of a 100% completion rate, with 38 of his 39 attempted passes successful.

Mantalos and Bakasetas, the more expansive passers, seemed to flitter between spraying big diagonal switches of play, to arrowing passes through the lines to open us up.

Ireland’s midfield on the other hand struggled more than ever before. Smallbone, in particular, seemed lost, playing only nine successful passes before his departure just before the hour mark.

To be fair to Cullen and Molumby, they did both keep looking for the ball and averaged in the mid-80’s for pass competition, but this was mainly from sideways and backwards distribution.

The real difference was in the expansive passing. Ireland’s trio managed just two successful long passes from eight attempts (25%) compared to eight from 10 (80%) from Messrs Kourbelis, Mantalos and Bakasetas.

Greek superiority

Despite it not resulting in a goal, a passage of play just after the half hour mark was the perfect illustration of both Greece’s strengths and Ireland’s weaknesses.

It starts with a well-executed throw-in, one of the many areas in which the Greeks showed more invention than their opponents.

Below we see how two of the three midfielders from both sides match up against each other.

With Cullen left shielding in front of his centre backs, it’s Ferguson who has dropped off onto Kourbelis, while pointing at Idah to pick up the near side centre back.

This is a common set up, but issues arise when Mavropanos – the centre back from the opposite side of the pitch – comes all the way across to offer himself as an option, forcing Idah to try and split the difference between the two centre halves, thus giving Chatzidiakos enough time and space to establish possession.

Below we can see Mavropanos retreating towards his normal position as his defensive partner collects the throw. This is almost certainly a well-rehearsed training ground routine.

With Greece now looking to build from the back, Molumby decides to break from midfield to press Mavropanos, but the VfB Stuttgart player simply slips it outside him to right back Baldock, who is unmarked.

Molumby can then be seen gesticulating in the direction of wing back O’Dowda who he feels should have joined him in the press.

Just seconds later though, we see the issue that O’Dowda was faced with. Kourbelis slides a ball through the lines to centre forward Pavlidis and as he spins his marker – something no Ireland player managed to do all night – we can see that O’Dowda has been pinned back by the high and wide positioning of right winger Masouras.

After a quick exchange of passes we see another feature of the Greek performance which was a constant all night, the big diagonal switch of play out of the pressure zone.

Bakasetas pings it marvellously out to Tsimikas on the left wing, who is positioned to exploit the space created in front of him.

Two passes later and Mantalos plays another ball through the lines to find Pavlidis who, for the second time in this passage of play, does brilliantly in cushioning the ball into the path of Pelkas’s blind side run.

Only Pelkas’ lack of faith in his left foot robbed Greece of the goal their scintillating 12 pass build up deserved.

Conclusion

In truth, I found it hard to see any other outcome before kick-off other than the one we got.

While we might not like to hear it, the difference in quality between the individual players in both squads is vast.

Take the centre forward position for example. We currently look at Evan Ferguson as our saviour and while we are right to be excited about the future in front of him, he is still a kid.

Would he even get a start in the Greek side? Given what we saw from Pavlidis, I’m not so sure he would.

And that’s where we are at right now. It’s unlikely that a single Irish player would get into their starting line-up.

That said, would a different shape from the start and some personnel changes have given us a better chance of taking something from the game? Possibly.

For that reason alone, fingers will be pointed at Kenny and he will come under increasing pressure again.

But would a change in manager improve results? I’m still not so sure. 

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