Football Ferns 2024 Paris Olympics

Defensively, we do okay,and have some hardworkers who seem to be able to keep us in games.
But from what I saw of yesterday's game,there is a complete failure of being able to get the ball forward, to hold it or to create any opportunities.  It was quite shocking.

Smiling doesn’t seem to affect the French players game. Mbappé and Greizman showing off their pearly whites. They can play. Maybe they just happy to play football and if they didn’t enjoy it why play if you’re miserable about it. 

So it seems to me we are best set up a 5_3_2 formation, 
So that's essentially 
Leat/Essen
Bott, Barry,Stott, Bowen, Foster
Fraser, Longo, + 1
God knows who up front.

The gaps are certainly open. I can't say Hand, Jale, Clegg or Rennie impressed me in the slightest. Maybe they suffered from lack of service,but it looks to me they ain't capable of holding the ball up adequately. 

Which is why potent attackers are always worth the most on the market.

Fenix

So it seems to me we are best set up a 5_3_2 formation, 
So that's essentially 
Leat/Essen
Bott, Barry,Stott, Bowen, Foster
Fraser, Longo, + 1
God knows who up front.

The gaps are certainly open. I can't say Hand, Jale, Clegg or Rennie impressed me in the slightest. Maybe they suffered from lack of service,but it looks to me they ain't capable of holding the ball up adequately. 

Clegg did score a lovely individual goal against Japan recently in a pre Olympics friendly in Spain. A goal that I doubt Hand, Jale or Rennie could score.

Still only 18, she needs to work on the physical side of her game, and can see why she as yet hasn't played in the NWSL for Racing Louisville. She needs time.

Again I think any improvements with the Ferns ain't going to be a quick process, no matter who the coach is.

Why should we bother playing two strikers when we hardly have any ball? 
Play 4231

Clegg
IPRiley Fraser Hand
Steinmetz Lake
Green Bowen Stott Bott
Leat

Yep, I think Lake is a better cdm than Taylor now. 

My second 11 would be

Jale
Kitching Whinham maybe Jerez
Taylor maybe Wiz
Barry Bunge Moore maybe McMeeken?
Esson 

Rest of squads to come from nz u20 or u17 teams. I don’t think any of the older players are the solutions we are looking for. Not technically good enough or too slow to make an impact or get beaten on defence. So create an environment for the younger players to come into and give them time to show what they can do. The older players have been given at least two years each to show what they can do. They might get in and out of form but not enough to consistently beat or score against top 20 teams. So time for new blood. 

Unused sub

coochiee

A photo says a thousand words. Coaching males, different to coaching females.

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Smiling doesn’t seem to affect the French players game. Mbappé and Greizman showing off their pearly whites. They can play. Maybe they just happy to play football and if they didn’t enjoy it why play if you’re miserable about it. 

Maybe our boys were thinking about the 24 hours cramped in cattle class the next day if they lose, while the girls were thinking about the free champagne and comfort they’ll get in business class.

Interesting. Is that because the men's side is in effect an age group side (U23s)?
So down the back of the plane.

I also like the 4-2-3-1.
In that 2nd 11 I'd have Hannah Blake instead of Whinham or Jerez at this stage.
Hoping she will have a good season this year in England championship and put pressure on those starting forward players. We need to be able to pick on form rather than reputation in this team.
Others not mentioned are US college grads in Maggie Jenkins and Ava Collins.
Be interesting to see where they end up and what kind of impact they will have post US system.

Post Olympic tournament and FIFA have released the latest world rankings on 16th August with the Ferns dropping 3 places to #31.
Their highest-ever ranking of #16 was set in March 2016.

The sliding ranking is not unexpected. As has been mentioned on here many times, plenty of historically strong, bigger football countries are now throwing significant resouces at the women's game. Many Sth American & European countries ranked below us will just get stronger & stronger.

The young players like Clegg, Fraser, Barry, Taylor who have come through the ALW are the future - but they are still young, and won't be at their peak until 2027 WWC or later. A 2nd ALW side with AFC will help, but any improvement with the Ferns is going to be slow, no matter who is the coach. It will be a battle to stay in the top 40 I reckon.