Quote from: onefineday on April 21, 2024, 02:17:51 AMBut we were worryingly outmanoeuvred today.
Donegal had done their homework and exploited the opportunities, we failed to react and adapt.
The bit about "failing to react and adapt" in a game just leapt out at me as I'm sure a lot of Tyrone and Louth folk would agree on it being a common theme in games lost under Harte.
Quote from: onefineday on April 21, 2024, 02:17:51 AMI'd disagree with screen on our attacking play, imo we lacked any cutting edge today, our speed and incisiveness was non-existent, very few line breaks, we didn't/couldn't carry the ball at pace. Our normal game plan just wasn't there. Barely won a breaking ball either.
I would put a lot of this down to Donegal's defensive approach - I haven't watched the game back but I'd be willing to put money that Donegal's setup and tactics were all about denying Derry goal chances. This is a Derry team that have built so many of their victories off scoring goals and denying them chances would be a key platform of Donegal's approach - I think the stuff mentioned "lacked any cutting edge today, our speed and incisiveness was non-existent, very few line breaks, we didn't/couldn't carry the ball at pace. Our normal game plan just wasn't there." was most likely as a result of Donegal's defensive setup. No better man than McGuinness to look at what worked for this Derry team previously in terms of creating goal chances and setting up his side to counter-act this.
Quote from: onefineday on April 21, 2024, 02:17:51 AMThe rest should do us good and the seeding is largely irrelevant as has been discussed ad nauseum. Better to have 4 weeks off than 2 more games where you could still end up as a losing provincial finalist, meaning you cannot draw the Munster or Leinster finalists, who will be the weakest teams in the competition.
Just to clarify the losing Ulster provincial finalist can't draw any of the the losing provincial finalists, they will also be in a group with the one of the other winning provincial finalists