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Analysis: Omobamidele makes case for Ireland return

We analyse the strengths and flaws of the young defender’s opening league games for Norwich.

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This analysis by Gavin Cooney is available in full exclusively to The42 Members.

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Stephen Kenny has thus far had some problems managers wouldn’t want and others they couldn’t dream of, so happily he is now having the kinds of headaches his peers would actually want. 

The depth at goalkeeper is obvious at this point, but try picking three starting defenders from the following list: Seamus Coleman, Shane Duffy, John Egan, Nathan Collins, Andrew Omobamidele, Dara O’Shea, Darragh Lenihan and Jimmy Dunne. 

Dunne, in fairness, is on the fringes squad and likely won’t make it if everyone is fit. But of the next seven? Lenihan proved himself reliable against Ukraine in Poland, but has always been down the pecking order and is the likeliest to miss out on the squad entirely.

Team-wise, Collins is undroppable and Egan, despite being way below-par in the Nations League in June, is a firm favourite of Kenny’s and he has been playing both regularly and well for an in-form Sheffield United. Collins, meanwhile, is undroppable. 

That leaves four players fighting it out for one position: Duffy, Coleman, O’Shea, and Omobamidele. If the decision is decided by match-fitness and sharpness, that’s bad news for Coleman and Duffy, both of whom have started only in the League Cup so far this season. Duffy has not yet forced his way into the Fulham defence, while Coleman has yet to dislodge Mason Holgate from Everton’s back three having made a standing start to the season.

He missed a chunk of pre-season having got surgery on an injury he carried throughout Everton’s run-in and aggravated against Armenia in June. (Speaking at a supporters’ club event at the weekend, Kenny expressed regret at not protecting Coleman from his relentless desire to play on that occasion.)

O’Shea has thus far been favoured to the left of the Irish back three, and so Omobamidele might find himself back in the Irish team for the first time since last year. 

He has returned to fitness after a back injury and impressed at the heart of Norwich’s back four. He isn’t top of many of the statistical charts in the Championship so far this season, but that’s partly down to the fact that he’s playing in a better side than most defenders, and also down to his own style. Why make tackles and blocks if you can eliminate those situations entirely? 

One of the main cases to include Omobamidele to the right of Ireland’s back three is his sense of anticipation and aggression. Kenny loves this aspect of Egan’s play, and Omobamidele has it too…

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