Ciarán Whelan: Dublin have become far too predictable

Dublin have become too predictable according to RTÉ GAA analyst Ciarán Whelan.

The Boys in Blue, All-Ireland champions for the sixth consecutive year 14 months ago this weekend, have made their worst start to an Allianz League campaign since 2001.

Three defeats from three have left them in the middle of a relegation battle, with three away games to come before the end of next month. Realistically manager Dessie Farrell will know they need to win a minimum of two of those games to have any chance of avoiding the drop.

In the last decade Donegal (2013), Tyrone (2015), Cork (2016) and Mayo have gone down with more than four points.

Of the senior players left to return for Dessie Farrell, the standout ones are James McCarthy and Con O'Callaghan, after Mick Fitzsimmons and Johnny Cooper made their first league appearances of 2022 in Saturday's loss to Mayo.

"It's hard to look for positives," conceded Whelan on RTÉ's Allianz League Sunday.

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"The positive is that they've a few key players left to come back, but their stock is rising and they're not even playing. On top of that Dessie is blooding new players.

"The concern for me is that they're lacking a bit of structure, defensively and going forward. It's beginning to affect the confidence and the flow of the team.

"Ciarán Kilkenny and Brian Fenton were brilliant last night in terms of their leadership, but they're struggling to have a plan in their movement up front. There are no options in terms of the variety that they're trying