Definitely our peak in terms of results. But we had loads quality players in our squad for more than a decade after 1994. Miles ahead of the dross we’re relying on now.
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Definitely our peak in terms of results. But we had loads quality players in our squad for more than a decade after 1994. Miles ahead of the dross we’re relying on now.
I am not going to say that the current manager is great, but it's kinda hard to compare him to the mid 90s when you look at the players available - in 1994 Ireland had:
Irwin and Keane playing at United
Staunton, McGrath, Houghton and Townsend all at Villa who ended 2nd in the P.L 12 months earlier
Phelan and Kernaghan at City
Sheridan at Wednesday
Kelly at Leeds
Cascarino at Chelsea
McGoldrick at Arsenal
Yesterday - Ireland had a few players from Southampton, Tottenham and Wolves - none who could be considered stars in their P.L clubs - the rest was mainly Championship-players.
Even Norway in comparison look strong - we had the captain of Arsenal, Strand Larsen from Celta Vigo, Østigård who plays for Napoli, a few players from the Bundesliga, a few players from France etc
Irwin and Keane playing at United
Staunton, McGrath, Houghton and Townsend all at Villa who ended 2nd in the P.L 12 months earlier
Phelan and Kernaghan at City
Sheridan at Wednesday
Kelly at Leeds
Cascarino at Chelsea
McGoldrick at Arsenal
Yesterday - Ireland had a few players from Southampton, Tottenham and Wolves - none who could be considered stars in their P.L clubs - the rest was mainly Championship-players.
Even Norway in comparison look strong - we had the captain of Arsenal, Strand Larsen from Celta Vigo, Østigård who plays for Napoli, a few players from the Bundesliga, a few players from France etc
Our squad is absolutely terrible and the vast majority of our games are against teams with much better squads. So it’s very hard to know how much better we could/should be playing. Plus I’m generally happy with how we’re playing. It’s refreshing to see an Irish team play such a modern brand of football. Playing out from the back and pressing high up the pitch.
The elephant in the room is whether we’ve a few low grade CR37’s in the dressing room who don’t respect the manager. We were so passive in the first half, obviously got a huge bollocking at half time, worked a bit harder for first 15 minutes of the second half then that’s all she wrote. And after conceding the second goal our response was pitiful.
Obviously, the elephant in the room is we almost certainly can’t afford a manager who combines the sort of quality coaching we must be getting to implement our new style of play with sufficient status to impress the wannabe prima donnas. So we’re screwed, basically.
The elephant in the room is whether we’ve a few low grade CR37’s in the dressing room who don’t respect the manager. We were so passive in the first half, obviously got a huge bollocking at half time, worked a bit harder for first 15 minutes of the second half then that’s all she wrote. And after conceding the second goal our response was pitiful.
Obviously, the elephant in the room is we almost certainly can’t afford a manager who combines the sort of quality coaching we must be getting to implement our new style of play with sufficient status to impress the wannabe prima donnas. So we’re screwed, basically.
Two elephants in the room, we're in trouble.
The passing is good but especially in the first half it was stale passing. Far too risk averse. That was also a problem with how Ireland were set up in the first half, nobody was linking the play and making any intelligent runs.
Doherty was particularly bad for it, wonder have his legs gone. No attempt to run down the line, just pass back to the keeper. To make matters worse, Bazunu’s distribution was awful.
The centre backs can pass it all day between themselves but ultimately you can’t just keep passing the ball sideways and backwards every time you get the slightest pressed. The only player to try to break the lines with a pass was Nathan Collins, doing the job the midfielders couldn’t do. But this was only a few times in a half of football.
It reminded me of what Scholes was saying when he was giving out about McTominay and how a top player has to be able to play on the half turn. We desperately lack such a player. When you’re pressed, sometimes they have to flick it around a player or dribble past them. Due to lack of confidence or most likely lack of ability, they just simply can’t do that.
I like Josh Cullen for recycling the ball, I think he’s good at that and wouldn’t blame him. It’s just the game was crying out for a creative technical midfielder who won’t just play the safe option every time in midfield, and can beat a press. It’s such a cliche but that team was crying out for a player like Wes Hoolahan 7-8 years ago. Unfortunately I can’t think of a player in the squad who matches that profile.
Kenny seems to think that Connor Ronan might be that player. But he can’t get his game at Wolves.
Two elephants in the room fall off a cliff
BOOM BOOM
BOOM BOOM
I don't buy the whole we don't have the players argument. There are always teams at major tournaments full of lower league players. I appreciate the importance of a good draw for qualifying, which we haven't got in the upcoming qualifiers, but I think back to a team like Finland in the last Euros.
Twenty minutes of the second half was quality, to me it looked like the players had burnt all their energy.
Really difficult to keep that intensity up for a whole half.
Certainly still some good signs but there are definitely issues to address.
Really difficult to keep that intensity up for a whole half.
Certainly still some good signs but there are definitely issues to address.
Yeah from what I've seen of Connor Ronan, he looks very good. But if he can't get games. Jack Byrne was another touted but he's not playing a high enough level now. Aaron Connolly was refreshing for a while in that he'd actually run at defenders, but he's gone off the rails a bit as well.
We're missing one star though, imagine if we had a Bale or somebody like that. If you go through the World Cup, most of the "smaller" teams have at least one elite player to rely on. An Alphonso Davies, a Hakimi, a Lewandowski, a Son. It's no coincidence that the last time we qualified for a World Cup, we had one of the world's best players, our own star, even if he didn't play in the tournament.
Who is our best player? Maybe Matt Doherty on paper, he's not playing well at all since his injury though. Looked shot physically last night I thought. Put it this way, fancy we would have won last night if we had Odegaard. The deficiencies of a system or other players wouldn't be shown up as much if we had even just one of that level of player.
100%. He was the difference between the teams. If anything we generally looked stronger in most other positions. Certainly played the better football. Just a desperate lack of real creative quality.
Do we need to ask why we are not creating players that we did in years gone by, we had world class players in every decade since 60s up to 2000s, we don't have any imo since Robbie Keane retired and some will say he wasn't, only know some appreciate how good he was, is it the coaching, im involved in galway coaching and I think I'm coaching them right, play on the ground, mess up and concede is ok for u12s hoping by u16s they will still play out but not mess up, im thinking to myself what do coaches who get players to the the very elite tier, what are they coaching their players, or are coaches lucky to get players that are born with it and they just hone their talent
Spot on. You almost have to look past those results and look at the long term benefit of trying to bring through more young players, the immediate barrels are dry. Gotta think long term
Contact time mainly. Obviously the quality of the coaching is important but it's mainly the contact time with the players that improves the players and training/playing with better players.
I see some youth teams in the UK spend 15-20 minutes warming up as part of an hour session. Absolute waste of time.
If we had a Grealish/Rice axis in CM we would not only be qualifying for major tourneys with ease, but we'd probably be consistently getting to quarter finals. Such fine lines in these things.
Doherty starts again .
Pretty grim isn't it?
Get out of my head, Paul.
Matter of when and not if...
Fair play to any of you watching tonight.
This is making me rethink my world cup boycott.
Epic goal..
Still waiting on Doherty to do anything remotely wingbackey
Still waiting on Doherty to do anything remotely wingbackey
Great pass
Hopefully hold onto the win now, if only so we don't have to mull over a malteasers loss for four months prior to the France loss in March.
It was only the way we were scoring
And of course it keeps Kenny at the wheel
And of course it keeps Kenny at the wheel
Even at one nil up this is pretty dire stuff..
Who will replace Kenny ?
Ruiri Higgins
Walking football and no penetrative type idea
Over and back over and back over and back.
Shite.
Not sure what instructions the players have
Look, we're not getting through the next qualifying group, which is fair enough up against France, Netherlands, and Greece, but it makes the 2026 World Cup qualifiers all that more important and surely there is nobody left on the planet that can fully trust Kenny to spearhead that challenge.
Missing a number 10 really aren’t they someone to play through balls and shoot
Kenny won't last.
Pochettino
Absolutely nobody. I don't see the point to be honest. Nobody's turning these lads into world beaters.
I agree. I appreciate the FAI have no money but surely succession planning is now advanced. Liklihood is we're in for some really poor results in the next round of fixtures next year. Thing is, I'm not sure there is any plan right now other than plod along and try service debt.
Nobody is looking for world beaters. We want a cohesive team plan that allows the squad to perform greater than the sum of their parts. Northern Ireland were in the last Euros.
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Give it Giggseh end of season.
Damn autocorrect on my phone.
