The New Official Republic of Ireland Football Thread

Chipper said:
Has Bazuna been good for Ireland?

He looked ropey for Southampton when they were in the PL and his statistics were very bad too.

I randomly encountered his Championship stats earlier and it was the same story but I haven't seen him play for a year now. Someone was talking about Jason Wilcox in another thread, and the style of play that he'd have perhaps had some influence over implementing when they chose to hire Russell Martin. Was just looking through some Southampton stats when I saw it.

Southampton:
xG against 49 (4th best)
Conceded 63 (14th best)

Bazuna personally (41 games):
Post shot xG against 42.1
Conceded 54

He's ranked as the worst in the Championship but then stats can lie.
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Anecdotally I heard he was much better this year but yeah the stats don't lie. I think he got overhyped cos he made a few good saves but he doesn't seem great on the bread and butter saves.

If you read here, the consensus isn't good.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SaintsFC/s/PBGDgi7Sgi

We have Kelleher anyway who's definitely better but obviously needs a move.

I like Smallbone a lot. Hopefully he starts for them next season.
 
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Kelleher would have been No.1 for the last few years if he hadn't been for the most part scratching his arse on the Liverpool bench. Thankfully seems to be hinting today that he wants to move. That cnut Klopp wouldn't allow him to leave previously.
 
next_number_seven said:
Anecdotally I heard he was much better this year but yeah the stats don't lie. I think he got overhyped cos he made a few good saves but he doesn't seem great on the bread and butter saves.

We have Kelleher anyway who's definitely better but obviously needs a move.

I like Smallbone a lot. Hopefully he starts for them next season.
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Was just wondering if might have done better for Ireland. You sometimes get players who seem to perform better for their country than club or the other way around.

I do remember seeing something about him statisitically bad in the PL too, and from what I saw he didn't look great in highlights etc.

Anyway, there's Kelleher as an option too as was mentioned. Cheers!
 
Chipper said:
Was just wondering if might have done better for Ireland. You sometimes get players who seem to perform better for their country than club or the other way around.

I do remember seeing something about him statisitically bad in the PL too, and from what I saw he didn't look great in highlights etc.

Anyway, there's Kelleher as an option too as was mentioned. Cheers!
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If you watch the game below, 5-0 defeat by Sunderland. Every goal is "saveable", he doesn't seem a natural GK unfortunately.

 
Chipper said:
Was just wondering if might have done better for Ireland. You sometimes get players who seem to perform better for their country than club or the other way around.

I do remember seeing something about him statisitically bad in the PL too, and from what I saw he didn't look great in highlights etc.

Anyway, there's Kelleher as an option too as was mentioned. Cheers!
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As far as I recall he's been good for Ireland and always looked assured. He's not made any howlers or let in goals where you'd say a better keeper definitely saves that I've seen but I've not watched all of the games.

He is still quite young for a keeper as well.
 
Zebs said:


Good to see Cannon accepting a call up but was hoping McAteer would have been in the squad. That midfield is so weak it's not funny. Collins and Ogbene not available.
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It’s horrific (Mikey Johnston aside, who’s been a very good addition for us).

It’s so bad that our short to medium term prospects aren’t going to change that much imo until we get some actual talent in there. Any upswing will be down to our forwards, central defence and Kelleher.
 
Kinsella said:
It’s horrific (Mikey Johnston aside, who’s been a very good addition for us).

It’s so bad that our short to medium term prospects aren’t going to change that much imo until we get some actual talent in there. Any upswing will be down to our forwards, central defence and Kelleher.
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Cullen and Smallbone are decent players for midfield.
I presume Szmodics will be our AM/10.

Where's Festy? Is he injured?

We're really hoping for the next gen of talent to come through.
There's like 10 young players in Italy and some other European countries who are just breaking through now.
 
next_number_seven said:
They're playing week in week out at a decent level.
Just trying to be positive.
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I get that but we have to be realistic. We’ve been an average side for a long time now and the lack of quality (in midfield particularly) has been the major factor in that.
 
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Kinsella said:
I get that but we have to be realistic. We’ve been an average side for a long time now and the lack of quality has been the major factor in that.
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I agree.
I think too much focus is on the manager anyway.

The focus from now on should be grassroots, underage coaching etc...
Kilkenny's a small county and dominated hurling for over a decade.
What they have is culture, passion, grassroots, coaching etc...

It shows what can be done. Also look at Monaghan, Tyrone in football.

We should be collectively lobbying the government to fund the LOI academies. It might only be 30m a year or so.
There's a local and general election coming up.
We should get real energy behind that campaign.
 
A taste of what's to come if/when O'Shea gets it full time





Jesus Wept. Lad threw his toys out of the pram after being dropped when he chose to drop down to League 2. Even playing at League 1 is pushing it even with the state we're in and that's before taking into account that he's 35 ffs
 
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Fr. Todd Unctious said:
A taste of what's to come if/when O'Shea gets it full time





Jesus Wept. Lad threw his toys out of the pram after being dropped when he chose to drop down to League 2. Even playing at League 1 is pushing it even with the state we're in and that's before taking into account that he's 35 ffs
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And he's shite at football. A hoof and chase player.
 
next_number_seven said:
I agree.
I think too much focus is on the manager anyway.

The focus from now on should be grassroots, underage coaching etc...
Kilkenny's a small county and dominated hurling for over a decade.
What they have is culture, passion, grassroots, coaching etc...

It shows what can be done. Also look at Monaghan, Tyrone in football.

We should be collectively lobbying the government to fund the LOI academies. It might only be 30m a year or so.
There's a local and general election coming up.
We should get real energy behind that campaign.
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It'll never happen. The coaching passion and grassroots effort is all with GAA here.

I coach kids at both GAA and soccer. GAA is all year round now and never seems to stop, it's 3/4 days a week for most groups, with trainings and games. Then you have players who could be involved in 2 teams at 2 different age groups, some will even be involved in 2 teams at their own age group.

The level of commitment and involvement in both sports is night and day. Obviously depends on what part of the country you are in, but soccer for the most part is a secondary sport and something to do when there's no gaelic football or hurling on.

Generally the best players will be the best in both sports and as soon as the best players get picked for county panels at 13/14 soccer is the sport that will be dropped. Even if those players are on regional or ETP squads, they will pick GAA, whether they want to or not.

There is a lot of games and work being done at a regional level to pick up the best players, every local league with have a representative squad and those players will be picked for regional development squads if they are good enough. I have my own issues with how they pick thsoe players, but that is with my league, there's no scouting, coaches are expected to put players forward.

From there they will be picked up by LOI academies, which I think run down to an u14 league now. This is the route that players like Sam Curtis have followed, the pathway is there. But you're competing against 2 sports that are much more dominant and that's just the way it is here.

Funny thing is, you could be at a GAA ground for a game or whatever and if there's kids knocking a ball around, they will probably be playing soccer.
 
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Oranges038 said:
It'll never happen. I coach kids at both GAA and soccer. GAA is all year round now and never seems to stop, it's 3/4 days a week for most groups, with trainings and games. Then you have players who could be involved in 2 teams at 2 different age groups, some will even be involved in 2 teams at their own age group.

The level of commitment and involvement in both sports is night and day. Obviously depends on what part of the country you are in, but soccer for the most part is a secondary sport and something to do when there's no gaelic football or hurling on.

Generally the best players will be the best in both sports and as soon as the best players get picked for county panels at 13/14 soccer is the sport that will be dropped. Even if those players are on regional or ETP squads, they will pick GAA, whether they want to or not.

Funny thing is, you could be at a GAA ground for a game or whatever and if there's kids knocking a ball around, they will probably be playing soccer.
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I think one reason the GAA went to u17s for minor was because the LOI launched u17 academies around that time.

It's true that the best players excell at both sports.

I'm from Kerry so I think most kids will pick GAA anyway cos there's a status and prestige to it, but the majority of counties have no hope of winning anything, maybe a Tailteann cup.

I'm not sure about Dublin.
It must very hard to make a county team so I think lots of kids would choose soccer. Also the more working class areas don't have a big GAA presence, except Ballymun maybe.

I still think we can do much better. We're still a soccer mad country. It just requires good planning and funding from government.
 
next_number_seven said:
I think one reason the GAA went to u17s for minor was because the LOI launched u17 academies around that time.

It's true that the best players excell at both sports.

I'm from Kerry so I think most kids will pick GAA anyway cos there's a status and prestige to it, but the majority of counties have no hope of winning anything, maybe a Tailteann cup.

I'm not sure about Dublin.
It must very hard to make a county team so I think lots of kids would choose soccer. Also the more working class areas don't have a big GAA presence, except Ballymun maybe.

I still think we can do much better. We're still a soccer mad country. It just requires good planning and funding from government.
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Can you just imagine if someone like David Clifford or Gooch spent their whole life playing soccer rather than gaelic?

The government can't just fund soccer though, I believe there's FIFA regulations that won't allow them to be directly involved. What they do is fund sports grants, which are crucial for clubs to build facilities etc. My club has relied on them heavily and with the local elections coming up, now is the time for clubs to put pressure on local councillors to get that funding. The difference in facilities between GAA clubs and even LOI clubs is massive, some random junior team in the arse end of nowhere will have better pitches and club rooms than soccer clubs.

Contact hours and quality coaching make a huge difference between the ages 6 and 12, this is where you build the fundamentals or ball control etc. When the coaching isn't there, you end up with people who never really played the game at any level coaching kids and they probably will only get an hour a week and they get left behind very quickly.
 
Oranges038 said:
Can you just imagine if someone like David Clifford or Gooch spent their whole life playing soccer rather than gaelic?

The government can't just fund soccer though, I believe there's FIFA regulations that won't allow them to be directly involved. What they do is fund sports grants, which are crucial for clubs to build facilities etc. My club has relied on them heavily and with the local elections coming up, now is the time for clubs to put pressure on local councillors to get that funding. The difference in facilities between GAA clubs and even LOI clubs is massive, some random junior team in the arse end of nowhere will have better pitches and club rooms than soccer clubs.

Contact hours and quality coaching make a huge difference between the ages 6 and 12, this is where you build the fundamentals or ball control etc. When the coaching isn't there, you end up with people who never really played the game at any level coaching kids and they probably will only get an hour a week and they get left behind very quickly.
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Gooch and Clifford are both brilliant soccer players.
Clifford had trials in England.
Lots of the current Kerry team were brilliant soccer players.
Invariably they'll choose GAA though once it gets serious.

I wonder is a way to get around FIFA regulations.
The government in Iceland seems to do a lot.
 
Starting 11 tonight looks like a safe option hoping to maybe get a result to strengthen his claim for the job.

Would liked more of the younger boys in and would rather scales playing too
 
next_number_seven said:
Gooch and Clifford are both brilliant soccer players.
Clifford had trials in England.
Lots of the current Kerry team were brilliant soccer players.
Invariably they'll choose GAA though once it gets serious.

I wonder is a way to get around FIFA regulations.
The government in Iceland seems to do a lot.
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Never knew Clifford had trials, I'd imagine they would have been brilliant, I've played soccer with a few senior inter County players and they were always just so much better than everyone else around them.

I think with the funding it's more that they have to be seen to fund and promote all sports equally. So you just have one fund that all sports clubs can apply to for funding, I believe the latest one is €120m over 5 years but with more capital available for bigger projects.
 
Game was utter shite. But a win is a win.

Now we get to see if all those who said they'd rather play shite and win, than try to play decent football and lose will be happy.
 
Delighted for O Shea, a lot to do to build up momentum and interest but it's a start. Been a while since the last win
 
Oranges038 said:
Game was utter shite. But a win is a win.

Now we get to see if all those who said they'd rather play shite and win, than try to play decent football and lose will be happy.
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It wasn’t shite football. The execution was shite (because most of our players are shite) but we tried to keep the ball on the ground and play out from the back (Kelleher is a big help with this). We also pressed high up the pitch. It was definitely an attempt at modern football.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
It wasn’t shite football. The execution was shite (because most of our players are shite) but we tried to keep the ball on the ground and play out from the back (Kelleher is a big help with this). We also pressed high up the pitch. It was definitely an attempt at modern football.
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Overall it was just a shite game and it was shite enough football. Even the winning goal was shite.
 
I know our options are limited but I'm not sure O'Shea is doing much to convince me he's the man. He is picking experience over the newer generation, how Duffy is getting in ahead of O'Brien... O'Shea must have some loyalty to his former teammates. I can also appreciate he wants the job so his team selection is probably safer.

Good to get a win all the same.
 
i really like JOS and that was a good result but I wouldn’t give him the job. It’s too early. We can’t just keep tossing off qualifying campaigns with managers who are plainly not good enough or trying to learn the job.

He’s obviously going to get it, though.
 
Brophs said:
i really like JOS and that was a good result but I wouldn’t give him the job. It’s too early. We can’t just keep tossing off qualifying campaigns with managers who are plainly not good enough or trying to learn the job.

He’s obviously going to get it, though.
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I have zero faith in the FAI brains trust scouting out and hiring a better manager, so can’t see the harm in just going with vibes here. His United career gives him a status with players that Kenny never had, he’s worked with the greatest manager ever and, by all accounts, is an incredibly sound and hard working person. That’ll do, pig, that’ll do.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I have zero faith in the FAI brains trust scouting out and hiring a better manager, so can’t see the harm in just going with vibes here. His United career gives him a status with players that Kenny never had, he’s worked with the greatest manager ever and, by all accounts, is an incredibly sound and hard working person. That’ll do, pig, that’ll do.
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Completely agree with this. Who is a better prospect?
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I have zero faith in the FAI brains trust scouting out and hiring a better manager, so can’t see the harm in just going with vibes here. His United career gives him a status with players that Kenny never had, he’s worked with the greatest manager ever and, by all accounts, is an incredibly sound and hard working person. That’ll do, pig, that’ll do.
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Fair enough. I suspect that even they, a raging clown car fire, will eventually find a manager who has some actual managerial experience. He might even also be a sound ex-player who once worked with an under a talented manager. A man can dream.
 
Oranges038 said:
Never knew Clifford had trials, I'd imagine they would have been brilliant, I've played soccer with a few senior inter County players and they were always just so much better than everyone else around them.

I think with the funding it's more that they have to be seen to fund and promote all sports equally. So you just have one fund that all sports clubs can apply to for funding, I believe the latest one is €120m over 5 years but with more capital available for bigger projects.
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Clifford was a CB funnily enough. You'd think he'd be unstoppable as a centre forward.

This is a really interesting article on Clifford's generation playing soccer.

https://archive.ph/2023.05.07-22165...-gaa-was-always-going-to-come-first-dml7nrjgs

The Sem in Killarney won an AI in soccer also.

Intercounty footballers are already naturally talented as kids and then they get funnelled into development squads with all that entails, so by the time we see them as adults, their development has been accelerated further.

So when you're playing soccer against them, you're playing against a professional athlete basically.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I have zero faith in the FAI brains trust scouting out and hiring a better manager, so can’t see the harm in just going with vibes here. His United career gives him a status with players that Kenny never had, he’s worked with the greatest manager ever and, by all accounts, is an incredibly sound and hard working person. That’ll do, pig, that’ll do.
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Agreed. If I had any faith in the FAI, I'd think differently but I've no reason to think they'd find a better candidate if given a decade to try. Watching them fail to look for a manager is actively embarrassing.
 
Muppets

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