The New Official Republic of Ireland Football Thread

I do like him as a player and sort of hate pointing these things out, but on the first goal, Collins is passively backing off, pointing to the danger without doing anything about it. Second goal, he gets his position all wrong, gets caught on the wrong side and then shows absolutely no awareness of what every other prick watching the match could see, that Tzolis was coming back onto his left. In the years since he left Stoke, he doesn't appear to have become any smarter as a footballer.

I think maybe he wasn't as good as was heralded initially so he seems to have regressed or least plateaued. I think he'll get there. Captain is a big deal but something about him made me think it will suit him.
 
Yes, also the u21 that have played some good football and agonisingly close to qualifying.

Yeah they’ve done well. But how many of them are good enough to play in the Premier League. We need a team with as many players as possible at that level. Swapping some of them out for players who play below that level makes no sense at all.
 
I remember seeing Doherty live about 2 years ago and thinking he looked a mixture of absolutely gassed and lazy. Whatever about that for an audacious number 10, they are about the two worst traits for a full-back.

He made small mistakes all the time in that match. Thought his future was near the end at Ireland - yet here is still making mistakes, still costing us. Part of the problem is because of the lack of alternative talent, players like Doherty keep playing. He’s shite but I bet he’ll still be in the squad until he retires. There is no punishment for poor performance.
 
Can’t make good omelettes with bad eggs.

Doherty and brady only playing because there’s nothing better.

Not enough funding and effort put in at grassroots. Until we can find some quality random granny rule players or improved funding across the island it’s not going to change.

All that is true. But, the FAI are in the middle of another revamp in terms of coaching and player development structures. So another 10 years we'll see some talent.

And As for finding granny rule players, they reduced the network of scouts in England and from memory brought it down to 1 person a few years ago and it's highly unlikely that has changed. So, that probably ain't going to happen either.
 
I remember seeing Doherty live about 2 years ago and thinking he looked a mixture of absolutely gassed and lazy. Whatever about that for an audacious number 10, they are about the two worst traits for a full-back.

He made small mistakes all the time in that match. Thought his future was near the end at Ireland - yet here is still making mistakes, still costing us. Part of the problem is because of the lack of alternative talent, players like Doherty keep playing. He’s shite but I bet he’ll still be in the squad until he retires. There is no punishment for poor performance.
I've been watching Doherty closely the last couple of years. His attitude is disgusting. Against England he kept running past Ogbene in an offside position moaning at him for not passing.

He wanders around aimlessly, always out of position, feigns to block shots. Every Irish fan sees it and is sick of him. Yet he still gets minutes, utterly baffling.
 
It’s strange though before the summer it seemed like we were heading the right direction, seemed like the players had bought in to what O’Shea was trying to do or were just trying that little extra to try get him the job. Seems like we went backwards this week even with regards effort.
 
I do like him as a player and sort of hate pointing these things out, but on the first goal, Collins is passively backing off, pointing to the danger without doing anything about it. Second goal, he gets his position all wrong, gets caught on the wrong side and then shows absolutely no awareness of what every other prick watching the match could see, that Tzolis was coming back onto his left. In the years since he left Stoke, he doesn't appear to have become any smarter as a footballer.

I think maybe he wasn't as good as was heralded initially so he seems to have regressed or least plateaued. I think he'll get there. Captain is a big deal but something about him made me think it will suit him.

He's a decent player with the ball but I don't think he's a good defender. He was brutal for both goals but Doherty hung him out to dry for the 2nd.
 
Obviously the defending wasn’t great for the two goals but the issue was more that we had 1 shot on target, absolutely useless at creating good shot chances. Sacked Kenny and then failed to score in 5 out of 6 games this year. Seems to be no offensive plan at all. Defensive lapses will happen, can’t be relying on 0-0s and 1-0 fluke smash and grabs. Actually have to work on attack and scoring goals.

Thing is the strikers are decent relatively, but the service they get is chronic. And the midfield goal threat is non-existent. Molumby, Knight and Browne could barely score if it was an open net.
 
I’m not saying my day has been unproductive, but I wonder what Steve Staunton does these days?
 



935lnr.jpg
 
If any here is in Ireland or knows any Irish.... Ole Gunnar solskjær is doing an event in the Helix Dublin, tomorrow night (Thursday). Still some tickets available!

I don't see an Ireland forum so this seemed as good a place as any to put it.
 
If any here is in Ireland or knows any Irish.... Ole Gunnar solskjær is doing an event in the Helix Dublin, tomorrow night (Thursday). Still some tickets available!

I don't see an Ireland forum so this seemed as good a place as any to put it.

€65-€300... and there was us thinking ticketmaster were robbing fupping grassholes.
 
Ah, that’s a shame. Even though he was a dreadful manager for us, I still love the big grumpy ginger bastard.

Cracking footballer, but never really came across as the sharpest tool in the box, maybe it was the Dundalk accent, you could never really take him seriously.
 
We’ve been left behind by underinvestment, and the consequences of Brexit. We/The Govt don’t spend enough money on football at home to develop coaches and consequently players. Brexit means that the outsourcing of our player development to the UK cannot happen until 18. I wish there was a recognition of the importance of sheer numbers of qualified coaches around the country. I remember seeing stats around number of UEFA A licence holders as a % of players and Ireland was a fraction of other countries such as Spain & Croatia.

There are myriad things the FAI doesn’t do well so this may be a niche point, but the FAI do not do enough to make coach education accessible. As an example, I am unable to move forward to UEFA C License as one of the stipulations to register is that your club is part of the FAI ‘Club Mark’ (basically a grading system for clubs, with an associated cost) - and my club are not registered. In my opinion they FAI should not be putting up any unnecessary barriers where people have an interest in developing and learning.
 
We’ve been left behind by underinvestment, and the consequences of Brexit. We/The Govt don’t spend enough money on football at home to develop coaches and consequently players. Brexit means that the outsourcing of our player development to the UK cannot happen until 18. I wish there was a recognition of the importance of sheer numbers of qualified coaches around the country. I remember seeing stats around number of UEFA A licence holders as a % of players and Ireland was a fraction of other countries such as Spain & Croatia.

There are myriad things the FAI doesn’t do well so this may be a niche point, but the FAI do not do enough to make coach education accessible. As an example, I am unable to move forward to UEFA C License as one of the stipulations to register is that your club is part of the FAI ‘Club Mark’ (basically a grading system for clubs, with an associated cost) - and my club are not registered. In my opinion they FAI should not be putting up any unnecessary barriers where people have an interest in developing and learning.

And on top of that in school years “soccer” is seen as a tertiary sport to Gaelic Football and hurling.

I live in the north of ireland and it is pretty much the same with regards level of coaching. I have came across many talented footballers who have had trials across the water but come unstuck when against players who have had top notch coaching all their lives.

When Johnny and corey Evans were being trialled and chased by United they only would have got a couple of training sessions a fortnight. Their parents sold up and moved them over, if they didn’t they would never have made it due to the poor standards on our island.
 
I know I sound like an entitled footballing snob, but the least I expected from the former Iceland and Jamaica manager was being pleased to have gotten the gig and actually doing a semblance of work. Still, if WFH is good enough for Eir customer service reps, it’s good enough for the Ireland football manager.
 
Aaron Ochoa Moloney’s in the starting line up for Malaga right now against Huesca. The match is on Premier Sports 2 for anyone interested.
 
Am I right in thinking that we now qualify for Euro 2028 as hosts? With NI no longer hosting?