Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

jacool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121462536#Comment_121462536

Thanks for clarifying.

I will say this - you might have to put your name into the ring, as I'm not liking the other options being offered.

athlone99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121464867#Comment_121464867

So what do we do then? Admit we cant try play football, go back to football our players dont play at their clubs, defend on our 18 yard line, and maybe qualify every 5 or 6 tournaments and then get hammered when we get there?

Every other nation seem to be moving on and trying to play football. The so called minnows can play better football than us because they put the effort into it.

Patrick2010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121462536#Comment_121462536

If our only tactic will be to aim long balls at Ferguson we'll be the easiest team to defend against, opposition will just double up on him.

Did you smash it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121465559#Comment_121465559

It wasn’t the only tactic, it was built into a strategy involving ogbene.

When the ball is with our defence our jobs are;

Ferguson’s job is to drop deep for lay offs or flick offs to midfield runners

ogbene’s job is to stay high and wide so to pin back the man tasked with marking him so when bazunu kicks towards him, he can get into a one on one contest with him and use his physicality and speed.

bazunu’s job is to pinpoint passes to Ferguson’s feet or ogbene’s area of the pitch. Also mix it up with other options so we don’t become too predictable.

collins and osheas job is to stay high so when the opponent strikers try to pressure bazunu, they are ready for passes from bazunu with one opposition player at least already committed and out of the press. When Collins and Oshea get the ball they can look to do the same as bazunu. I don’t want them passing into midfield unless the opposition has completely dropped off so that Cullen etc are free as birds. Collins especially can also carry the ball into midfield if the space is there.

cullens job is to get free so we can use him if we need to and be an option. Do that but don’t crowd Collins and Oshea.

ebosele, Doherty , manning and Coleman’s job is the same as ever really, just be prepared for the ball coming their direction and run like fcuk forward and back.

knight, Brownes and molumby’s job is to support Ferguson and ogbene with runs from midfield into the space that is going to be created by Ferguson dropping deep.

maybe Andrew Moran can do that job in the above paragraph or maybe you just give him a free role as he is looking like he will be our most creative player in the final third.

this to me sounds like a system that would work. Tippy tappy passes around our box and into midfield to beat the press doesn’t sound like a natural fit at all for our skill set.

its up to bazunu and Collins especially to show they have the distribution quality we so often hear about to provide long passes to the zones we need. The only “long balls” should be going to ogbene.

kenny’s team played long passes aswell but adam Idah just wasn’t near good enough to do anything consistently with them.

Liam O

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121462538#Comment_121462538

Dyche plays a 4-3-3 which is the well known tippy tappy formation.

TheCitizen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121451342#Comment_121451342

Because he’s not good enough. He got a start last night due to a glut of injuries with Celtic wide players. He was taken off after an hour and Brendan Rodgers said at the end he wanted/wants more from Mikey. Unless he has some kind of road to Damascus type transformation and becomes a dedicated professional at the age of 24 Mikey is not the answer for Celtic or Ireland. A squad player at best to fill in if others are unavailable or injured. He has no end product.

Pogue eile

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121466469#Comment_121466469

Harsh!

He got the start last night because he was outstanding at the weekend, after which Rodgers singled him out for praise. To be fair he has been desperately unlucky, he missed two full seasons with injuries and by the time he gets back fit he is competing with Jota, Maeda, Labada and Forrest.

Injury prone and questionable work rate are fair enough accusations to throw at him but there is absolutely a very talented footballer there, not a jaysus hope in hell do Ireland have enough talent to justify not having Johnston in the squad at the very least. Old school 'take them on' wingers are like hens teeth these days and Johnston is one of those.

Brian?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121465884#Comment_121465884

No he doesn't. He plays a 451 with Dacoure getting forward early to play off the striker. He's the most advanced midfielder, but isn't a no.10.

noodler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121464867#Comment_121464867

This.

If "no manager could do better with these players" is the defense then why the criticism of tried and tested managers who play to strengths

POKERKING

Only seen parts of the game last night but from what i seen Seamus was class for Everton. Delighted for him.

athlone99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121468958#Comment_121468958

Ok, people say managers play to strengths. What are this Irish teams strengths then? An awful of posters here keep saying Kenny didnt play to the teams strengths, but what are they in your opinion?

Also, managers who play to the teams "strengths" can be seen in another light, lazy and not willing to work. More Modern managers look to improve players not just come and say your shite so we wont play football. Case in point Chris Hughton played to what he believed were Forests Strengths, had them bottom of the table and got sacked. Copper comes in and get them promoted in the same season.....

Brian?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121469761#Comment_121469761

Stop comparing club and international management. International managers spend about 6-7 weeks a year with the players and can’t make signings to strengthen weak points in the squad.

An international manager has to adapt their style to the players they have. They don’t have the time with players to improve a squad in any meaningful way. Asking a load of lads in their 20s and 30s to adapt to a style is madness.

International managers put out their best 11 players and play to their strengths. Early balls wide to Ogbene to feed early to Ferguson.

Brian?

For people saying “football has moved on” watch Everton’s 3 goals last night. Get it forward and put the defence under pressure.

TokTik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121469913#Comment_121469913

Exactly, the amount of nonsense surrounding football these days is ridiculous. From Xg to Xgc etc. Football is football. You try to score and you try to stop the opposition from scoring. Same as it was in the 1920s, 50s, 90s and now.

It’s just people trying to look smarter than they are when they say the games moved on.

athlone99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121469898#Comment_121469898

So what your saying is international management is for managers who have no interest in trying to improve players or to work with them. Just stick them out there "assess their strengths" and send them out. You must not watch a lot of international football then because plenty of managers change a teams style of play, Luxembourg for example. Why is it that Ireland must not try change and just go back to the status quo?

Just get it to Ogbene to cross/feed Ferguson would be fairly easy for any opposition manager to shut down, football is a bit more complicated than that.

Brian?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121470403#Comment_121470403

Plenty of managers change the style of play of international teams alright. The successful ones do it to suit the strengths of the players they have a their disposal.

International managers should absolutely try to improve their players, but they can’t actually do much in the time they have.

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121470403#Comment_121470403

It'd be harder to top than playing keep tipping the ball around the back letting the opposition drop back into defensive shape.

Again, we've just seen this fail for years.

athlone99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121471108#Comment_121471108

Do you not want to try something new and play better football? Trap/MON/Mick failed with mostly dire football, qualified for what 2 out of 6 tournaments and worst performance ever at one of those tournaments. Kenny failed to qualify in his 2 attempts, but why not try stick with playing football and trying to be better? Many here absolutely berated the "media" for getting Kenny the Ireland job but if you listen to most of them, they had no interest in going to Ireland games because the football had become so bad. Kenny tried something and clearly wasnt good enough but why not get someone in with a similar style and build on what Kenny started? All of our footballs now are educated in playing football so going back to risk averse football will be alien to them.

Brian?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121471496#Comment_121471496

Who says it’s “better football”? I want a team that gives everything and stays in the game. I want a team that has a chance of beating better opponents.

The beat manager currently working, IMO, is Ancelloti. If he took over Ireland he wouldn’t play an expansive passing game, he has us working like lunatics and being more direct. He absolutely doesn’t do that with Real Madrid. He did it with Everton. He adapts his style to the players available.

Winning is more important than some philosophy. Tippy tapping the ball around is great when you have the players to do it and it wins games. It’s beautiful to watch. But we can’t do it. Ireland winning is also beautiful to watch, in a different way. I want a manager who’ll help us win. Our footballers are educated at their clubs, not by the international manager

FYI Trap didn’t fail. Either did MON. We qualified for tournaments. Mick got us to a World Cup, where we played decent football because we had decent footballers.

McFly85

Was Trap a success?

By the metric of qualification = success, then yes, but I think judging success on those terms promote negative football.

He qualified through a dream playoff draw and it had all fallen apart at the tournament, we left with the joint worst record a team ever had at a finals, and it was all downhill from there with a dreadful WC campaign.

I don’t see qualification for the sake of it as success, as in, whatever happens after we qualify doesn’t really matter because we’ve succeeded in our end goal.

I would prefer to see us be honest about the ability of the players available to us, try and develop a style of play that suits the players and looks at the long term - how we want to play, who is coming through our youth squad, where we’re deficient and how we can look to continue to improve, rather than just making it to a tournament and then deeming it a success before starting all over again.

athlone99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121471545#Comment_121471545

What Kenny tried to do did give us a better chance against the better teams, where he struggled was against the so called weaker teams or teams around out level. Thats a long standing problem of the senior team through multiple managers. Kenny stopped doing tippy tappy football about 18 months ago, people fail to realize that, he went longer and more direct. Again a different manager may be able to do a better job of that than Kenny did.

Where did I say they failed? I said their type of football from 2008 - 2020 largely failed so why not try something different. If Trap/MON/Mick played winning football thats beautiful then you were watching different games to me because i remember being bored as hell and praying we hung in for a draw.

athlone99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121471611#Comment_121471611

Well thats it, i would overall deem Trap a failure, didnt bring through that many younger players, played dire football and as you say joint worse record at a Euros. Many others deem that a success because its all about qualifying but that doesnt give us a better long term chance of regularly qualifying.

Brian?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121471651#Comment_121471651

We’re not going to agree. Kenny was an abject failure. The idea that he left some sort of legacy we can build on is ludicrous

TokTik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121471611#Comment_121471611

Qualification pays for up and coming players, better facilities, better management. Puts money into the coffers for youth development etc. Qualification is not “for the sake of it”, no matter how the tournament goes.

kksaints

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121471886#Comment_121471886

Yeah but Qualification for Euro 12 and 16 did precisely none of that. In fact the money we got for those two tournaments went into Delaney's pockets and our recent work with players development is more inspite of the FAI's funding rather than because of it. What was the example given of there been more paid coaches in Luton's academy when they were a championship club than in the entirety of the Irish underage system and yet clubs like St Patricks, Rovers, Bohemians and Cork City plus others are producing players for the underage national sides and the national senior side more than any time post Eoin Hands reign. Increased funding for the LOI and their academys is essential, it can't be ignored at this stage.

kksaints

It's quite hard to judge Trap and O'Neill legacies as Ireland managers. Both cleaned up the mess that the predecessor had made and we qualified for a Euros with each of them. However Trap in particular played a horrible style of football, very unlucky in the WC 10 playoff, then we got a whole lot of luck in that Euro 12 Qualification campaign but we were horrible in the tournament itself admittedly in a tough group. We were a disaster in the WC 14 campaign and suffered that horrific 6-1 loss to Germany.

O'Neill up to the end of 2016 was a success and Euro 16 was much better results and performance wise. But the end to O'Neill and Keane was a disaster and that 2nd half in the playoff against Denmark at home was the worst half of football I've seen from us. The nations league campaign after that was a shocker with some soul destroying football and left us with an aging squad in need of renewal.

Kermit.de.frog

https://youtu.be/F0Sn5ggFKfQ?t=863

I did get a giggle from Mick McCarthy's experience of an FAI negotiation 😁 I assume not much has changed.

TokTik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121472081#Comment_121472081

And qualifying for tournaments provides that money. We can’t just rub our hands together and hope €50s appear in them.

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121472081#Comment_121472081

Thats one of the problems with LOI. Some clubs do a good job but others are absolute disasters. While giving some of them additional money would help giving others money would be no better than how Delaney spent it giving some of the bonkers ownership at clubs.

kksaints

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121474452#Comment_121474452

There isn't any real alternative. Can't rely on the youth systems of other countries especially the UK anymore. The quality of the players were getting from the Irish diaspora is nowhere near the level it used to be. Central or regional academies are an option but we need to raise the overall standard of football, want as few players as possible falling through the cracks. A tiered academy system within the LOI is definitely the option I prefer.

HalloweenJack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121474452#Comment_121474452

Its a chicken and egg situation.

Nutcase owners are usually there because of their deep pockets and this appeals to LOI clubs because there's so little money going around.

POKERKING

Anyone read Bradys recently released autobiography? Thinking about giving it as a gift for Christmas. Thanks

TheCitizen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121466956#Comment_121466956

Getting another opportunity with a start today away at Livingston.

Pudsy33

The Examiner reporting that Hughton and Carsley are the front runners.

Brock Turnpike

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121482199#Comment_121482199

Whatever about Carsley, is Hughton not a bit of a worry given how things are going for him with Ghana?

topmanamillion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121482344#Comment_121482344

It's Carsley's if he wants it but whoever gets it will have question marks hanging over them.

The fact Hill was talking yesterday about bringing in a senior manager that would link in with the underage teams too means he was all but speaking about Carsley.

It would be his first permanent senior job at the age of 50. Hughton is washed up, but he's probably a more palatable plan B than Big Sam or Bruce by virtue of the fact he's a former Ireland international.

The FAI are so dysfunctional I wouldn't be surprised to see Big Sam on the sidelines with Nathan Collins upfront getting long balls pumped up to him hoping to get something on them to put them into Ferguson's general direction.

Francie Barrett

Apparently Chris Coleman has thrown his hat into the ring.

Ronan Curtis will be saying a rosary or two for him to get the job.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121487415#Comment_121487415

Be an interesting enough gamble... did really well with Fulham and Wales, but fairly poorly everywhere else. That Wales stint does at least show he has something of an aptitude for international management, even if he had a strong squad to work with.

Be a similar sort of option to Mark Hughes and Alex McLeish.

Brock Turnpike

What do people think about Liam Brady's suggestion of Brian Kerr managing with Duff and/or Bradley as part of the setup?

Kermit.de.frog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121488171#Comment_121488171

Kerr had his time and failed to qualify us for two tournaments with a far better team than we have now with some abject performances (home and away to Albania comes to mind in the euro qualifiers and Israel in the WC qualifers). It wasn't all bad and you can argue he wasn't really responsible for us failing to qualify for Euro 04 but I think we should move on really.

glenjamin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121488171#Comment_121488171

Brian Kerr is 70 years old and hasn't managed in 13 years. He's a decent pundit but has no business being near the dugout at this point in his life.

Brian?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121488171#Comment_121488171

I think Liam has lost it!

if we want Duff involved, just give him the job. He seems to be a decent student of the game. I’d rather see him in charge than Bruce, Allardyce etc.

budgemook

There's no point ruining Duffers career just yet

noodler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121472148#Comment_121472148

It's all easily rated alot higher than the last two campaigns

Pawwed Rig

Duffer might be one for the future but I think we should look elsewhere for now.

Brian?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121490143#Comment_121490143

Agreed. But please not Bruce

Xander10

Anthony Barry mentioned as being considered in Irish Times

Pawwed Rig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121493284#Comment_121493284

It would be a big risk? He is a coach. A managers job is a lot different. Also AB has been jumping around a fair bit. If a better opportunity came a long I could see him jumping ship

I always thought he was Irish but his wiki says English 🤔

Carcharodon

Who even cares at this point, just get the person with the post potential cos we don’t have the players to compete at the top level, a manager that will shake up the total mediocrity.

TokTik

Whoever comes in will be a massive improvement on Kenny, so at least we have that.