Ireland v Greece 10.09.2024 Match Thread - UEFA Nations League

Mantis Toboggan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122602917#Comment_122602917

Ah now come on, we ain't there yet..

Xander10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122602897#Comment_122602897

Yes, the lad from Glasgow

Kermit.de.frog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122602940#Comment_122602940

Of course not. Our tier is Amernia, Luxembourg, Gibraltar...that's our competition and has been for at least 4 years.

Oat23

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122602901#Comment_122602901

It's Kenny's Heimir's fault that we are in this position. Neil Lennon will bring back the glory days.

The White Feather

I think they said we had only 1 shot on target today. Thats the key thing for me. No one shooting and no one getting shots on target in 90 mins at home

fullstop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122602929#Comment_122602929

O’Shea went there on holidays a few years ago, so he’ll be in charge of that one.

Mantis Toboggan

It's gas, people used to give out about Trap and Martin O'Neill, careful what ye wish for lads 🫣

10000maniacs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122602914#Comment_122602914

Mass? we need a bloody Epiphany. 

Seneca the Stoic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122602954#Comment_122602954

Agree with all that except for Gibraltar. Maybe in a year or two.

Dick phelan

Looking at League C, Sweden, Slovakia, Romania and Kosovo are definitely better than us. I'd say if we get relegated we will struggle to get back up. You'd only be confident we'd beat the likes of Andorra, Gibraltar, San Marino etc. would I fancy us to go away to Armenia and win, honestly not at all.

coco0981

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122602941#Comment_122602941

This

There is no one outside the squad we can hang our hat on to say they'd improve things. No Andy Reid, no Wes Houlihan. This is our level

rodders999

The bare minimum used to be that teams coming to Dublin could expect an extremely tough game and any point gained leaving town would be extremely hard earned. High tempo, no time on the ball, disrupting the opposition all over the field. Teams hated playing us. The quality may not be there but you’d be guaranteed 100% effort and commitment from the Irish team all game long.

Somewhere along the line all of that got lost and now it must be one of the easiest places in world football to rock up to and take all 3 points. 11 passionless zombies meandering around the pitch miles off the pace of the game, not getting close, making it easy for the opposition to open us up at will.

Results can be compartmentalised but lack of effort is unforgivable.

AllGunsBlazing

Conclusions drawn by Heimir after completing his observation brief:

omg we're absolutely shite.

athlone99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122602959#Comment_122602959

Better players in those squads, to ignore that is just stupid

glenjamin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122602941#Comment_122602941

Doherty, Brady, Browne, and Idah I would say. They contribute little to nothing. I'd much rather we brought in some in the young players with the U21s and begin building for the future - Moran, Lawal, Azaz, Garcia McNulty, Curtis, Armstrong, Emakhu, O'Mahony.

RonanG86

What I've learned from the two games:

Coleman's finished at high level. Doherty's lazy and dozy and will cost us goals. I don't think either of them should be picked again, even if that means Omobamidele at right back. At least when he was on, there wasn't a huge bloody hole on the right hand side of our defence.

Brady doesn't offer much, but in the absence of other options, he might play. O'Dowda presumably offers less than Brady given that he didn't play. I think Scales should've played and Stevens (even though he's 34) or Manning needs to be in the team if they're playing at any sort of decent level.

Molumby isn't good enough. Browne, Smallbone & Knight aren't a whole lot better, but such are our options that I don't envisage an Ireland squad without at least 2 of them in it any time soon. Main problem is none of them can defend. Knight should play in the center if he's going to play cos he can occasionally pick out a pass and beat a man, which is more than most of the rest of our midfield options seem to be able for. This business of sticking him out on the left (SK did it as well) doesn't make a lick of sense to me.

I think Idah's limitations showed up badly in the England game. He reminds me of David N'Gog in the sense of being a tall player with absolutely zero physicality who just gets ragdolled any time he goes near a defender. He made his debut for Ireland 4 years ago and hasn't appreciably improved, imo. I'd drop him well down the order, below Ferguson when fit (obviously) as well as Parrott and Robinson. Obafemi too if he starts playing games at any decent level.

Kasey McAteer & Szmodics seem to have a bit about them, although Szmodics struggled to impact the game up top by himself, so I don't think that's a viable tactic. Ogbene tried to create something in both games. And Kelleher was good against England. That's it for positives.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122602970#Comment_122602970

"The bare minimum used to be that teams coming to Dublin could expect an extremely tough game and any point gained leaving town would be extremely hard earned"

Ya because we had way better teams than this. That's why it was hard. It really wasn't anything got to do with this "dogged" or "determined" shte we tell ourselves it was.

Our "worst" years before this was Stan but we knew that could be fixed because we still had the golden generation playing.

homewardbound11

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122602965#Comment_122602965

another way to ask this .
How many of our current team would walk into a league C team like Sweden, Slovakia or Romania . ? 2 maybe 3

John arse

Nathan Collins £23 million????????????

SaoPaulo41

We really need to unearth some granny rulers ASAP and promise them that we will build the team around them.

McFly85

We’re a total mess of an outfit, top to bottom.

It’s really frustrating watching us because we never look anything more than 11 lads who recently just met for a kickabout. When we have the ball we don’t seem capable of doing anything but the most basic actions, maybe getting one pass away. We always look hurried on the ball too.

And when we don’t have it we’re really slow to close down.

Were absolutely a league C team right now and probably will be for a long time, considering the FAI have a severe amount of debt to service.

rodders999

Stephen Kelly calling out Doherty’s disgraceful lack of effort - proper order. Should never wear the shirt again after that.

Seneca the Stoic

I am glad they are calling out Doherty. Looks even worse in the replay.

LowOdour

Glad to see that RTE panel called out Doherty for his lack of effort for 2nd goal.

Kerry_2008

If HH is serious about creating a well drilled hard working team we won't be seeing Doherty in October.

noodler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122602986#Comment_122602986

If those lads are doing it at their clubs at a reasonable level then grand but they won't develop playing the odd international.

I think that building for the future points a little backwards

fullstop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122602966#Comment_122602966

Have you not heard of Jake O’Brien??!

The White Feather

It was the 70min and Kelleher had the ball. 1 down. No urgency. He rolled it out and we spent 5 mins passing it along the defence. Then we went forward a bit and lost it at the halfway line. This encapsulates everything wrong. Not blaming Kelleher but we need to get the ball forward . At least route 1 gets us up the pitch and gets the crowd going.

We should be harassing them all over and in their defence. I understand not against England as they are so good and they would kill us but this is Greece and we are at home. Even go route 1 in the last 10 mins. It feels like we didn't even give it a go

Xander10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122602999#Comment_122602999

Stealing a living as a professional footballer

glenjamin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122602993#Comment_122602993

A lot more than 2 or 3 imo. We had 7 Premier League starters today, 3 more came on from the bench, and a further 1 remained on the subs bench. We have a striker that just made a big move to AZ Alkmaar, and another solid defender in Scales. The biggest issues from tonight that I could see where mentality and a lack of cohesion and structure.