Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

They’ve scored 9 in the last 6(or 5 in the last 5 if you want to exclude Andorra) as opposed to 1 in the previous 8. That tells me that they’re improving on that respect.

While they got no points they led in both Serbia and in Portugal. That tells me that Kenny will try and win games instead of settling.

The big negatives right now, are the Dublin games against the lower seeds, and I think it’s a big minus for Kenny that he needs to sort out. Getting his forwards and midfielders used to breaking teams down during play will take time, though.

But the trends show that the team is improving, albeit slower than we’d probably like. And considering how much change the team has gone through, it’s probably not too far away from where we’d like to be at this point.

Kenny’s team couldn’t score in 2020 being the point. Micks team could get on the scoresheet.

now in 2021, Kenny is tweaking the “pass through them” philosophy he had last year to attacking from wide positions philosophy favored by Martin and mick and we are scoring again

So you're saying sort out the LOI before more money is used to develop Irish grassroots football?

Irish players will always leave here to play in better leagues, the same way that players leave their own leagues all over the world if they're good enough to leave. That's a given but you don't see these other countries cutting funding because their players aren't staying in their country. Look at the effort Luxembourg put into developing players and they actively help their players find clubs outside Luxembourg once they reach a certain age.

Azerbaijan have an average of 26 full time employees working in academies. We've got zero, along with Andorra, Northern Ireland, and Luxembourg. But the last two their have full time national academies instead.

The LOI is never going to be a viable option for players to remain in Ireland, it just isn't because lads will move onto places when they outgrow the environment they're in. But what it could be with investment is a place for young players to learn their trade before moving onto better things.

has a look at the last few years of competitive games. since Euro 2016, only 2 goals have been scored by out and out forwards. Daryl Murphy in the first WC qualifier v Serbia in 2016, and James Collins v Serbia earlier this year. (open to correction on this).

before then there was Robbie Keane, Johnny Walters and even Shane Long. while we don't have them now, we should have forwards who can take a friggin shot and get it on target. McClean said that about Roy Keane in training, that he just wanted them to hit the target. If the goalie saves, then grand but at least hit the feckin thing.

Stupidest comment I've seen in the thread but if you believe that then it doesn't matter what manager is in charge I assume?

It is amazing how many Irish people many with an interest in sport are so blissfully unaware how backward Ireland is in terms of football infrastructure

It is not a stupid comment

1) Ireland have no technical players to play tippy tappy that is a threat to teams (not mangers fault completely)

2) Ireland is clearly disorganised defensively and do not look solid positionally (manager's fault completely - he has had time to work on a system of defensive play.

3) when attacking - players have limited options - poor positional movement (both manager and players fault - easy to play against no variety)

Blind Brazilian soccer team are well coached know their jobs - fully sighted Ireland- don't and are not.

Lots of people think Ireland can just show up and expect to compete without any work being needed behind the scenes

It's being called for for awhile from lots of people, even from some political parties. But the big two parties ain't gonna upset the racing industry.

We're basically given tax money to people like JP McManus who don't live here to avoid having to pay extra tax themselves.

Not true 'the rot' did not start with Jack Charlton. He cleverly used a 'work around' to make Ireland successful quickly. 'The Rot' in Irish football started in the 1960's after the Irish football fans turned their heads to English football. Plus those running Irish football were uneducated/no business acumen - unable to capitalise on massive crowds that used to go to a drums v bohs - or rovers etc. Flights got cheaper to England (fans turned away) and the 'thicks' that ran Irish football ran it into the ground. To blame Jack Charlton alone for the current state of Irish football is a logical fallacy.

The real cause is Irish fans who deserted the LOI, and the people who ran the LOI who had no cop on how to capitalise on it when it was popular. You only have to look at other sports and how they have shown Irish football up since. You only have to look at how there was such low demand for tickets for the first home game where fans were back the last day in the AVIVA.

See I don't think the FAI wanted this whatsoever, and if they did say anything about it it was just being vocal for the sake of being vocal. If the FAI received more money like that then they're would have been more eyes on them to watch what they were doing.

The blazers cute hoors, and clever enough to just keep the right amount of government funding coming in to keep the gravy training rolling, but not enough funding that there'd be massive uproar with its mishandling.

Great to see!!!

Any link to full press conference?

A rugby setup would be great. LOI could be like the AIL. Schools comps would be your feeder to provincial and national academies and 3 teams competing in a celtic league but for many many reasons that will never happen.

Agreed though big changes are required and I think Kennys appointment and his current approach are the stepping stones to that change. I fully think fans short-sightedness is the only roadblock to this change.

The way some people are talking, you'd swear that our players never even looked at a football until they got a call-up to the Irish team. More than half the players available to us have come through very good English underage set-ups. The idea that we're now one of the worst teams in Europe and shouldn't be expected to beat even the worst teams just doesn't wash.

I really couldn't disagree with anything he's said there. He has a different remit then previous managers. So he needs to be judged over a larger time frame imo.