Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

Hamilton ya and everyone agrees even most of the RTE pundits but he is not been treated easy compared to others.

Hamilton would have been an emotional child no matter who was managing tonight.

Don't get carried away. He made a number of straightforward saves you expect any run of the mill keeper to make. He plays for Portsmouth. Enough said.

Hugely encouraging signs from the young players and I thought tonight Bazunu and Omobamidele were reminiscent of a young Neur and Alaba. We have a coach who actually wants to play out from the back and trusts his players skillsets to avoid the hoofball that has plagued our team for so so many years, finally!

and most importantly the players clearly buy in, it's an Irish core and not filled with granny rule half interested guys like we've seen previously and I think everything is in place for exciting times in the coming years.

The fans in the stadium clearly see and appreciate what Kenny is building and are willing to offer him patience to deliver results. I hope the fellows on their couch in Man Utd and Liverpool jerseys are able to take a step back and do the same.

See below:

https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1516075/MatchReport/International-FIFA-World-Cup-2021-2022-Ireland-Serbia

So they don't count then? Is it the same for goals if they're late on too? Great logic.

We are 4 points behind Luxembourg who have a game in hand.

We are winless in 12 competitive games.

The only win this coaching regime has is over Andorra.

Where is the basis for believing this deserves any more time? How much more time is needed for us to become merely competitive?

If he loses to Azerbaijan next month, does he still deserve a new contract?

I don't get this unshakeable conviction people continue to have for Kenny. Why is it assumed that anyone else that comes in would be worse? As I said before, look at how low the bar is.

Someone mentioned earlier about being entertained by this team for the first time in decades. Well, I've been entertained plenty of times. Beating Estonia in the play-off entertained me. Beating Bosnia in the play-off entertained me. Beating world champions Germany entertained me. Beating Italy to qualify for the last 16 entertained me. Seeing my national side in draws for tournaments entertains me. We are miles off that.

I don't want us to become another Georgia where we play nice stuff on occasion, but haven't a prayer of reaching a major finals. We can and have been better than that. I didn't expect us to come out of this group, but I expect with a competent coach in charge we could have still been in the mix at this stage. To not even have hope is unacceptable, and I don't want the Euros campaign to be another write-off.

You seem very confrontational I am not trying to beat the ‘manager over the head’ as you glibly put it. I listed pros and cons as I saw it.

Also I believe I read the same stat two corners on RTE as well which confirms whoscored site??

Whelan ahead of Cullen?

Ah come off it.

McCarthy called up Cullen and Parrott, as well as Byrne, so I don't think it's fair to say he would have omitted players that were performing well for their clubs. O'Shea proved himself in 2020 for the most part, while Omobamidele and Idah had strong showings this year. I think they would have been in the side. Idah probably wouldn't be starting because McGoldrick likely would have stayed on for Mick given they seemed to have a good bond. McCarthy called up Travers and O'Hara, so no reason why he wouldn't have called up Bazunu. I suspect he may have persisted with Randolph as number one, but in fairness to Randolph he didn't tend to let us down.

Gareth Southgate was a few penalty kicks away from being knighted for winning a tournament with a style of play that completely contradicted that which the England youth teams had been implementing in their player development. Not to mention that the FA appointed Sam Allardyce of all people in 2016, so this idea that the development of young players will somehow collapse if the senior side go with a more pragmatic coach doesn't hold up to scrutiny. It doesn't seem to be causing alarm amongst our neighbours. Presumably if Southgate flops at the World Cup, they will just bring in a different, less defense-minded coach and the sky won't fall in for them, and their players will still keep being produced successfully under the old principles. Only in this country seemingly is the fate of an entire football philosophy dependent upon one man keeping his senior coaching position.

You're re-writing the story to suit your narrative.

Cullen is only in for Kenny because he is literally the only defensive midfielder playing at any decent level. Also, Mick gave Cullen a debut and is defensively minded, he would 100% have Cullen in given how he's stepped his career up even since Mick left. Kenny in fact spent most of his time gushing about James McCarthy when he first came in and only resorted to Cullen once McCarthy went missing.

Bazunu is only in because Randolph was crocked/withdrew from earlier squads. Mick would have had the same predicament as Kenny did, would have went with either Bazunu or Kelleher for sure.

Omobamidele is maybe the only player you've suggested who might not have gotten a chance. He is definitely a Mick type of player, but given Mick would only play 2 centre backs, he might struggle to fit in consider we have Egan, Duffy, O'Shea, Collins, Clark.

To say O'Shea wouldn't be there is equally crazy, he's a recent Premier League defender, a steady option. Kenny wasn't rolling the dice on him and Mick is hardly going to go with Paul McShane instead.

Again, Idah is a Premier League player and we have no strikers. I grant you, he may not have started, but he would be in the squad, other than Obafemi there's literally no other options.

The players I think who would have featured less under Mick probably would be Molumby as he's barely played and Parrott because he's in League 1.

Encouraging performance last night, yeah we were largely outplayed and blessed to get a draw but the effort and honestly of effort was there from the start there's no doubt that he hasn't lost the dressing room yet.

Thought Baz in goals, Andy and McLean were very good. Should leave Kenny safe until November at least. Will need to see some sort of improvement in the return games and we really need to be beating Luxembourg and Aserbaijan.

I'd say Idah himself would give his left arm for a player like Wes in that. Would take pressure off him to be the one to try hold the ball up and you might actually see him in the box a bit more rather than having to drop a bit to try hold up the ball for midfielders to link up with him.

Think McClean himself had something to prove. Gave an interview yesterday morning and was quoted as saying, "When I was a young player coming through, that was a squad of men. Maybe us senior players, we've failed. Maybe we haven't done as good of a job as those senior players did for us...".

We're in League B, Bulgaria was relegated from our group. For this nation's league I think being in League B is better. Avoid relegation and you're a third seed for the Euro qualifiers, and you'll probably still get a play off spot anyway.

That is true, and hopefully we can go into this international window with a clean bill of health. See players like Knight return and those that haven't played much so far start to get minutes at club level.

If people want to play this game of "young players are only given a chance by Kenny" maybe its best not to mention Obobamidele? Kenny randomly snupped him for the Azerbaijan game so he could stick Coleman in. If Coleman wasn't injured Omobamidele would not have been selected by Kenny.