Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

Surprisingly to me it is not even near Ireland's lowest ranking. Ireland was at it was 70th in 2014 (I looked it up)

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/international/ireland-remain-70th-in-fifa-rankings-1.1869445

Hourihane taken off after 39 minutes for Sheffield United and he didn't look injured.

Goal for knight.

he’ll be alright, having a difficult patch but he’s only a kid. He got beaten by a shot from his own half for Rochdale last season.

I'd say it will.

Even thought we can't qualify, Ronaldo will be a massive draw.

There will be loads of the prawn sandwich brigade wanting to go to it.

There's also the potential that Dan Rose could make that four good keepers to choose from. The first non German youth keeper to sign for Schalke who have developed two of Germany's greatest keepers. Don't think they'd have went out of their way of bringing him in if they didn't feel he can become a quality player

I'd say Kenny would give his left nut to have that issue in midfield and/or up front. The lack of depth is a serious issue, and we badly need some of these younger lads to start kicking on at club level. Jason Knight is probably the one guy standing out and move to a better club can see him kick on some more.

Mowatt isn't even on the bench so a great chance for Molumby to really impress. Will Hondermarck starts his first game for Barnsley and actually has played more minutes in midfield than Molumby this season. There's chances there for some lads to catch Kenny's eye before March's friendlies and the nation league begins.

One lad quietly tipping away doing his thing is Thomas O'Connor at Burton in League One. Has scored three goals in his last two games and two of those goals have been directly from corners. Left footed, versitile, and a set piece taker. Hopefully he can push on as apart from Luca O'Connell I can't think of any other left footed midfielders we've got.

Only scores screamers. William Hondermarck started the night at RCB for Barnsley and has now been moved into the centre of defence. Robinson got the assist for West Brom who haven't been decent. Swansea have 70 plus percent possession so not a lot of ball for Molumby to try impress with but more chasing after balls.

They seem to have gotten it right. Ireland in 51st in the official rankings released yesterday.

Looking at the teams around us there is very little in terms of points between 45th -> 51st although we'd see ourselves as better than quite a few of those teams (especially Qatar in 46th)

Omo on for 20mins, 5 down

Mick McCarthy bad run continues

The sack has to be coming at this stage. Eight straight defeats and five games without scoring. They were robbbed with the first goal as that was never a penalty against McGuinness.

I know Cardiff seemed fucked given they couldn't invest in the summer after losing players, but they'd have excepted Mick to work some magic like he did with Ipswich when he kept them up. They can slid into the bottom three depending on results this evening.

Molumby is having a stormer. Called “sensational” and “that man again” by the ifollow commentators who are biased towards WBA.

great news.

Unfortunately for Callum Robinson his replacement has scored both goals.

McClean scores again for Wigan. Enjoying life down in League One and the drop in division has seen his performances for us improve too.

Michael Obafemi scores off the bench and assisted by Manning.

Duffy benched for Brighton this evening against Man City.

Molumby and Kilkenny having good games today again which is good to see.

McCarthy's appointment at Cardiff was always a strange one tbh. A bit like Hughton the constant promotion/relegation cycle burned him out years ago. It's easily forgotten now but he was a stickler for playing decent football during his early years in management.

I recall McCarthy bringing Ireland to a play-off, and giving Denmark a run for their money for the final automatic spot. The McCarthy critics seem to be oblivious to the fact we're presently led by a coach with a a worse record than Staunton, who has us battling next month to avoid the indignity of finishing below Luxembourg in a campaign that was finished at the halfway stage.

This appears to be a mental block for Mick fanboys.

A campaign where we had 3 chances to qualify and he was in charge of two of them. We got a playoff from our seeding and would have taken something drastic to not have us in plsyoffs.

We scored 3 goals in two games v Gibraltar and 1 in two games v mighty Georgia.

Please.

Is there more to Obafemi not getting called up asides from all the injury issues he's had? I remember him not being named in Kenny's first squad and subsequently withdrawing from the U21. I'd love to see him back in the squad. His pace is phenomenal. There's very little reason why Idah or Parrott should be ahead of him.

We were 4-3-3 in those first squads and Obafemi played under Kenny with the U21s and was poor.

Parrott or Idah are not keeping him out of the squad. Obafemi isn't competing with them as they're different types of forwards. They're more link up players who'll try and hold the ball up and bring others into the game while Obafemi from that clip you want playing on the shoulder of the defenders to use his pace. You'd play him up front with someone like Idah.

Robinson, Connolly, and Collins would be ahead of Obafemi in the senior squad. And I think there's a good shout that Connolly shouldn't make the next squad.