Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

have we really played 4 nations league games by June next year. UEFA.com of no help.

Jesus Brady is miserable

Really positive stuff from Ireland, they are actually watchable! I'd say keep Kenny and hope we continue this form and improve on Sun

We've got four games in 10-12 days at the start of June, and two more September.

True, but our options upfront are so poor. McGrath isn't an attacker, but yet was deployed like one. Ogbene has a lot of strength and pace, but I am not sure he has the technical ability or finesse to link up with others. Idah came on and put a big shift in, but he never seems to look threatening. There was very little threatening play from the wing backs. Doherty got forward a bit, but didn't have the pace or the delivery to beat his man. Stevens did a little better, but barely. Robinson was the only one with a bit of trickery who made things uncomfortable for the Portuguese.

The thing is, I don't have much hope that the options on the bench would have done much better. O' Dowda, Parrott, Keane, all these players are much of a muchness unfortunately.

Four nations league games.

Schedule for it is on the wiki page.

jaysis, very intensive for the off season. The World Cup of course is why I suppose.

in fairness Irish fans have had problems with contract extensions awarded too early so maybe you can see Brady’s point. I’d give him the contract extension personally. I’d hope any bump on salary is for inflation only.

They can wait until next year to give him an extension but the problem is Kenny has worked on changing the style of play which most people are enjoying and most agree is better for the future of Irish football. If they opt to replace him right before the Euros what route are they going to go. If you revert to type and take the big name overseas manager I don't think it will serve us well and it's making any current progress a little redundant. So if you replace him it should be in the Kenny mould but better. Not sure who that candidate is. Regardless of when they do it I'd be of the opinion he should get the Euros campaign.

Yeah but he said it 19 times ⏲ 🙄

Anyone who is still saying “wait and see until after friendlies” is just desperate for Kenny to fail. They need a few more games with possibly bad results to stick the knife in, because there is undeniable progress being made here. I suspect this talk of waiting now has come up because the excuse of him not being good enough finishing 4th might not be relevant anymore.

Kenny has come in, gutted the squad, brought youth in and changed our style of play over one campaign, where at the end of the day we might still finish at our seeded level. And even if we don’t he’s done way more work with the Irish team than anyone since Micks first stint, and over the last few months have actually been enjoyable to watch. He deserves a campaign with a the squad he has built, no question.

Duffy probably sounds so upbeat because he's being filled with confidence instead of being told he's not capable of doing certain things beyond heading the ball away.

Players are always going to support the manager that picks them. Robbie Keane once gave a passionate defence of Steve 'The Gaffer' Staunton. Kenny has done OK but lets not lose the run of ourselves.

The odd thing would be to wait until a manager's contract is all but expired before offering a new one. After Luxembourg is definitely the time for a decision to be made.

It would be ludicrous having come this far to look for a change of philosophy and it would also be a massive own goal by the FAI to first admit they got the appointment wrong and second that they are giving up on a long term plan after less than two years.

For such a cash strapped organisation I would say having a manager on a fairly low salary, who the players love, and the fans get behind, and is evidently starting to do what he said he would do (with a very poor squad on paper) must be the FAI's wet dream.

The Luxembourg game is no dead rubber. A win takes us third and will help our seeding for the next couple of tournaments. It could be the difference between qualifying or not qualifying for a future tournament in terms of which teams we get grouped with.

Yeah, if we beat Luxembourg then I'll be happy enough to see him get a new contract for the euros. I think we've improved after a dismal start. However, if we cannot beat Luxembourg home or away then that's a massive red flag for me and I'd need further proof that there's actual progress being made.

Sometimes life puts a smile on your face

Doesn't take much really

If I was Kenny I would have Ogbene in every starting line up. very impressed with him last night. Kenny is doing a great job, it must be 2002 since we played enjoyable football to watch.

WB is definitely a position we need to start looking at options in next year before the Euros begin. For me Festy Ebosele could be brought into the seniors to have a closer look at him as he brings genuine pace that could hurt teams. Try him out on the right and the left. He's played on either side as a winger so no harm to try him out on both sides at WB.

Biggest issue with Idah is he's being asked to do the work that McGoldrick was doing and by doing that you don't get yourself into goal scoring positions much. I know it's underage and things are different but at underage he was more often in goalscoring positions because he had Parrott supporting him. If Wes was younger he could do what Parrott was doing in the final third at underage level then allowing Idah to be more than a link up player.

Not saying Idah would then be the answer to our prayers but we as badly need if not more need someone that can be that creative player in the final third. We could have someone that knows where the net is but without someone that can create these chances then he's living on scarps really like our forward players are at the moment.

Brady is on the late late show with Dunphy, wonder if his mood will have improved.

We where decent last night but lets not forget the context

Portugal came the night before , never trained here ,rested about 6 players & where delighted to draw,

All these decent results are coming when its all ready game over for us,

If we don't be Luxenberg the campaign been a complete failure,

you serious? €1000 fine?