Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

Those possession and passes stats are nuts

Lithuania were garbage

Cunningham?

And Keane and McClean. Really poor the 3 of them. Dreadful. Yeh with a bit of luck Kilkenny and possibly Smallbone get moves.

He was under no pressure at any point in the game and still needed a geological eon to play a pass. And his much vaunted set pieces didn't make up for it.

Surely we have enough with Cullen, Knight, Brown, Hendrick, McGrath and even Molumby to not need him again regardless of whether the likes of Kilkenny or Smallbone come through or not?

Gotta say I'm a tiny bit worried about right wing back too. Doherty seems to have a lively 10 - 15 minute spell a game, but otherwise doesn't impact it. Who have we got after him, since Coleman doesn't really have the legs anymore? Christie who's barely featured under Kenny?

I know Ebosele is waiting in the wings, but he is only a kid.

You must be raging we eventually scored.

He scored at home to Lithuania, he still has a lot of work to do to nail down a place

Hi stephen

I'd counter that even at that, he's probably done more than anyone bar Ogbene and Robinson (based on earlier performances, he was poor against Lithuania) to nail down a place.

I guess it depends on whether Knight is a attacker/winger or a central midfielder in the manager's thinking. Does appear to be the former at the moment.

The results and performances are starting to gel without a doubt and Kenny deserves praise for this given the tough spell he encountered when he didnt look like he'd last. He has earned his new contract.

I wont be getting overly carried away though either. There are still some major issues but i dont think its down to Kenny as much as the quality of player at the moment.

Will Keane shouldnt be involved for us again. Hes 29 and just not good enough even though we have SFA in the way of a goal scorer. Ive said this before about him. Ryan Manning should be given a lot more minutes going forward as a replacement for McClean and Stevens.

Its possible to be happy with Kennys recent performance yet critical of elememts too. Thats fair enough.

mcclean is actually as consistently reliable right now that he’s ever being. He’s still technically poor more often than he should.

keane was good vs Belgium, bad vs Lithuania. That’s how players normally are over their first 15 caps.

the future big attacking players for Ireland are Knight, Parrott and Ferguson as I see it. Ogbene possibly.

would have being interesting to see obafemi’s ability vs Lithuania where he had to face a deep lying defence.

Was absolutely delighted for Parrott that he got the winner and was a good hit too from him. While we do struggle to break teams down that sit in and park the bus we at least had the ball in the back of the net four times. So had the chances but just need to be more disciplined in staying onside.

Don't think Hendrick or Cullen need to worry about their places for some time. Browne and Hourihane were average in midfield together, though it's probably not surprising. Don't see what Hourihane brings to the team. He'll play a few passes when playing weaker opposition who stand off us but come competitive matches he'll be back to hiding behind players to avoid the ball.

Last night would have been tailer made for someone like Ronan. Whether he would have made a difference or not he is someone that will try pass through the lines more than the likes of Hourihane or Browne.

The criticism for McClean is bizarre, you'd swear that he was keeping the likes of a Kieran Tierney on the bench. The reality is that the options at left wing back are poor, you've got Manning, Scales, O' Dowda, and Stevens. O' Dowda and Stevens have spent so much time injured over the last year and have not featured for us. Scales has struggled to get games even though he looked ok when I've seen him. Manning has done well, but you certainly couldn't say that he is definitively a better player than McClean.

I just think we don't have many other options. I really don't think Manning has done much to help his cause to get on the team. He had a few dodgy moments with bad passes. The overhit one to Doherty was completely unnecessary.

Ogbenne and Doherty seem to be working up a relationship on that RHS. That's great to see. I feel like the LWB just frustrates the left winger. Bad passes, poorly timed runs, and constantly looking to cross asap. Tbf Manning had some decent crosses.

Will Enda Stevens come back in?

Think he would have done alright. Ogbene's offside goal he might have kept himself onside if in that position and might have gave us an outlet for long balls into the corner to use his pace whereas you ain't getting that with Keane.

Hopefully sitting out this squad doesn't go against him as Kenny likes to see lads in camp before playing. Though hopefully we see an extended squad in June and have a few new faces in training. The U21s are playing two home games in June so get them all in training together.

What's the situation with Ebosele? Rumours going around he's deleted all his photos of him in an Irish shirt. I don't know how to confirm. Is it true?

Ogbene has a brilliant attitude - gives us urgency in his play which is a breath of fresh air. That's also what Parrott offered us the minute he came on the pitch - plus his movement was WAY way better than Keane who didn't impress at all. Doherty still struggling with keeping up a consistency for a full 90 minutes so I'm hoping his recent positive games at Spurs continues and translates over.

Hourihane is just not up for it - even his set pieces were terrible, he has to be knocked down towards the bottom of the midfield pecking order now as we've seen enough from him. I'm happy with McClean as an option coming off the bench, prefer him playing a role in link up play and getting a cross in as opposed to him trying to beat the player in front which 90% of the time he ends up failing.

https://www.instagram.com/festy.36/?hl=en

I wouldn't be too concerned about Festy. I'd imagine there is another explanation for it.

It's possible that he sees himself more of a senior international now too!! Ah no. We'd need to wait to hear something from him first on it. We will probably only find out when the next u21 squad is announced if he accepts or picks up a "knock".