Cult of Stephen Kenny

I am a fan of Kenny and the way he wants to play football but he needs to get pragmatic and fast. Ireland simply dont have the players going forward and its not his fault.

We are stacked at centre back, right wing/back and goalkeeper but after that we are abysmal.

Our attacking players are at a standard where they would only be squad players for championship clubs, this is fruition of neglect in Irish football for the last 30 years.

This goes way beyond any one manager

Couldnt see Ireland beating Scotland , is it the case Ireland are going to finish bottom at this stage and drop down to C Nations league groupings . Hard to see us qualifying for Euro 2024

We would be playing Cyrpus, Luxembourg, Gibraltar in C pool groupings of nations league next time round and should be capable of doing well and that should help us qualify for Euro 2028 which could be held in England/Ireland

FYI Ireland have played in a major tournament more recently than Norway. The way some people go on here you'd swear Ireland have never been in anything.

I would say Ireland have gotten to a level that is about right for a smaller nation we've even punched above our weight at times. Unfortunately the team hasn't the same level of success in recent years that we had in the 80s, 90s, 00s and even 2010s.

Qualifying for a major tournament especially a World Cup is not easy. Even a country like Italy couldn't manage for the last two World Cups. Look at Turkey for example a massive country with a big appetite for football but haven't played in a WC since 2002 and only played in 2 in their entire history.

it would seriously depend on who the manager is. I couldn't see Kenny being successful even in that group.

Republic of Ireland is a small country of 4 million people with a lot of different sports .

In many parts of Ireland ( particulary outside Dublin ) playing Hurling or Football with your county is a lot more achievable than been good enough to make a decent career in soccer. If Niall Quinn or Kevin Moran were 18 again chances are they would struggle to break into English premiership squads with all the nationalities that are there now.

Of the top 15-17 year old sports players across the country how many of them have chosen soccer as opposed to GAA or Rugby. I see the local Kennedy cup team asking young lads to trails but they turn it down because their on some county gaa squad , then you go picking lesser players who might be committed but arent the best locally and weakens the overall underage soccer gene pool.

In my area at home id say of what one would call the top ten youngsters (14-17) soprts wise in our parish in Munster who would have played all sports growing up , 6 probably focus on GAA, 2 on Rugby & 2 on soccer . In Scotland 7 or 8 of these 10 would choose soccer

That's kind of the point I was making. We are at an immediate disadvantage soccer wise compared to a lot of countries.........

It's just reality....

But there has been no progress, on the contrary, we are now easily beaten, pose no threat going forward, struggle with passing the ball sideways, and have the most uninspirational manager in world football. None of this has anything to do with covid.

Yet, you say all this is fine, but if we start hoofing the ball forward and eeking out a few results whilst punching above our weight, then you will not renew your ticket???

I'm really struggling to put myself in the shoes of anyone who has such a view, maybe this is down to the insta generation, where all that matters is that it looks good?

I am not in the sack Kenny corner as no manager can do better with the players on hand. Using the next 2 years as a training plan and trying new formations and players is the best option, as we stand, we are just not the finished articular to quote from a one-time biggy club manager. When our defenders are our best chance of scoring goals things are just too odd. Almost every set pace and dead ball were sent to Duffy in the last 15 minutes... say it all about our team's confidence.

A few nonsense points made over the last few pages, irrelevant to a large degree but niggling at me.

One calling Trap a one trick pony, he's probably in the top 5 managers the world has ever seen, he just knew what cards he was dealt and applied the appropriate measures.

Second, Norwegians aren't as obsessed with the PL as us, this is completely and utterly wrong. I'd say they're more obsessed with it but manage to actually have created dual league interest. Ask a Norwegian who they support and they answer Rosenberg & Liverpool.

For my tuppence worth to the thread, if Kenny is as good at development as a lot of people claim then why not make him the architect of underage football from u21's all the way down to u7's. Make him a godfather of sorts that directs and instructs from on high of how we should develop and guide underage coaching etc even if the financial resources aren't great it would be a better use of whatever funds are available and maybe just maybe we see the fruits of this in 15 or 20 years time

An international manager he is certainly not and we'd be better off fumbling around next ten years at senior level in the hope the underage development plan is in place. We've had a load of spoofers like Ruud Doktor hidden behind the scenes not achieving very much. Get Kenny in this role and dictate the programme, no interference from anyone

posted comment in wrong thread

"As Ireland manger its useless planning long term , play the best side in the here and now & with the style that give s you the biggest chance of a result ",

Thats the question, what is our best style?, lumping it up to the big man while keeping as many men back as possible and hope for set pieces?

Or trying to play football like most modern teams do?

What league one players start for us? this was the team last night

Kelleher PL

Duffy PL

Egan Champ

Collins PL

Hendrick PL / Champ this season

Knight Champ

Cullen Belgian PL

Stevens Champ

Christie Champ

Robinson Champ

Ogbene L1 - He didnt have to start him. Could easily have gone with Obafemi

Other players that are available to him when not injured and not playing in League 1

Coleman PL

Doherty PL

Travers Champ

Manning Champ

Obafemi Champ

Connolly Champ / PL

McGuinness Champ

Bagan Champ

Dunne Champ

Ebolese Champ

Lenihan Champ

Hogan Champ

Hourihane Champ

Idah PL/Champ

Browne Champ

Molumby Champ

o'Shea Champ

Omabamdiele Champ

Mcnamara Champ

I'm probably missing more but the League One comment is way off. The Championship isn't that bad a standard to be honest. Probably in the top5/6 leagues in Europe in terms of quality actually. He should be getting 6 points from Luxembourg, Armenia and Azerbaijan with what's available to him.