Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

Ombamiele at right full and mcguinnes in cb though.

That would be better. I think Mcguinness had a decent season at a decent level of football. Would be good if we could get himself and ombamidele into the team.

Coleman has left camp and Egan won't be playing tomorrow.

Kenny may not be good enough, fair enough but some of the vitriol of "Irish fans" towards League of Ireland on here and on Twitter is just weird.

Is it the best standard in the world? Clearly not but the amount of hate some posters have to LOI I can't understand.

I'd throw Festy in and have Browne in midfield. We've nothing to really lose and Festy has the pace to cause trouble. Give him licence to push up and attack. Doherty is a massive lose as he picks up good positions in the final third and supports attacks.

Would try out:

.......................Travers

..........O'Shea - Duffy - Collins -

Festy - Molumby - ??? - McClean

...............Browne - Knight

......................Obafemi

I'd give Travers the last two games in this window with Bazunu out. For me he's our no.1 and we should give both back ups time this window to show what they have in competitive games.

Would consider O'Shea at RCB rather than LCB to make a possible back four if Festy pushes and McClean can hang back. O'Shea has played more at RB than Collins so would look at him on that side of a three.

Fresh legs have to go into midfield and you're gonna get more out of Molumby than Hourihane. It's probably a toss up whether you want to start Hendrick or Cullen. Ones barely played while the others play a lot this season but both guys can't start all four games. Just depends whether you want Cullen for better protection of the defence or Hendrick who could play passes through the lines.

Would play both Browne and Knight supporting Obafemi. Scotland will play Gilmour, McGinn, McGregor, and probably Christie in midfield so would match them with that line up and both Browne and Knight playing.

Ogbene or Robinson aren't CFs so would start Obafemi so you've got someone pacey up there and with the two midfielders supporting the CF rather than playing Ogbene in one of those roles is why I'd throw Festy in and give him that bit more freedom to push up and attack.

Defensively meh as he's not really a defender but we need a WB that's gonna offer an attacking threat. Would prefer him in a front three as he's more effective there though, and could throw Ogbene in there to see how he goes starting out as a RWB.

I'd say Scotland might give both lads a half each. Was surprised they gave Robertson 70mins against Armenia when they were two up at half time.

Plenty of live action Tuesday with both games being shown on RTE.

Feel the same alright. Can see wgat he wants to do, nice not to see the ball up in the rafters constantly, but need to do more with the ball faster. For majority of pro players, it's easy to play against. The need not to get an early goal makes games inevitable. Was going to say its u lucky that the worst results have been from long range shots, but 4 times may not be unlucky. Wouldn't want him gone, but needed results now and doesn't look like happening so can be no complaints.

The question is though...who next?

Give him a ball and a yard of grass.

No everyone can support whoever they want obviously. The issue is you get people then claiming that the Irish team is in the state it is because people follow Man Utd/Liverpool instead of local teams, you can see those posts post match, or below.

But the simple fact is the LOI is a small league. Some have delusions of grandeur about it being a hotbed of international players but it just isn't. Its improving definitely but its not at a great standard yet.

For years people have banged on about how whichever LOI flavour of the month should be starting for/managing Ireland. Be it Ritchie Towell, Graham Burke,Daryl Horgan or Stephen Kenny himself.

Suppose it hardly matters if he's called up, he's as unlikely as Talbot to play.

Aye thank god we don’t have ogbene’s ability to get on the scoresheet in a team that doesn’t score.

Yeah would have thought Ebosele was a fairly direct replacement for Ogbene so strange he isn't in the squad. Reckon we will go something like this tonight, although I don't think we will get a result regardless.

Kelleher

Christie Collins Duffy O'Shea McClean

Browne Cullen Knight

Obafemi Keane

But at the same time, he's consistently shown himself to be one of our most dangerous threats through his pace and tenacity alone. He's not a centre forward, but he does have good instincts for where to be when he's in and around the box as an auxiliary player. But he needs players inside him both in midfield and CF to work off to get the best out of him. In the Armenia game for instance he kept getting isolated and having to come back onto his weaker foot to cross as no-one was making themselves available for the lay off. I could see him working better with Obafemi, who has been good at linking up with his wide men at Swansea, as well as forming a solid partnership with Piroe.

Rules for judging Irish squad members

have more than 30 caps: you’re useless (hendrick) or past it (Coleman/Duffy)

you have being average in most recent games but were good before: you are terrible, how do you expect to support a family being this bad (ogbene, Robinson, Parrott)

you’re a fringe player but was good in the last game; you’re the answer, why don’t you get picked every game (obafemi, knight)

you’ve never being capped but showed well in a couple of games ; we all know you are special and great but the manager is clueless (obsele, smallbone)

moral of the story; average footballers have average games. All our players are average, It doesn’t mean you are destined to be terrible forever or the lads not getting picked will be anything other than average

Maybe festy came, trained and looked a level or two off it. I don’t find it strange. He’s got one season of senior football behind him.

Browne has played right midfield and right back for Preston.

If he had no intention of playing Ebosele then why didn't he leave him with the U21s?

Apart from the reason I’ve already given. There’s a question of whether ebosele wants to play for the 21s. Didn’t he leave the last squad he was called into with no reasons given why? And then unfollowed the fai on his socials and deleted any pictures of him playing for Ireland.

my own feelings are the way out of this mess are unlikely to majorly involve an uncapped young lad.

we need midfield to high press and tackle, not a late press as seen vs Ukraine

Unless Kenny changes things from a style perspective I think you are correct. Formation etc make it simple for the players all knowing their jobs.

I was thinking it is ironic that Kenny seems as stubborn as Jack Charlton. Zero variation. Differences are Charlton had the players to play any style.

But I would argue because Charlton kept it simple had a structured system (which was solid and a constant threat) he was successful where others before him and after failed. As some detractors like to say it was hoofing the ball.

But this is not true it was planned chaos against the opponents. The ball had to go in the corners for the ‘runners’ to go behind. The team pressed. The opposition defence was turned.

It allowed Charlton and Ireland to overachieve. And let’s not forget it was Charlton who brought ‘pressing’ into international football. It is now called gegenpressing. Charlton’s style was not pretty. But Jayus it was effective! It brought overachievement.

Kenny is doing the opposite no structure, no plan. Easy to play against no threat. Limited as his players are, his idealistic nature is making them underachieve.

Kenny is finding out the hard way now that with very limited technical footballers you cannot be effective with that slow build up style in international football. Top managers such as MON and Trappatoni knew this but were ridiculed for it. It was not playing football ‘the right way’.

If you look at McCarthy’s two tenures he copped this. And went for pragmatism not idealism in his second stint. Common sense, of which Kenny has none.

Typical of Rovers so is it? Vast majority of games have no trouble. We've all seen fans break into a stadium in the pl, and lots of scenes of areas in stadiums getting smashed up. Seems to be more a football problem rather than a LOI thing