Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

Our Achilles heal for my whole life has been our ability to break down weaker teams.

Hughton isn’t fit to replace Kenny. If Kenny was sacked in the morning, and Hughton was hired, I don’t think anyone would be feeling good about that.

His achievements came with a form of football that is now demonstrably irrelevant. He achieved when circumstances were such that he could achieve with his style. Someone average with a style that is more presently effective is better than someone great with a style that is now wholly ineffective.

Excluding the game where Armenia beat us, they have conceded 23 goals in their last 5 games. If we lose at home to them tonight and get relegated to group C, very legitimate questions need to be asked about whether Kenny should continue. I don't think we will lose, but I didn't think Luxembourg would have beaten us either...

I was answering the poster who put the challenge "Name me an Irish manager where we were ever full sure of a win against anyone ?"

We were full sure of winning against many teams many times in the past.

Ha ha ha.

You're not even trying anymore.

Think it's important we put 4 or 5 past them tonight just to build momentum ahead of the euros

The fetishizing of Stephen Kenny by the Off The Ball crew is really weird.

He's become a parody at this point.

Getting so wound up about what others are up to as well. Imagine doing a hate-listen of OTB to get so wound up.

Yep

Put 4 or 5 past them to build momentum like the momentum they built when they put 3 or 4 past Andorra, or Qatar or Azerbaijan, or Luxembourg.

Great retort.

But seriously this has been my problem with Kenny.

There is zero sense that any momentum is being built.

They just seem to be spinning their wheels.

So much so that people who support Kenny are already getting their excuses in in case they don't beat Armenia.

Has anyone on here made excuses before this game. I haven't seen any. If anything all I've seen are numerous posters, who while largely supportive of the manager, saying that if we don't when then the pressure is deserved/questions should be asked.

Anyone expecting us to hammer Armenia tonight can go fill their boots in the bookies.

While Ireland are 2/7 to win the game its is almost even money on their being either less than 2.5 goals or more than 2.5 goals.

Favourite scorelines are 1-0 and 2-0 both @9/2 and its goes out to 13/2 for a 3-0 victory.

Ireland -1 is 1/1 and Ireland -2 is 5/2.

When the Ukraine beat Armenia 5-0, it was only 1-0 at half time.

When Scotland beat them 4-1, Armenia were first out of the blocks after 7 minutes, but were 2-1 down at halftime.

Ukraine were 0-0 at halftime when the won 3-0 at home , whereas Scotland had grabbed both of their goals in the 2-0 win before halftime.

I think Ireland need to go for the jugular early and just keep the pressure on. Like someone said here, when players get leggy just sub them off.

I can only see a home win, but I'd like to see a comfortable one.

Maybe so but that's the sentiment that is coming across the last while now.

I for one hope Kenny gets a performance and comfortable win tonight. It's needed. We need to quell the talk of him getting the sack or not being up to the job before the next campaign and only a convincing win tonight will do that.

Let's not cod ourselves that the likes of Hughton , Gerrrard or even Aalrdyce would be any worse or haven't achieved anything in the game. That's just pure ignorance.

To be clear I'm certainly not advocating for Alardyce here. However he has achieved a significant amount more than SK at a higher level as has Hughton and Gerrard. Dyche is out of our reach financially. Michael O'Neill might be a good candidate and has been through the learning curve already with the North.

Just looking at their last few games, the Scots put 4 past them, Ukraine scored 5, Norway scored 9,the Germans hit 4 and North Macedonia scored 5.

If we cannot put a few goals past these then we're in bigger trouble than we think.

No, I'll be resigned to the reality that Kenny will get a Euro campaign, but I'll have no confidence in Ireland qualifing for that Euro irregardless of the upcoming draw.

Of course it doesn't prove that things WILL get where you want them to, but it does prove things CAN get where you want them to. When Michael O'Neill is one of those spoken about as an improvement, it makes sense to point out that if he did with us what he did with the North, he'd have been hounded out of a job by the same people calling for him, ever before things went right.

Of all the options brought up in this thread, O'Neill is so far the only actual reasonable one. Everyone else mentioned is so entirely unattainable as to be pointless to bring them up (well, except Hughton, who is effectively ruled out as the day before yesterday's man)

Fck this 'fanboy' bollocks anyway. Not everyone that has a sense of realism is a 'fanboy'. I hate this increasing buzzword nonsense.

For Kenny, it entirely depends on what we can afford. if we had tonnes of money, I'd have kicked him out a year ago and brought in some managerial genius. But we don't. And we won't. We have a pittance. If things go horrible wrong in the first few games, and qualification is all but done early on, I'd sack him and try someone else with a similarly forward thinking mindset, but better. That is, if we could find them, convince them, and afford them. It's likely we can't. I couldn't give you a name of such a talented, and yet affordable option myself anyway.

Everything so far has been to lay the groundwork for this upcoming Euro's campaign. We brought in the former U21 coach at a time we were in dire need of transition towards youth, and his experience with them and willingness to bed them in has given us a much stronger base. Of course that's also led to teething problems - that's why transition periods are named as such. This transition period is now at an end, and we're coming into the time when we would hope this bedding in process we've gone through will give these younger (but much better) players the confidence, understanding of each others games, and tactical understanding to produce. I don't particularly believe there was a better guy out there to bring these players through, given his pre-existing relationships with them. Hopefully he's also the guy to bring them on to the next step - maybe he is, maybe he isn't. But having done the horrible thankless part of it, imo he deserves the chance to try. We'll see over the coming months how it pans out. If we can't compete, we'll just have to go lifting rocks here and there hoping for some other cheap option to come wow us.

I'm merely using them as examples lad. Yeh I know all about Michael O'Neills record. The point being he proved in the end he could do the job and achieve qualification. He is a tested ticket. He will be in a position to hit the ground running. Someone like Gerard may look at it as a stepping stone to the English job if he can be successful so finances might not be much of a barrier.

The other option is if we fail to qualify for the Euros is to stick with Kenny.

From the sound of it the Armenia camp seem to be all over the shop. The manager's contract is not being renewed. The media in Armenia have turned on him. The only decent result he seemed to get was against Ireland.

So if Ireland start well, theoretically Armenia should crumble and give up without much of a fight.

In the last game Armenia were hammered 5-0 by a Ukraine B team, basically. So the players morale must be rock bottom.

If I was predicting a result I would say a nervy 2-0 for Ireland, as they struggle to break down Armenia who just want to keep the score down. So the counter attack stuff is less likely to work, and onus will be on Ireland to go on the front foot.