Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

Same as that. You can't be justifying that sh1te to anyone. Performance was atrocious, player selection and substitutions were poor.

He sent Sykes on with 5 minutes to go and changed to 541, to hold onto the win. It's Malta FFS.

30 games into the Kenny era and we've reached the point where we're relieved to be coming away from playing the 168th best team in the world with a narrow win and a clean sheet. So much for the attacking brand of football that we were promised. We needed a gift from an awful piece of defending.

It was a travesty that this regime were given new contracts. So many wasted years. We haven't made any progress from McCarthy's time; and considering his side in November, '19 needed 1 more goal against Denmark to secure automatic qualification, we have fallen off massively.

Not too many positives after that. Bar McGrath none of the starters impressed although O'Dowda did well when he came on. Thought Doherty and Collins were particularly bad tonight. Collins looked jittery and his clearance were awful. Doherty offered nothing in his attacking role. Midfield is still lacking creativity, McGrath did better than Browne did on Thursday and is probably our best choice as the 3rd midfielder if we insist on playing with 3 in the back. Browne makes the right moves at the wrong times and he really should have done much better with his chance towards the end of the 1st half. Ogbene was awful aswell and we could really do with Idah getting some game time as he's our best forward at holding up the ball. Robinson was dreadful again bar the goal and he's shouldn't be starting.

Kenny is really making life difficult for himself in these friendlies with not changing from the 3 at the back when it wasn't working and bringing Hendrick on again ahead of Smallbone and Sykes. Wouldn't matter so much if Hendrick wasn't brutal when he came on both times and if Kenny thought bringing on Hendrick to secure the result is a good idea, the last two matches should have disproved that theory at least.

The work was the overhaul of the squad. Had the oldest squad in Euro 2016 At 29 years because there was no link between the youth setups and the senior squad. He bridged that gap, made young players like Bazunu, Collins and Ogbene regulars, and did so while still finishing in our seeded position.

Effort: other managers set up Ireland in a 4-4–2 low block, win the ball play it long quickly to try and fashion a chance or more realistically a set piece. That’s it. Kenny has been trying various formations and systems(with varying success). But he’s at least trying to evolve the ability of the team.

You can think he’s the wrong man for the job, there’s obviously a case for that, but anyone who refuses to give him an ounce of credit while pining for mercenaries to come in for a couple of million, not qualify anyway and not progress the team at all clearly has a bizarre agenda against him for some reason.

Yeah this window especially had a bad stench of past your sell by date, and probably one bad result away from the sack.

FAI might start eyeing up lads that become available after the WC when there's more options to pick from.

Neil Critchley would be one name I'd suggest. Good young coach who had two seasons with Blackpool before joining Gerrard at Villa. Young coaches though will likely see international football as a backwards career move though.

Wilder is a more experienced coach that's available and if 500k a year is still available then Hill could try tempt him. After his Boro spell his stock will have fallen a bit and Hill could try pitch to him that Ireland might be the opportunity to getting offers for another club job.

Someone on YBIG threw out Steve Holland's name given Hill's connections with the English FA. Long time assistant manager with Chelsea from 2011 to 2017, and has been an assistant to Southgate since he started working with the U21s. If England change managers after the WC someone like that would suit the FAI as he's gonna be cheap.

Issue is we've got the group of death for the Euros and both France and Holland in September. Might be hard to convince someone to come in before September if Kenny gets the sack. Think there best bet atm is find a replacement for Eustace and it also gives you a plan B if an interim coach is needed after the first couple of games.

So its gone from young players to "uncapped" players.

The Kenny diehards bring more entertainment than Kenny's actual Ireland.

I am just watching the Kenny Post Match Malta press conference on FAI TV.

One bit that stood out to me was he described the Norway game as ‘high intensity’ and took a lot out of the players. Then they had a ‘tough’ Malta away game.

Now, whatever about calling Malta ‘tough’. Was I watching a different Norway game? Because high intensity would not be the two words I would use to describe it!

Well clearly it’s both. He’s capped players and he’s given previously capped young players regular experience.

Why does he get no credit for that, but Mick gets credit for playing these lads a couple of times?

It's crazy to me how completely all the winging and moaning and gnashing of teeth from Kenny fielding young squads early on has seemingly been forgotten, and now it's portrayed as if anyone would've done the same. The fckin amount of posts on here crying about how "senior football is for the proven senior players", demanding the old heads be the ones to play instead of bedding in the younger ones.

Well, we are definitely in a better position for having the young guys all well bedded in now - particularly when the consensus is the previous lads (that so many demanded should keep their places) are mostly rubbish. Even if Kenny got sacked in the morning and someone else came in, they will have benefitted hugely from having a tonne of kids with proper first team experience together. I've a tonne of problems and questions and critiques with respect to Kenny, but to not grant that clear and obvious fact is mad.

On the next campaign, we have a decent plan of action for the Netherlands and France games now. What we do against the good teams is about as good as we'll find. What he desperately needs to do is figure out a better (and different) formation to be confident of beating Greece twice.

To be honest, I'd be astonished if Bazunu being a first choice international keeper didn't help significantly with his career. He went straight from a League One player to Premier League starter - I would be very confident the fact he had the performances he did against some decent international teams played a part in Southampton figuring he was worth making their Number 1. I mean, to argue otherwise, is to argue that the highest standard of games he had played in was not at all relevent to his move.

Likewise, it's bound to have helped someone like Omobamidele (who got his first premier league start after Kenny started him) and even Molumby, who was on the outs at club level for Brighton, but got exposure at international level.

To think International Exposure doesn't at all impact club perceptions seems a bit mad, given how many different moves have taken place across loads of countries and teams and leagues off the back of some good international matches. We're likely to see more than a few examples this coming January sure, off the back of who impresses in Qatar.

Did Mick's approach not basically show us that unless you can find a way to score goals, you can defend as well as you like and still go nowhere? Ultimately, it got him to a position where we had a few opportunities to go through, if we could only score a few goals. But, well, we couldn't score a few goals.

Football seems to have moved on, to where an entirely defensive team that can't score will simply be neutered. We had to find a way to offer a threat or we were doomed from the start. That's at least what Kenny has tried, and if he fails in the end, that's what the next person will have to try too.

I might agree with you if Bazunu was bought as a punt for the bench. But he was bought to be their number 1 starter. Let's not pretend that it's the same thing to be bought as a sub option, and to be bought as the clubs starting goalkeeper - obviously an absolutely key, league defining position.

And is starting holding midfielder not a key position? Lavia displaced Romeu to be the number 1 DM (Romeu then sold so they couldn't reverse the call) as a starting outfielder with absolutely no experience.

Southampton signed 2 starters and 2 punts.

Kenny is equally as responsible for Lavia as he is Bazunu as both had identical moves.