Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

He can't switch.

Yes he can. English mum makes him eligible and he only has 3 Senior caps for Ireland. When he has 4 then he's ineligible to move.

H'mm reading now his 'friendly' match appearance could count so now I'm unsure! He won't switch though - I'm sure of that.😀

He definitely met up with the squad. I saw a video on Twitter of him arriving to the hotel.

I reckon this is pretty close to the mark. If we had put ourselves in a position where these games were do or die we would have kept him in the squad to potentially use in the last half hour against the Dutch, at a minimum.

As it is, if there is any doubt resting is the prudent move for everyone concerned.

Read rule IV of the picture from McDonnell’s tweet.

he can’t move now unless he decided to go to CAS which he won’t cause he doesn’t want to move anyway. He’s just becoming slightly injury prone.

Ferguson's absence is not going to impact the France result. We all know what's going to happen:

We'll graft hard, carry a threat whenever we get the ball, generally give a good account of ourselves, but without actually hitting the net, and then in the 75th minute Rabiot or Tchouameni will take on a shot from 30 yards that Bazunu won't deal with and France will win 1-0.

Might have a header from a corner saved late on.

And then instead of repeating the gutsy performance against a Netherlands side that's very beatable because they're being managed by a court jester, we'll phone it in against them and lose 2-1.

Kind of strange that this slipped past Brighton. Surely EPL clubs perform their own assessments after every game, and before releasing their expensive assets for international duty?

it wouldn’t have got past them. They have to release players called up to the medical staff of international teams for assessment. before that clubs abused their right not to release players.

Travers should be given another chance. He's playing at the same level as Bazunu and ended the 21/22 season with the Championship Golden Glove.

..

I don't see any keeper doing well at Southampton atm unless they splash the cash for a good experienced keeper or a good keeper that's got a presence about him. Someone that's gonna speak his mind and boss the defence. Basically Bournemouth bringing in Neto last season for example.

They appointed a manager whose idea of defending is you score two and we'll score three. If you've got a defensively weak manager and a weak defensive then that's a recipe for disaster unless you got the proper personal between the sticks. Don't think Bazunu has the personality or that grittiness about him right now for a team that's defensively weak.

was starting to really looking forward to the games , with Ferguson , you got to feal for Kenny, given what he has now.

No way, that fella has little or no composure. How many mistakes has Travers made in his few starts for Ireland? There was a reason Bournemouth got rid of him fairly quickly.

Kenny will be gone at the end of this campaign unless we manage to qualify, which is fair enough, he’s had enough time and has repeated the same mistakes.

But he has definitely had more than his fair share of bad luck, and Fergusons unavailability is just the latest.

Being honest, Ferguson or no Ferguson this week is likely to end with 2 losses anyway. Both teams are far stronger than Ireland. But you never know!

Netherlands are shite though. Yes they have better players, were a shootout away from a world cup semi final, but they're dreadful, and Koeman has them playing badly too. They're less than the sum of their parts, and their parts, with a few exceptions are not what they used to be.

Netherlands is a game that even as an underdog, we should be going out trying to beat them and not this safety first, 5 at the back containment bollox with endless sideways passing we've done.

A loss against France is fine, but a win against Netherlands and Greece is a must for Kenny to be remotely considered for the future

I would say the Netherlands are shite by their own standards, rather than just generally a bad team. But as you say they have better players playing regularly in top level competitions across the board. They should be 100% regarded as favourites.

We can get a result definitely, we will need to be at our very best and will probably need some luck too. Winning shouldn’t be an expectation imo.

I wouldn't that worried. We'll probably put men behind the ball unlike the Dutch who they ripped asunder. Can see us giving away two soft goals and losing 2-0.

I looked at the anytime goalscoring odds (France v Ireland) there on a certain Irish bookmaker that likes the 'banter'. Kept scrolling through the French names.

First Irish name I came to was - Will Keane.

Jayus.....

Fact I can see us camped in and around our 18 yard box for most the night don't see pace being an issue. You've also got Ogbene who'll probably spend most the night coming back to help out with Mbappe.

Think Duffy is gonna start because his backs to the wall type defending is what we're likely to be doing against France.

said it here loads that squad , minus Ferguson , Pep himself would struggle to get a tune out of, given whats available, never mind qualifications - I grew up on the great Irish teams , who always had at least 6 quality players , and the rest gave 100% , since 2002 , its been tough (been polite)

Squad's fine.

Manager's an idiot. They've lost 3 from 4 under him.

Liverpool obviously very happy to have him as a solid backup, but it's probably time for him to get an exit strategy sorted.

January loan for him would be ideal. Play the Europa League group stages and the early EFL (and maybe FA) cup rounds, and then head off for more week-in-week-out experience for the latter half of the season in the Championship (most likely) with a view to a good level permanent move next year.