Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

Wouldn't go near Chris Hughton... Ghana have qualified for Afcon, but is there any manager that wouldn't qualify a team of that quality for Afcon out of that group? He's also made hard enough work of it, against a selection of teams miles below their level.

They've got lads like Kudus, Inaki Williams, Tariq Lamptey, Amartey, the Ayew's, Salisu etc, but he has them getting draws against the likes of Madagascar, Central African Republic, and Angola - each of whom are ranked 50+ places below Ghana.

(Not to mention he's just a demonstrably poor manager, who the modern game has simply passed by).

am loving all this dreadful stuff, listen I would say everyone knows the craic... but I dont think yer dialled in anymore lad.. yer in dreamland.. tbf when you jumped from O'Neill to Kenny, I actually stopped reading..

To say this team has no belief is a joke.. they are doing the best they can.. look the squad, what do you want them to do.. Klopp or Pep couldnt do better.. well maybe in one game, the, Greece game - maybe...but they had still a better team on paper and we played them in Greece..

Listen, the next manager will have a better squad instantly, with Ferguson..thank foook... but I wont blame Kenny too much...i've seen worse with better players, so meh

League is muck relative to the leagues that produce the Irish international footballers unfortunately. McClean the only one playing in a similar level league I think.

I have to say I'm struggling to see the significance of the goals conceded outside the box stat. I mean, are fans meant to be happier that the second goal was conceded inside the box? "Oh thank god that goal was scored inside the box, that's a huge relief."

No,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no.

The first mistake was thinking a LoI/underage manager was good enough to be senior manager, that mistake was made in 2002 with Kerry.

The next mistake was repeating the first mistake by hiring Kenny.

Don't make the same mistake for a third time.

There's no other option. A caretaker manager on a very modest salary and I mean modest by PAYE standards, not international football standards is the only option.

Then a complete restructure from bottom up, ploughing every cent into cultivating home grown talent/academy and league.

In 10 years time we'll be reaping the benefits.

Bringing in someone bang average but on big money to cobble together the current talent pool making them slightly harder to beat is not the right course of action.

SKs reign has been horrific but I've also zero interest in scraping into an ever increasing pool of qualifiers only to be abused at the groups stages and go home a joke.

Duff 🤣🤣 what has he ever done?

Be careful what you wish for, who is to say A Duff managed team wouldn't have lost 5 nil last night.

We’re in the position we are now because of criminal mismanagement of the association at an executive level. Losing millions upon millions on a ridiculous ticket scheme and setting football back decades, while still spending money on themselves like they were running a Fortune 500 company.

Trap, Mick and MON were there to paper over the cracks, qualify at all costs at huge expense to the FAI to deflect from the actual state of the organisation.

We got to 2 tournaments, one where we ended up having the joint worst ever performance at the time and the other because we were able to get a playoff by finishing third, even though we were seeded second.

Looking at qualification as the goal in every group without developing our youth structure in an increasingly competitive football landscape makes no sense. The amount of players playing regularly at the top level has been falling steadily over the last 15 years.

Kennys reign has brought some structure back, a young base of players with international experience and a link to the u21s that had been long gone prior. Next guy who comes in will have a better starting point than Kenny had.

But I don’t expect us to do much better that we’re doing now if we don’t do anything at a youth level, whoever comes in.

He’s a qualified Barista as well you’re forgetting

When you have CMs who cant pass 3 yards you are in trouble. Idah simply not up to this standard either. Not showing any drive to get stuck in

The lequipe ratings were actually kind to us. Most getting a 4, ogbene got 6 which was deserved. Idah got 3 which was kind.

Hes played at the highest level. DAFUQ has Kenny done??

A cardboard cutout could do the job at this stage. There's zero passion/guile/fear whatever you want to call it.

The players are poor but that's not the issue. Cheap is my main thoughts right now, a cheap as chips manager, who might command a bit if respect as an ex player of a very high level.

But only if the reroute of cash goes into structural change around academies etc. Otherwise its pi$$ing against the wind.

Stauntons playing career was pretty good as well, over 100 Irish caps I think, played at a couple of world cups. How did he turn out as Irish manager?

If the players didn’t respect Kenny he would have been gone long ago.

We have a limited group that clearly try for him, and he’s limited as well.

But the idea of getting someone in because they played in the PL, regardless of their actual managerial experience is laughable.

Yeah let's just leave SK in charge indefinitely so. Much less of a joke.

Yeah, it is all about the framing. Kenny was talked up as bringing Ireland the new direction, playing football the 'right way', it will take time we were told, but look at yesterday if a MON, Trap or Mick II team did what Ireland did yesterday they would still be slated. Even accounting for the strength of the opposition.

But at best a Stephen Kenny game is met with a shrug of shoulders or talk of a process.

I just think back to the initial Kenny hype - people actually called it 'Kennyball' which to me was side to side, easy to play against for any team. Buglaria - Finland etc had to be some of the worst. The nations league performances have been awful which is where you think Kenny could build the team, and build confidence. But the opposite has happened.

Then is slightly changed but not enough in my opinion, there was no closing down of opponents which lead to constant shots from distance being conceded, passing was still too slow and safe. Any goal or nearly win was talked up as 'turning the corner' for example the Portugal game where Ireland narrowly lost. I have never seen an Irish manager given so many corners as Kenny has! The road is really winding at this stage.

The whole thing was madness from start to finish, Kenny wanting to play football through the middle without a midfielder technical enough to do it. In reality the midfield should have been bypassed as that is the weakest area of Ireland's side.

The focus should be getting the ball as quickly as possible to fast players, technical Irish players good enough just don't exist. So it should be pace power, energy, unsettling the opponents. Focusing on set pieces, the likes of Duffy, Collins, Egan etc

But we have had to suffer this Kenny dreamland stuff, where the impression given to me was if I 'believed' enough like the younger Irish fans/or those that brought into the 'in Kenny we trust' narrative. It would come through.

I noticed on this thread that the fervent supporters of Kenny - have switched to blaming the FAI!

But the FAI is not to blame for a football manager not setting his team up to do the basics.

In other words a manager who does not play to their strengths - he does the opposite! Are the FAI responsible for a team being really passive and not closing down opponents?

It is the young/dreamland fanbase that caused this in my opinion as it was the main reason Kenny was picked - plus he was was cheap.

Then the last bit of scrapping the barrell is the narrative that the 'players are with Kenny' of course they are with Kenny. There is zero expectation and they are being picked. One of the handiest numbers in sport - in my opinion.