Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

But we do work hard enough, we were pressing France aggressively for large chunks of the 1st half and we got players back into position when ever France got possession. If anything the matches against France in this campaign were some of our hardest working performances in a long time and I don't think I'd criticize any Irish team since the tail end of Martin O'Neill's reign for lack of effort.

Why move Collins into midfield? I've seen nothing to suggest it will work and just because it worked with McGrath is no guarantee that it would work again as the O'Shea example shows. Collins should be the linchpin for our backline for the foreseeable future once Duffy and Egan move on. For our creative midfield woes the hope would be that Smallbone will become our creative midfielder with a few more years of experience.

Oof, that's a beaut of a strike!

Cheers. Put Knight in twice by mistake instead of Sykes but forgot Smallbone and Johnston. Still missing one other somewhere.

In the first half even though we were the better team and should have been winning. Opened up more in the second half and hopefully just scored a 96min winner even though we should have won this game comfortably.

Ireland got 2 reds in injury time?

Roughan banking on a senior call up by the time the return leg comes around. Going to turkey with your card marked wouldn’t be enjoyable

Thankfully we don't play them for another 12 months so could happen. Given our issues at FB wouldn't be a bad shout to play him there next year in the friendlies. Has a decent cross of a ball and set piece delivery. Also the benefit that he's preferred position is CB so covers multiple positions.

Great time to do it when you score the winner but we made tough work of what were the fourth seeds at home. Though Italy drew 0-0 away to Latvia so it's gonna be a tough group.

But even early in the first half Turkey looked weak out wide but didn't bring our wingers on until late in the second half. Springett didn't come on till the 84th minute replacing Sean Grehan who was the 3rd CB.

Lisa Fallon would be a good choice for the women's. She knows her stuff.

Also, the u21s tonight was good Friday night tv watch. Enjoyed that.

I wouldn't be as down on Lennon as others but I'd still have misgivings as his record outside of his first spell with Celtic wouldn't inspire hugely. Even his spell in Cyprus ended with a sacking after losing to newly promoted clubs despite as you say decent performances in the group stages of the Europa League and an excellent result to qualify for the group stages in the first place (which sounds very similar to Dundalk's European run in 2016 under Stephen Kenny oddly). I wouldn't say no entirely to Lennon but I would check what other options are available before committing to him.

Collins is arguably a better footballer than some of the midfielders. It's why it's he in particular gets recommended.

Extended highlights

The amount of credit Kenny gets for "blooding youth" is comically overinflated aswell. Granted its the only thing that can be attempted to be used as a positive but its really exagerated.

Its not like he has dropped in their prime 27 year old's like Jeff Hendrick, David Forde, Shane Long, Glenn Whelan, Richard Keogh, Robbie Brady to turn to the future.

By chance a large glut of regulars aged out at a time where we had a hape of young defenders and a few promising forwards. Kenny just got lucky, in reality he is doing what all managers have done and is just picking the best available.

Scotland could be playing League 2 players in the team with Robertson, McGinn, Tierney, McTominay and Gilmour and they’d be in a better position than us.

They have absolutely got a bit of a golden generation going on and it makes no sense for us to be comparing our crop to them.

I think the criticism of Molumby and Cullen’s level relative to the rest of the team is harsh anyway.

There is an ongoing trend among the kinds of people who watch football primarily to be entertained, that midfielders tend to become the scapegoat when same people decide they want to have a strongly held opinion to discuss in the pub/online. Eg. Fred, McTominay, Henderson, Xhaka, Hendrick.

Not to mention Jeff Kenna at Pats. Still gives me the shudders !

It mainly stems from the fact our existing CM options just keep getting exposed anyway. Hence all the potshots from range we keep conceding. Since Whelan left we dont have a natural defensive midfielder. Thus theres that large hole between the defence and the midfield where the opposition get time to take their shot while a CB (or two) desperately rush forward trying to fling themselves at the ball to block the shot while the midfielders are scampering backwards.

Ah, long time since I've heard Jeff Van Damme mentioned. Good memories.

So many low points that year but also some great European results.

Seems like just more of the same excuses, the 'blooding players' gives Kenny a complete pass argument. He has not moulded them properly in my opinion. Staunton did not get a free pass in his tenure, Mick 1.0 was under severe pressure when he did an overhaul after Big Jack etc.

But for some made reason the Irish fans just kept giving Kenny more rope each game, and many now blame not Kenny, but other factors - it is mad.

Ireland plays well when they play against better sides because Ireland is forced to sit back, any eejit of a manager can sit back. Christ Michael O'Neill did that in Euro 2016 and qualified for the competition off the back of doing it properly and consistently - with the mighty Northern Ireland.

Many of whose players got damn all club game time and played at a much lower level than many of the current ROI lads. It has never been easier to qualify for International tournaments, the powers that be are falling over themselves to have more qualifying spots all the time. But yet Ireland are still miles off that.

Where Kenny has really being shown up is when his side was supposed to take the initiativeand put this great philosophy of the way he 'sees football' in place.

I just hope the next manager (whoever it maybe) does not become 'darling of the media' without having justified it. A media who buys into spoofing about some new 'philosophy' that clearly does not suit the players available, basically becomes a propaganda wing of the manager.

Instead just set the team up (with the players available) and play in a manner which gives the team the best chance of getting results based on those players abilities. That is what good managers do. Use what they have, in manner where they get the maximum out of them while covering weakness. Grand you are not going to win every game, but at least beat the teams you should be beating, and then beat them consistently. Developing from there to maybe nicking points from the better sides etc

None of this spoofing about the future of Irish football, that we have had for the last three years. I can't believe how many fell for that stuff. I was sick of listening to that. It was most blatant framing of a narrative by the Irish media that I have ever seen. I am not sure did the fans drive the media? Or if the media drove the fans?

I suppose the good thing to come out of it is there might be less tolerance for managers spoofing for a while, after Kenny leaves.

Besides Ogbene which Kenny deserves credit for, he should also get credit for lowering the Irish fanbase's tolerance for spoofing. I don't want to hear constant mental gymnastics spinning results into positives. That became a joke aspect of Kenny's tenure. Easy to mimic.

Kenny made Noel King seem Churchillian, and a tactical genius in comparison.