Republic of Ireland Team 2023/24 [old thread]

All that is missing is Gary Neville.

And enquire if Brooklyn and Romeo Beckham have Irish grandparents.

Whelan was a warrior for Ireland, had a fabulous International career.

I'm not saying I want any of them, I'm just highlighting managers out there who the FAI would probably entertain the thought of.

They're hardly going to try and get Tite, Flick or Nagelsmann for example.

I don't see Lee Carsley giving up on the U21 role with England or Chris Hughton giving up on managing Ghana so there are limited ex players in management currently.

I don't think Brendan Rodgers would leave Celtic for the Irish job.

The experiment has failed with Stephen Kenny. His replacement though for now will be equally underwhelming and we should just be prepared for it like when Steve Staunton got the job! 😣

Yeah the granny rule is an essential tool for a successful Irish managerial setup. To think otherwise is fantasy.

Thanked your post.

what’s really going on here is that the “Kenny’s ingame tactics are deficient” narrative is suiting both sides of the Ireland debate.

it suits the Kenny Out people for obvious reasons but it also suits the “Ireland can play progressive football but it’s being let down by an out of his depth manager”. Many of the second group work in media.

basically it enables media to stick with the “Ireland can play football” narrative which is ultimately what’s important to them. It will allow them to still attack carsley if he gets the job and decides to play Dourball.

Another contract, or just the remaining three games?

I particularly like the bit where Dunphy was going on about 'Wes' and Trapattoni etc.

But Giles said Trapattoni qualified for a tournament, - "You can only qualify for one tournament at a time Eamon." 😂

Even Giles and Dunphy said that Stephen Kenny has to at least beat the teams he should be beating.

Dunphy repeated time and again that the current Irish players are 'journeymen'. I can't remember him saying that about an Ireland squad before.

But I went through the side Kenny named v the Dutch and the a few who would have played if fit/selected -

English Premier League - O'Shea, Coleman*, Egan, Doherty, Ogbene, Cullen, Ferguson*, Obafemi, Kelleher (9)

English Championship - Bazunu, Duffy, Browne, Knight, Idah, Smallbone, Armstrong, Manning, Hendrick, Molumby, W. Keane*, Coventry*, Robinson* (13)

English League Two - McClean

Serie A - Ebosele

SPL - McGrath

It does not THAT bad - a core of a higher English championship type side or Lower Premier League.

It made me think is this current Kenny ROI squad worse than NI who qualified for Euro 2016?

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So I looked at the NI team that qualified for Euro 2016 for a bit of contrast.

A team which lost 1-0 to Germany. (which was real backs to the wall) not one for the 'purists'

https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1035167/Live/International-European-Championship-2016-Northern-Ireland-Germany

Also beat Ukraine 2-0 and lost to Poland 1-0 - narrowly making the knock outs of a tournament proper

At that time:

English Premier League - McGovern, Cathcart, McAuley, Davis, J.Evans (5)

English Championship - McGovern, Lafferty, Dallas, Norwood, C.Evans, Ward, Baird (7)

League One - McLaughlin, McCullough, Grigg (3)

League Two - Carroll

SPL - McGinn, Magennis, Mannus (3)

A-League - Hughes

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So it looks to me that the current ROI 2023 squad is at least a better squad on paper than NI was in 2016.

And although Will Grigg was "on fire" I don't think he even started much!

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Looking at the Martin O'Neill ROI team from 2016 to see how much 'better' it was to both NI 2016 and ROi 2023, should be interesting just as an overview

English Premier League - Coleman, Clark, O'Shea, Whelan, McCarthy, Hoolahan, Long, Walters, Ward, Given, Brady, Randolph, (12)

English Championship - Westwood, Keogh, McGeady, Duffy, Hendrick, Meyler, Murphy, Christie, Quinn (9)

MLS - R. Keane

Overall midtable to lower type English PL,  to higher English Championship I would say?

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So I would argue that it is more how the players are structured moulded and managed. Rather than the players themselves. A manager can make a big difference to a side.

If you want a new shirt sponsor lads, you really need to win a few games

Official: Kenny has 4 more games, this campaign and the friendly against New Zealand.

It’s depressing to see how many people actively hate a man so much that they blame him for literally everything.

Cant get a sponsor? That’s Kenny’s fault. Granny rule? Not while Kenny’s there. More difficult to qualify for the next tournament too somehow, even though we’ll be seeded just the same.

Like, we all agree he should go. But repeatedly looking for reasons to stick the boot in is a bit much.

@LuckyLloyd Apologies! I thought you were guessing, not reporting the actual decision!

We’re playing a wing back based system because we have loads of centre halves not because we have good wing backs. Our wing backs are not good. Playing a wing back system with poor wing backs is crazy.

we are playing it through the midfield completely because this is the managers’ philosophy not because we have players capable of playing through the midfield.

we have got players who could suit a kick and rush style of play in terms of pressing the opponent in their own half. Molumby, Browne, knight, ogbene all have legs to press the opponent and force mistakes and win set pieces. Our good play vs the Dutch came through this approach not through creative passing.

there is a debate to be had that right now passing in the middle is a skill beyond our players’ capability. This is not a debate you will hear much of on second captains or OTB. They’re going with we can play football, we have the players.

virgin media might be more open to embracing pragmatism.

Well Sadlier, Delaney and Didi are over the parapet now. The OTB and SC lads are going to fine it very difficult to hold the line from here. Actual football people are starting to call out the simple deficiencies with our approach, and once they start down that track they won’t be stopped.