Republic of Ireland General Discussion Thread 2024 [use match threads for games]

Decent little RTE interview with an Icelandic journo here;

the dirty secret of the Kenny era was that it was terrible to watch. Playing out from the back when unable to do so is extremely uncomfortable to witness. I honestly support the effort to do so but it was a mitigated disaster

we might be talking about this lad a lot over the coming years. 2 worldies in a forthnight. I dare say the window dressing exercise of Hallgrimsson going to dalymount would have been better if relocated to turners cross

I'd agree.

Plenty of good football was played.

Trap's era was a step below.

Exactly this.

I was never enthralled.

Way too many pointless passes in our own box, go one behind, get desperate and go long anyway.

MON **** the bed midway through that campaign. Given the start we had drawing away to Serbia and beating Austria away we really should have topped that group. The performance away to Austria was good with Wes showing his class.

Losing Coleman didn't help really. Probably made MON more cautious but even when we went 2-0 up against Moldova before 20mins, if I'm not mistaken they hadn't conceded two goals in a game that early until then. Rather than go for a third and fourth we sat back and defended. Believe Harry Arter did his dying swan impression to get someone sent off late in the game.

Then that playoff game I'd say broke him. I know we had to score two goals in that second half but MON went full harakiri with those half time changes. Gave Eriksson free reign to finish us off.

As for 2018 itself, I think that's a year in football he'll never want to remember. Thought we were getting some change up as he used 352 in some friendlies and even played Callum O'Dowda as the attacking midfielder of the trio.

Whether Rice leaving played a part in it or being the first competitive game since the 5-1 he went straight defensive against Wales. Played a crippled Walters up front in a 442 with Robinson and Wales spanked us. We made Ethan Ampadu look like Ruud Gullit that night. After that he went ultra defensive till he was sacked.

It's the Georgia game away that I remember as the turning point (although we'd already drawn at home with Austria and Wales at that point, now that I look).

We went 1-0 up after about 3 minutes and then tried to defend the lead instead of pushing on. Of course they equalised and then we didn't get going again. This 2 years before Kvaratskhelia had made his debut for Georgia, remember. Really should've pushed on and beat them.

We still finished 2nd in a group with some decent teams in it despite dropping the ball several times. We'd kill for that now.

Then the away playoff game against Denmark was possibly the worst game of football I can remember watching. A fascinating tactical battle between the Irish approach of hoofing it forward and the Danish approach of passing it around the back for a bit, and then hoofing it forward. The average bottom of the table clash in the Irish First Division is better.

And the second leg. I really don't understand what happened here. 2-1 down at Half Time and he empties the midfield. I think he left Hendrick, who's not exactly known for his holding ability, as the only central midfielder on the pitch. I guess Hoolahan was supposed to help him out? But Hoolahan had only played 1 or 2 games as a deep center mid in his Ireland career as far as I remember. And then to round it out, he failed to tie Rice down with a competitive cap.

The other worldie that Did you smash it was talking about.

It's not that the results were bad when looked at retrospectively. No the results were fine.

It's that it could've and arguably should have been better. The start we had, the ability in the team, the confidence - they were there. We should've won the group and automatically qualified. But MON seemed to lose his confidence mid way through.

It is all forgotten now, but we were one up at home in the second leg and McClean had one whistle just past the post to put us two up. Their equaliser was a bit lucky and - sure - they went for it in the second half and one of the possible outcomes of that approach happened.

Then a year later we had the ball bouncing around the box as time expired where we qualify if it goes in.

Let's hope we can get back to being in the last round of games again, because it's painful when you lose at that stage. But it's proven way more painful to simply be eliminated after the first two rounds of games.

Could see Obafemi getting a chance at Burnley now that they're back in the Championship and have a new manager. It's up to him whether he makes something of it thou.

Love to see more Irish players going to the Netherlands instead of getting stuck in English lower league doldrums. Good technical standard, easier to settle into than other European countries since most speak English, and to be honest I think culturally is a bit more likely to help young players grow up and mature a bit than England is.

Well, the trick would be to do something about it. We've spent 20 years bemoaning a lack of infrastructure and still we have a lack of infrastructure.

It's the same way with everything in this country. We accept low standards because we think that that's all we should strive for. It's infuriating.

I wouldn't hold much hope for Connolly or Obafemi. Both are 24 now, and realistically no longer considered young players and therefore not much room for improvement. Obafemi has utterly wasted the last two years of his career, after pushing for that disaster move to Burnley rather than keeping his head down and continue with that good form he displayed towards the end of the 21/22 season with Swansea. Connolly will be lucky to see out his career at Championship level, while Obafemi will be very much the same.

I wouldn't know their squad in and out but Rodriguez only scored 10 goals last time they were in the Championship and will be 35 by the time the season starts, I'd imagine he'll stay around but not start every game. Wout will certainly be on the move. I'm sure the new manager will have a look at him over pre season, no reason not to really. There's a great player in there, I'm sure they know that too, it'll be such a shame if he wastes it.

It's a good idea but not a big fan of it being closed off to non LOI players. Make it mostly an u23s team or bring back the B team. Nothing to say a domestic based player wouldn't make it. We regularly have them in the U21s squad.

We haven't held a B game since 2008. We held six in the 90s (three under Jack and three under Mick), two under Stan, and one at the end of Traps first year.

I know if it's gonna be on in January it's gonna be hard for any UK based players or others on the continent to join up. That's not to say the likes of Shels and Rovers won't block their players given it's the middle of their pre season.

Because there is no actual U23/21 Women's competitions at UEFA/FIFA level, therefore little point in Ireland having such a team. Though I've no explanation as to why UEFA/FIFA stop at U19/20.

A very commendable 0-0 draw. Excellent defensive display from the Irish and always tried positive breakaway moves when the opportunity arose. A well coached team we looked. Under the kosh from the Spanish most of the game. Lots of attempts on goal from them.

Tough group with Germany and Holland too.

HEIMIR HALLGRÍMSSON WILL meet John O’Shea in Waterford today as he aims to convince him to become his assistant manager.

And the new Republic of Ireland senior boss says that it “makes sense to me” that there will be a path for O’Shea to eventually take his job on a permanent basis.

Hallgrímsson admitted that it “takes a good character” to consider returning to the role of assistant after the former Ireland and Manchester United defender took charge on an interim basis for the last four games.

The Icelander’s surprise appointment was confirmed by the FAI after a 230-day search last Wednesday, with his contract running until the end of the 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign.

After initially chatting with O’Shea on a video call, he says he will drive to meet O’Shea today to thrash out a deal.

Hallgrímsson cited how his own route into international management with Iceland was similar, initially working as Lars Lagerbäck’s assistant for the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign before becoming joint-coaches when they reached Euro 2016 and then taking sole charge for the successful 2018 World Cup campaign.

“My way into national team coaching was exactly like that and I think the assistant coach should be the one that carries the knowledge to the next cycle and they (the FAI) have obviously shown that they believe he is going to be, or is good enough to be the coach,” Hallgrímsson said.

“So I think it’s a no-brainer, whatever happens back to me, I always say the same thing, I want to leave the shirt in a better place when I go, and to have a guy that has been doing the things with us is probably always the best one to take over, if you want continuity, growth and development.

“That kind of makes sense to me but it’s always difficult to have been the head coach and then stepping down to be assistant coach. That takes a good character to do that.”

Hallgrímsson says O’Shea is “the most important guy for me” and will “start with him and take it from there” as he puts his coaching staff in place, but as of yet he is unsure of the Waterford native’s intentions.

“I think it’s better for me to talk about it after we speak but if he wants to meet probably he’s considering. I think it’s more positive than negative.”

Not totally against the idea of succession plans. Think it's always a good idea for Irish coaches to be involved with the national team. Even if said coach doesn't directly replace the manager in the end

But not a fan of all this talk about O'Shea being involved given how hard some pushed for him to be given the job. This week already had Keith Treacy bemoaning the fact O'Shea was overlooked. Would have to read Kilbane's article again but think he came off as negative with Hallgrimsson appointment.

No idea where this love for JOS is coming from. He's career has been basically jumping from failure to failure.

John seems like a lovely man, but he does need to go and actually manage and learn the ropes.

I really wish they asked John what he thought about all this first tbh. Having the conversation in public is a bit odd.

FAI might finally get their preferred target in the dugout for opening game of the Nations League. Just he might be in the English dugout.

So Southgate has stepped down as England manager and the FA have said they've got an interim solution in place if needed. Might get Hallgrimsson vs Carsley in Dublin.