Ireland v Greece 10.09.2024 Match Thread - UEFA Nations League

Exactly. It doesn’t matter what shite gets served up now, there’ll be an element of “shur it was better than games under Kenny”. Those 2 games absolutely weren’t. Pure and utter muck in both of them.

So who should be in the squad next time? I'd agree Doherty Brady Coleman should be out, also Browne and arguably Idah.

Sad thing is San Marino knows they are sht. So many in Ireland are still so delusional.

We had one half decent chance that Browne drove over and nothing else. The other thing to remember is that a football match consists of two halves and we were dreadful in the second half.

Our lowest point was Cyprus 18 years ago.

We have still a bit to go to reach those depths again.

I remember I think Mick getting lambasted for not picking Doherty over Coleman because of his Wolves form.

Hes always had the positioning sense of a pigeon with absolutely no interest in ever actually getting into the correct position or even pretending to keep any sort of shape. He was possibly the most overated player of this generation (that actually played).

He's not been good, but it was disgraceful that he was getting boo'ed when being brought on tonight.

That was away from home.

Luxembourg came to the Aviva 3 years a go and beat us quite comfortably 1 - 0. Hardly gets lower than that.

Sadly very true. We just huff and puff, sometimes exciting. Never look like scoring, always look dodgy at the back. Inevitable bad pass or missed tackle and another demoralising defeat. I just don't know where we go from here.

Doherty could easily have gotten back to nick the ball for that second Greek goal tonight but for some reason he decided a casual jog was the better option.

Game of 2 halves in my opinion.

First half the team put on a good shift, pressed well and allowed very little space to Greece. Stats were saying only one shot on target for Greece - if I recall correctly that was a Kelleher save on a free kick and I don't think it was even going in.

Second half very poor. As soon as Greece scored, heads dropped. I think this is a big issue that the new manager needs to address urgently, improve the mentality of the team. Because I think improving the creativity of the team will be a much harder task.

I honestly think the first half performance should be part of the process to improve results. Find a formation that works and stick to that formation and press the opponent as much as possible. Surely it won't be pretty football, but getting any results is important as it might boost the team psychologically and improve performances. This was the template that Otto Rehhagel used to lead Greece to the 2004 Euro triumph. I'm conscious that football has changed a lot in the last 20 years. But everything else tried the last few years hasn't really worked, so probably no harm in trying something different.

Was it 300 euro for 2 tickets for each game ?

About 75 euro a ticket?

That's true about the bounce Kenny got in support for the start of his tenure.

The crowds came back and there was optimism.

But I think Kenny's tenure itself drained that optimism and the long process of hiring a manager and then getting someone no one has heard of did nothing to bring the hype back.

The problem for irish football is that it has always neglected grass roots and relied on english clubs to take any young talent and develop them.

Big change needed. Start with an all Ireland league set up and try to appeal it to all social demographics not just the working class like LOI. One big dublin north side club and one big south side club. Belfast has two aswell one for the nationlists and one for the unionists ( got to play that riverly off another) and then a few other clubs scattered around like Cork Limerick and Derry. Try to have a maximum of 10 clubs in league to keep quality higher like the way Scotland does it. Ireland has 7m people now. That is more than Scotland 5m and similar to Switzerland and Austria. But are league is sh*te compared to thiers.

With England in group there is little to no chance we were going to qualify to league A. Finland are also terrible so we might not even get relegated from this group.

I thought Ireland were not as sh!te as I thought they would be overall.

This HH seems to have a good sensible head on his shoulders, he seems like an honest and direct sort of fella.

The only way is up. But I think this Ireland squad needs a psychologist and not just a sports one. They seem like they are suffering from PTSD after Kenny.

I also think HH should start thinking about dumping some of these underperforming bigger names. Ironically the only success from the Kenny tenure IMO was Ogbene. Kenny basically made his career. A great success.

I would rather have HH play lads from the lower leagues than constant underpreformers from the EPL or English Championship. Fellas that have some "go" about them.

The team also seems very fragile there are no leaders, surely there are some leaders with bite and fight (nevermind skill) able to play for Ireland? Those are the types required I think.

I think that the base for a good defensive system and effective attack revolves around the midfield.

So regardless of the good attacking and defensive players we have, there isn't enough aggression and drive in midfield.

And by aggression I don't mean flying in to tackles recklessly I mean been able to get around the park to support defense and attack with real conviction.

None of our midfielders offer that (Molumby at a push, but even he is limited)

I don't know if or how this issue can be fixed

Glenn makes a good point. The big problem with the match last night was the the heads of a few players dropped after we went 1-0 down. Hallgrimsson himself alluded to this in the post-match interview.

Can't be having that.

These are professional footballers who are playing at a decent level, they were 1-0 down against a team who hadn't been particularly impressive. I don't think it was unreasonable to have expected more from some of them.

I am kind of glad we had this sort of game early on in Hallgrimsson's reign. At least now he'll be confronted directly with some of the problems. There's a few things that he will be able to have an impact on. Firstly, he's going to need to cobble together a team of committed players who want to be out there and won't hide. Secondly he's going to need to be able to rebuild the confidence levels of the lads. We've Finland next month, it's a lot to ask for but let's see what he can do.

Any league on this island will never be popular because you have the UK and Europe on your doorstep, and all the talk of merged teams and merged leagues will not change that.

The best you can hope for is that LOI clubs develop young players to a high enough standard that it becomes a valuable shop window for the bigger leagues.

And I think they have come on in leaps and bounds doing that in the last few decades.

A lot more international players are spending longer in the LOI than ever before.

But then again the national team has gone to pot over the same period, so I'm not sure if it's doing any good.

We are in a false group.

We aren't at that level. Probably deserve to be down 1 more league.

The game v Finland will tell us a lot. I think we are at their level, and perhaps a draw will confirm this.

Completely agree - Shels wouldnt even share a ground with Bohs - so how are we going to have one big Dublin club.

Plus, its a bit of an insult to LoI and Irish League fans to say - yeah lets rip this whole thing up that you love, just so that maybe the national team will get a bit better (or maybe it wont).

Even a consolidated league would still be far smaller than the Greek league, or the Czech league.

Our single biggest 'advantage' is our proximity to England - thats what we need to leverage. Build stronger connections with the top clubs there (our whichever clubs are interested).

I did like some of the changes Halgrimsson (I assume because Sheasy wasn't changing anything) made.

The formation was much better suited to us.

Omobamidele RB was adequate tbf but I wouldn't try it again. He could be seen as a full back option but should stay central, I'd like to see O'Shea out full instead.

Other side Brady was fine he was good at pressing high - possibly too agressive at times and was lucky to stay on the pitch.

I'd like to see Brady with Robinson infront of him. I thought Knight wide was a stupid idea under Kenny and its still stupid now. We have wingers use them put Knight #10.

Even if McAteer and Johnston are to be held on the bench until the second half just start Robinson. Knight is just wasted out wide, and doesn't offer anything from there imo

Ferguson should not have been called up this window. I'm really getting somewhat worried he'll be back in the LOI in a few years a broken shell. Hes either been "injured" or "recovering" for the last 12 - 18 months. Hes too young for that theres no way thats going to stand to him and is surely just shortening his career at this stage.

I said before as inept as Kenny was the long range shots were not his fault. Its also not Bazunu (or even Kellehers) last night. Post-Whelan there hasn't been a DM in the squad. All our midfielders are game and will chase and put in a shift but they don't have the actual positional sense to fill at DM and that gaping hole is always there for an opposition player to fill and get his shot away. Frustrating but it is what it is.

Doherty shouldn't be called up again. Idah shouldn't start for us, hes an off the bench option but certainly not a starter again. Coleman can be in squads as captain if he wishes but no play time.