Republic of Ireland V Azerbaijan - Saturday, 4th Sep 2021 - 2022 World Cup Qualifier

[texidub]

Mentality is a big factor. A lot of young players with limited experience in the team. Easy to get up for a game against Portugal as a freehit, but you have to be beating the likes of AZ.

I want Kenny to succeed, but with so many young players in the team it might be time to look at someone w/ more experience at a higher level,. I have the feeling that Kenny is overawed by the whole international football thing just as much as the young fellas. (Kerr, by contrast, didn't seem overawed, so it's not necessarily a LOI thing, but a mentality thing).

[Bielsa´s irish]

Mentality is a big factor. A lot of young players with limited experience in the team. Easy to get up for a game against Portugal as a freehit, but you have to be beating the likes of AZ.

I want Kenny to succeed, but with so many young players in the team it might be time to look at someone w/ more experience at a higher level,. I have the feeling that Kenny is overawed by the whole international football thing just as much as the young fellas. (Kerr, by contrast, didn't seem overawed, so it's not necessarily a LOI thing, but a mentality thing).

agree... the thing is the following I happened to read your newspapers and there are some darts from PAUL MCGRATH AND DUNNE. that's understandable players that had won prestige over the last 30 years or so, dont want to get all that they have done go in despair and in vain.

Dunne makes a point about improvement needs to be alongside points on the board, that is very italian mindset from an irish but thats true, the little Trapattoni in him. I say if ireland had played from the same level of determination they did in the last 25 minutes, they yes, would have won it 4-0 but that wasnt a case. I guess there were some stage fright in connolly and parrott no so much with Idah, but Idah needs a #9 alongside him to cause havoc,

Football is a cruel old game, when you forgive that much as the irish did they could punish you, what I dont like about this mindset is that the "patience", no dont need that we must play with urgency with accuracy but with urgency like in the last 25 minutes.

The campaign was already over with that Luxemburg result tbh, Serbia match we should have got a penalty, in Portugal the ref ripped the team off, and yesterday it was the national team fault and the coach because he selects the players.

The grass football that he tries to implement goes with rush and urgency, accuracy ok, is not different as the way the ajax from the 90 played 3-3-1-3 . we played a a good system but we needed older heads upfront. kids will never save you your neck. they will become better if a structure is working right, weve got the spine for the team now

the defence and the new Glenn Whelan (Cullen) i will play James McCarthy next to him, and some other guy to float around (mcgrath brady carey hourihane ?) and two strikers one young and the other one a veteran, a seasones guy like Sheridan or Collins or Hogan anyone woth more than 150 games played at least.

we are getting better but then a drawback and a disillusion

well this disillusion must stop thats why McGrath and Dunne threw darts to Kenny yesterday. People deserves better than this. Start vs Serbia as we finished vs them there is no other way out, no patience no more, go get them by the scruff of their neck.

We argentina are improving with the pressure of course accuracy is key play it in triagles and diagonals but we try to rush them to put them under pressure to force them to make mistakes. the 3 kids couldnt cope with the pressure strategy or maybe that wasnt the instruction that is madness

[Bielsa´s irish]

it time for the Stapletons Galvins Morans and Aldridges to talk about this. I agree for the youngsters of today the so called the millenials generation there is an extra motivation to beat these glamour teams with guys like Pepe and Ronaldo, but they have to get dirt to beat the minnows maybe semiprofesionals players. Shane Long and James McCarthy out was a big hit for Ireland in my opinion.

[Bielsa´s irish]

thats why when some of you say Shane Long is old and cant score whatever they say, but this guy is needed today to lead by example, he played scored and won with Ireland same as James McCarthy and McClean Coleman, we need the kids but we shouldnt rush them. It was exposed that Idah needs another big 9 to move around, well play with another 9.

who plays in the hole? McGrath Robinson Hourhihane Hendrick Carey Byrne Crowley Johansson Ronan? Connolly?

[pineapple stu]

Very hard to find any positives from this.
I suppose if you were pushed for a positive, it'd be that we had 21 shots (per UEFA; other sites may differ). The Luxembourg disaster had 11 shots. So against a slightly worse team, we did at least record twice as many shots, but we have no-one who can score, and that's been a growing problem for years now.

I agree that the nature of the play was predictable and that there was none of the guile Kenny was trying to bring in (eg the well-worked opener in Serbia), but then, this is a really bad squad.

That's about the only positive I can really take out of the game tbh

[Straightstory]

Tuesday: five minutes away from Ireland’s best ever result in World Cup or Euros qualifying history.
Saturday: five minutes away from Ireland’s worst ever result in World Cup or Euros qualifying history.
It’s a funny old game...

[Bielsa´s irish]

There is no chance we beat Serbia. The are on the high we are down. Unless we play with no pressure. And go for it. With the chance they pegged as back. Actually i think serbia is gonna play this way

[DeLorean]

There'll be a few lads leaving foot.ie en mass tomorrow. Reputation in tatters. Some saw serbia as some sort of apocalypse and we lost to lux. Some saw Portugal as a superb performance and we draw with Azerbaijan. Hear ye hear ye. This is just awful. What more embarassment do you want upon your country, your team?

What posters are you talking about (wumming) specifically? I felt that the general perception was that the good performance in Portugal wouldn't count for much unless it was backed up yesterday. Clearly that hasn't come to pass.

Is it not normal to praise a good performance and those involved just as it is to be critical of the opposite? Or should everybody just refrain from posting until the block of matches are completed and analyse them all together?


Kenny's reaction was a bit embarrassing too Bourne out of desperation. For all the defending of him and his style of play we're still relying on set pieces and crosses.

I thought Stephen Kenny had abandoned set pieces?

[Bielsa´s irish]

Nobody says that McClean recovered the ball between two rivals and placed it to Cullen McClean is the least of the worries in that role. He is usted as scapegoat maybe because he talks polítics and football people avoid hot topics.

[paul_oshea]

What posters are you talking about (wumming) specifically? I felt that the general perception was that the good performance in Portugal wouldn't count for much unless it was backed up yesterday. Clearly that hasn't come to pass.

Is it not normal to praise a good performance and those involved just as it is to be critical of the opposite? Or should everybody just refrain from posting until the block of matches are completed and analyse them all together?



I thought Stephen Kenny had abandoned set pieces?

He appeared to at the start yes but as said he's slowly morphing us back into the way we were, it's the only way we've been able to get us goals. There's little change , only desperation and poorer results.

I think someone used the word "superb" about Portugal? Someone also said something similar around the time of Serbia away but also that it only mattered if we went out and outplayed and beat Luxembourg - which we also didn't do

[DeLorean]

He appeared to at the start yes but as said he's slowly morphing us back into the way we were, it's the only way we've been able to get us goals. There's little change , only desperation and poorer results.

I think someone used the word "superb" about Portugal? Someone also said something similar around the time of Serbia away but also that it only mattered if we went out and outplayed and beat Luxembourg - which we also didn't do


So you're not even going to tell us who you're wumming? The names of these few posters who should retire from foot.ie en masse for the crime of believing we played superbly in a match.

[Stuttgart88]



Jeez, that was painful. After a really bright start I thought we were looking at 3-0 at one point but everything just went flat and directionless after 10-15 mins.

Doc had an awful first half, way below his performance on Wednesday. Connolly was a passenger and McClean remains the most one-dimensional footballer I’ve seen at this level. Molumby is functional at best. Coleman is wasted at CB. Sure he can defend well but against a team set up to defend we really need his energy out wide. Poor selection for an opponent of this standing.

It’s hard to see where SK expected the creativity to come from. If it was to be from Parrott then he was badly mistaken. One smart back heel and a half decent shot was all he contributed.

I thought the approach needed changing as early as 30 minutes in.

Horgan started really well and enthusiastically sought the ball but his early influence waned and he became increasingly careless. He and Hourihane’s misplaced or overhit passes were infuriating. Our crosses were dreadful. If this Chelsea fella Barry is working on set pieces it didn’t show.

Robinson should have been on earlier, probably from the start. He looked closest to scoring. 90 mins in the pitch and you’d think one of his chances would have gone in.

I don’t think there was any necessity for 3 at the back and it cost us a body further up. If the whole purpose of SK’s “revolution” is to have us playing better ball then I don’t see how relying solely on width - and James McClean - is in any way progressive. He has overlooked the need for an advanced playmaker for most of his tenure. I don’t see how he can achieve what he says he wants to achieve without one. Otherwise it’ll always be huff and puff, work the ball out wide, at home anyway.

This was really really bad, again. I’m not sure it’s any worse than Gibraltar x2 or Armenia really, performance-wise. We actually should have scored (Molumby, Coleman, Idah header(s), Duffy first chance…) which I don’t really remember from McCarthy’s worst games.

I thought Kenny deserved credit for Wednesday, but I think he has to take a lot of the flak for yesterday. I watched him and Andrews from the middle tier / block 520 and thought they were too passive. I’d have been screaming at the players to increase the tempo from quite early on.

As my mate said after Duffy’s header salvaged a late draw, the more things change the more they stay the same.

[Stuttgart88]

So you're not even going to tell us who you're wumming? The names of these few posters who should retire from foot.ie en masse for the crime of believing we played superbly in a match.
Good luck waiting for a reply. He still owes me one from the Bulgaria game. Tied himself up in knots over being called out for blatant wumming and then he just took himself off rather than answer.

[CraftyToePoke]

So you're not even going to tell us who you're wumming? The names of these few posters who should retire from foot.ie en masse for the crime of believing we played superbly in a match.

Its me he's wumming. Or trying in his own special, and kinda sad way to anyway. And its stemming from things said not on here but elsewhere.

Things I'm fine with having said also.

Carry on lads.

[liamoo11]

Why would he change the wing backs from Portugal. They were both brilliant. He took away Coleman as attacking threat and put in McClean who gives the ball away all the time. That was the start of the issues. Then after 20 mins we could see 3 up top wasn't working. Idah needed a man beside him. Game was crying out for a bit of cleverness in midfield. Jamie McGrath left on bench! Taking off Connolly at ht for Horgan was mind blowing. It was doubling down on what wasn't working rather than using Connolly off Idah. Hourihane needs to stop being picked for squads, he's a waste of a jersey. We actually improved when Collins came on, because he was a 2nd striker that we needed




Jeez, that was painful. After a really bright start I thought we were looking at 3-0 at one point but everything just went flat and directionless after 10-15 mins.

Doc had an awful first half, way below his performance on Wednesday. Connolly was a passenger and McClean remains the most one-dimensional footballer I’ve seen at this level. Molumby is functional at best. Coleman is wasted at CB. Sure he can defend well but against a team set up to defend we really need his energy out wide. Poor selection for an opponent of this standing.

It’s hard to see where SK expected the creativity to come from. If it was to be from Parrott then he was badly mistaken. One smart back heel and a half decent shot was all he contributed.

I thought the approach needed changing as early as 30 minutes in.

Horgan started really well and enthusiastically sought the ball but his early influence waned and he became increasingly careless. He and Hourihane’s misplaced or overhit passes were infuriating. Our crosses were dreadful. If this Chelsea fella Barry is working on set pieces it didn’t show.

Robinson should have been on earlier, probably from the start. He looked closest to scoring. 90 mins in the pitch and you’d think one of his chances would have gone in.

I don’t think there was any necessity for 3 at the back and it cost us a body further up. If the whole purpose of SK’s “revolution” is to have us playing better ball then I don’t see how relying solely on width - and James McClean - is in any way progressive. He has overlooked the need for an advanced playmaker for most of his tenure. I don’t see how he can achieve what he says he wants to achieve without one. Otherwise it’ll always be huff and puff, work the ball out wide, at home anyway.

This was really really bad, again. I’m not sure it’s any worse than Gibraltar x2 or Armenia really, performance-wise. We actually should have scored (Molumby, Coleman, Idah header(s), Duffy first chance…) which I don’t really remember from McCarthy’s worst games.

I thought Kenny deserved credit for Wednesday, but I think he has to take a lot of the flak for yesterday. I watched him and Andrews from the middle tier / block 520 and thought they were too passive. I’d have been screaming at the players to increase the tempo from quite early on.

As my mate said after Duffy’s header salvaged a late draw, the more things change the more they stay the same.

Parrott is never comfortable out wide even at 21s level cause he has no.pace and no tricks . To be effective he needs to play centrally so he can use the skills he has. Connolly is similar he is not a winger he is a central striker even by his own admission. If yiu stuck idah out wide and parrott or Connolly central idah definitely wouldn't have been winning man of the match awards

Horgan terrible at this level as headless as mcclean without mccleans experience and physicality.

I agree there has been no attempt to find someone to be that creative player in a midfield three other than mcgrath who then was left out for the game where creativity was actually going to be needed to break down an opponent. The only other player s I can see in the squad who potentially can be a creative player in a midfield 3 behind a front 2 at home against a team we are going to try to break down is Robinson or parrott.

[paul_oshea]

Good luck waiting for a reply. He still owes me one from the Bulgaria game. Tied himself up in knots over being called out for blatant wumming and then he just took himself off rather than answer.

I didn't I was banned for a week :)

Not you del don't worry possibly stu, kingdom and crafty though :P

Agree about Robinson he's the only bit of creative intuition and flair we have up front. Perhaps he wasn't fit enough to play the full 90. I think taking off Connolly at half time spoke volumes, Kenny's learning something's the hard way it's just a pity that Horgan's influence in games is only a quarter. I do not see what we were trying to do yesterday speaking to lots after the games and the general opinion was no intelligent play and no one willing to do it, there was time and again a chance for a through ball to take the defender out of the game and they went to the touchline as the man with the furthest opposition player away from him. That was McLean 90% of the time right on the touchline well away from the endline , rinse and repeat. If you're going to be brave at your own box then be brave up on the oppositions box too

Great to be back at the game from the stands you see so much more. Egans movement is great he's like the fulcrum. Cullen does serious work off the ball. I think Doherty still had the sh1ts, he was very slow and laboured Maybe he has covid

[Kingdom]

Got forbid I should take myself away from foot forever, I may post something quick just in case.
I’d an excellent seat, as perfect as I could ask for, to see our shape.
Dunno how many posters were at the game, but things were off during the warm up. Sloppy and downright poor.

I saw certain things during the game that alarmed me, from the youngsters (Connolly) from senior pros (Coleman and Duffy) and from Kenny.

I don’t think sacking him is the answer, nor him resigning, but the writing is on the wall. The tide has definitely turned.

The only reason I can think Josh Cullen didn’t get MOTM was because of the Azeri goal. Aside from that he was our best player by a country mile. Idah had a really good game too.
I’ll expand on the above properly, when I’m back at a laptop, but the last golden nugget I have is that based on yday, we’ve about 10k core Irish fans. The rest don’t give a ****.

[paul_oshea]

I think most there did to be fair but it does speak volumes the "love" for the national team when they couldn't even sell it out. There's very little interest in the national team because we have been so poor the last year and a half and results have been so bad. I disagree about the start the movement and communication and the want of the ball was great for the first 10 minutes maybe 15, but after that the tempo dropped massively and we became a bit complacent, I think that's down to Kenny he seems to just think we can feel our way to a win because we've created chances and we'll just score. He can't keep coming out banging the drum and saying how great we are , it's worrying he clearly believes it too. Also of giving youth a chance why does he persist playing hourihane he is awful? The formation and personnel was clear he'd wanted his best 11 fresh and ready for Serbia but it backfired yesterday.

Not wumming crafty, what I think is sad is you can't see what's right in front of you that we all see and still clinging to something that's not even visible in the far away distance beyond the hills anymore. But sure look when all you have is a hammer everything (looks like )becomes a nail.

Idah was good but he's too often taking himself away from goal instead of taking a touch towards goal and opening up the space in front of him. It's an area I hope the coaches at Norwich work on :)

Oh ya and why was Egan playing as a centre forward for 30 mins last night

[Stuttgart88]

I didn't I was banned for a week :)you were banned for not answering a straightforward question. You played dumb saying you didn’t know what was being asked despite a clear question and the relevant posts being provided for you.

[paul_oshea]

Solid result. Green shoots. Keep building for the Euros.

You're taking the Michael right? :)

[paul_oshea]

you were banned for not answering a straightforward question. You played dumb saying you didn’t know what was being asked despite a clear question and the relevant posts being provided for you.

Sorry stutts send it on there whichever post it was in the thread and I'll have a look!

[CraftyToePoke]

Not wumming crafty, what I think is sad is you can't see what's right in front of you that we all see and still clinging to something that's not even visible in the far away distance beyond the hills anymore. But sure look when all you have is a hammer everything (looks like )becomes a nail.

What I see is a team I enjoy watching more that the previous two managers ones, for their failings.

I see a team making chance after chance which I refuse to cheap blame a manager for the players missing.

I see inconsistency of young players, a given in the game. Again not something to lay at a managers door.

You seem keen to speak of a general consensus, and the ' we all see ' - its almost as though you've been shunned in some way, exiled, and are hurting from that.

Its only a game Paul, a game of football, after all. Its equally funny you seem to believe reputations are forged and lost on this insignificant little corner of the www. Perhaps that's why you never say anything till the coast is clear.

Looking forward to Tuesday here in Crafty land, another game of football to enjoy. Just a game of ball ....

[paul_oshea]

What I see is a team I enjoy watching more that the previous two managers ones, for their failings.

I see a team making chance after chance which I refuse to cheap blame a manager for the players missing.

I see inconsistency of young players, a given in the game. Again not something to lay at a managers door.

You seem keen to speak of a general consensus, and the ' we all see ' - its almost as though you've been shunned in some way, exiled, and are hurting from that.

Its only a game Paul, a game of football, after all. Its equally funny you seem to believe reputations are forged and lost on this insignificant little corner of the www. Perhaps that's why you never say anything till the coast is clear.

Looking forward to Tuesday here in Crafty land, another game of football to enjoy. Just a game of ball ....

That's very refreshing to hear and the honesty , and yes you're right probably fairly obvious to be fair but for you it's not that big of a thing, it's a passing interest take it or leave it. Enjoying being entertained by something on the box. For me and I feel most others on here, certainly those i go to games with that's just not the case hence why I travel all over and post on foot cos it's, I won't say all consuming, a biG chunk of my spare time around the international team/window. We all have different interest and we all spend varying times and money on those, some more than others depending on what it means to them. I guess you have your music or whatever for that , for me it's the Ireland national team , still a healthy obsession - just about :D

I await your ole ole tired cliche :P

On the players thing you have it or you dont , you show it fairly early on, look at keane against Argentina or whatever , you just knew he had it. Duff too. Idah aside ( and at present all he is is another Kevin Doyle, in terms of what he offers bar the goals) I'm not seeing these glimpses to suggest anything more than what we already have. Of course it would be great if I'm wrong and we start to see that

[Stuttgart88]

Sorry stutts send it on there whichever post it was in the thread and I'll have a look!Last posts in the Bulgaria match thread.

[Calcio Jack]

Nobody says that McClean recovered the ball between two rivals and placed it to Cullen McClean is the least of the worries in that role. He is usted as scapegoat maybe because he talks polítics and football people avoid hot topics.

Against Portugal McClean was responsible for their first goal by ‘selling’ himself and failing to block the cross- a few mins later he messed up a decent chance.

Yesterday the ‘highlight’ of his mediocrity was getting blown up for a foul throw- he’s simply useless at this stage ( previously was useless and liable to get red carded for dangerous aggressive tackling and mouthing off at officials )

Nothing to do with his politics he’s just a crap footballer and many here wonder why Kenny can’t see that..

[Stuttgart88]

Just saw wales' injury time winner in Belarus. Waxy goal, weak shot and bad goalkeeping. You need breaks in football too. It was Bale's third too. Handy to have a player like that.

[backstothewall]

McClean used to have the pace to get into some space and deliver a decent cross, and generally harass the opposition when we were out of possession. He just doesn't have the legs for that game anymore. He either attempts to take on the fullback and ends up losing possession, or tries to cross earlier from a deeper postion, but that ball just isn't as dangerous.

[CraftyToePoke]

That's very refreshing to hear and the honesty , and yes you're right probably fairly obvious to be fair but for you it's not that big of a thing, it's a passing interest take it or leave it. Enjoying being entertained by something on the box. For me and I feel most others on here, certainly those i go to games with that's just not the case hence why I travel all over and post on foot cos it's, I won't say all consuming, a biG chunk of my spare time around the international team/window. We all have different interest and we all spend varying times and money on those, some more than others depending on what it means to them. I guess you have your music or whatever for that , for me it's the Ireland national team , still a healthy obsession - just about :D

I wouldn't say that, no. I watch all Ireland games, membership at Treaty who I have yet to even see play, had the same at Limerick FC. I watch non league, league and premiership in England where I live, go to a game most weeks particularly if there is one of our lads involved, I'd often post what I see on here. I believe I did so about Josh Cullens debut for Bradford some years ago for example, about how impressive he was, so it's nice to see him doing well down the line. Basically I love the game, and the Irish team most of all in the game, its a daily thing and has been since I was eleven or so.

What I don't do however is adopt a middle ground say nothing wait & see position & then launch bile at people down the line, as you have. Even then had you predicted this ( which you steadfastly refused to do ) all this is is a managerial tenure struggling in football, so its hardly visionary. Its everyday stuff.

If that is the measure of fandom to you, of what a supporter should be, I think you have misjudged & you can definitely have it, all to yourself.

So cling to the fact that you are at the games, its just a pity you are there for what seems to me to be a void elsewhere in your journey through this life, and this manifests in an ugly way to an extent that people prefer to move away from you.

Looking forward to Tuesday & good luck to the team, our team and our manager. Ireland.

[paul_oshea]

No need to spell out your footballing credentials for me or your season ticket membership crafty :)

I still go to the games home and away with the same people, offering similar views on football we see. It's good to see others opinions even if they are wildly off and/or inaccurate. You'll always get some nuggets that you might have missed or not picked up on while there.

[MylesNotMiley]

Just saw wales' injury time winner in Belarus. Waxy goal, weak shot and bad goalkeeping. You need breaks in football too. It was Bale's third too. Handy to have a player like that.

Did you see the foul for Wales' second penalty?

How it was given and the barge into the back of Connolly against Portugal wasn't, I'll never know!!

[John83]

Lads, maybe knock off the ad hominem bullshirt and discuss the game, however painful that may be?

Yesterday just reaffirmed what I've thought since Luxembourg: Kenny's not right for this. I backed him to that point, but if you keep losing to bad teams, then you're an extremely bad team. Using elo ratings, the 15 games under Kenny have a performance rating almost exactly equal to the current rating of Bulgaria, 84th in the world. That's where Kenny has us. That's where our seeding is sliding towards.

Bad as this squad is, it's not that bad, but I don't see any coherence in how we try to attack. For all his fine talk, it was crosses from McClean and Horgan that made most of the half chances yesterday. Horgan at least seemed to have a bit of life about him.

McClean didn't look at the races. Maybe there's some caveat to that in that his preseason was interrupted by a club move, dropping a division after being told he was finished at his club. Maybe he'll be a little better next window, but I'm coming around to the idea that he's not all that. Molumby didn't look up to it. I'm a little worried about Coleman. He stood off his man for a footballing age to let him get the shot away for the goal. What was he thinking? He lost Ronaldo the other night too, and for all that I dismissed that as just a function of Ronaldo being nigh unmarkable, I'm inclined to worry that Coleman is getting old. Or, like McClean, maybe he's just off the boil. Anyway, you think about these things when you draw to a team outside the top 100 in the world. Azerbaijan are crap, so crap that we rarely play teams of that ilk: Moldova, Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, ... they're better than the Andorras, the Faroes, and the Gibraltars, but that's not saying much.

Cullen remains a bright spot, as do Duffy and Egan. I wish I had more to say, but we drew with Azerbaijan. They're awful. So are we.

[Stuttgart88]

Did you see the foul for Wales' second penalty?

How it was given and the barge into the back of Connolly against Portugal wasn't, I'll never know!!no, didn’t see.

[Bielsa´s irish]

Did you see the tv. Bolsonaro stopped Argentina vs Brasil. The want to put the team in jail

[paul_oshea]

Lads, maybe knock off the ad hominem bullshirt and discuss the game, however painful that may be?

Yesterday just reaffirmed what I've thought since Luxembourg: Kenny's not right for this. I backed him to that point, but if you keep losing to bad teams, then you're an extremely bad team. Using elo ratings, the 15 games under Kenny have a performance rating almost exactly equal to the current rating of Bulgaria, 84th in the world. That's where Kenny has us. That's where our seeding is sliding towards.

Bad as this squad is, it's not that bad, but I don't see any coherence in how we try to attack. For all his fine talk, it was crosses from McClean and Horgan that made most of the half chances yesterday. Horgan at least seemed to have a bit of life about him.

McClean didn't look at the races. Maybe there's some caveat to that in that his preseason was interrupted by a club move, dropping a division after being told he was finished at his club. Maybe he'll be a little better next window, but I'm coming around to the idea that he's not all that. Molumby didn't look up to it. I'm a little worried about Coleman. He stood off his man for a footballing age to let him get the shot away for the goal. What was he thinking? He lost Ronaldo the other night too, and for all that I dismissed that as just a function of Ronaldo being nigh unmarkable, I'm inclined to worry that Coleman is getting old. Or, like McClean, maybe he's just off the boil. Anyway, you think about these things when you draw to a team outside the top 100 in the world. Azerbaijan are crap, so crap that we rarely play teams of that ilk: Moldova, Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, ... they're better than the Andorras, the Faroes, and the Gibraltars, but that's not saying much.

Cullen remains a bright spot, as do Duffy and Egan. I wish I had more to say, but we drew with Azerbaijan. They're awful. So are we.

Coleman's injured so maybe that had something to do with it. But ya agreed generally and about him losing Ronaldo too. I'm very worried no matter how good we get , if it even happened which is the main reason for keeping Kenny on, we'll struggle to get up the seedings and just be out of contention because too many "good " teams above us.

Good being the likes of Austria , Norway's etc. Not that good but a level or two above us under Kenny

[pineapple stu]

Using elo ratings, the 15 games under Kenny have a performance rating almost exactly equal to the current rating of Bulgaria, 84th in the world.
Belarus, not Bulgaria

[John83]

Belarus, not Bulgaria
Thanks, yes; slip of the tongue.

[geysir]

Lads, maybe knock off the ad hominem bullshirt and discuss the game, however painful that may be?

Yesterday just reaffirmed what I've thought since Luxembourg: Kenny's not right for this. I backed him to that point, but if you keep losing to bad teams, then you're an extremely bad team. Using elo ratings, the 15 games under Kenny have a performance rating almost exactly equal to the current rating of Bulgaria, 84th in the world. That's where Kenny has us. That's where our seeding is sliding towards.

Bad as this squad is, it's not that bad, but I don't see any coherence in how we try to attack. For all his fine talk, it was crosses from McClean and Horgan that made most of the half chances yesterday. Horgan at least seemed to have a bit of life about him.

McClean didn't look at the races. Maybe there's some caveat to that in that his preseason was interrupted by a club move, dropping a division after being told he was finished at his club. Maybe he'll be a little better next window, but I'm coming around to the idea that he's not all that. Molumby didn't look up to it. I'm a little worried about Coleman. He stood off his man for a footballing age to let him get the shot away for the goal. What was he thinking? He lost Ronaldo the other night too, and for all that I dismissed that as just a function of Ronaldo being nigh unmarkable, I'm inclined to worry that Coleman is getting old. Or, like McClean, maybe he's just off the boil. Anyway, you think about these things when you draw to a team outside the top 100 in the world. Azerbaijan are crap, so crap that we rarely play teams of that ilk: Moldova, Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, ... they're better than the Andorras, the Faroes, and the Gibraltars, but that's not saying much.

Cullen remains a bright spot, as do Duffy and Egan. I wish I had more to say, but we drew with Azerbaijan. They're awful. So are we.

Even to this day we have Irish fans condescendingly refer to 'bad teams' at intl level as if Ireland were supposed to be a notch or two higher. Not an excuse for not beating them but AZ are not a bad team, they were actually unfortunate not to win, they provided more creativity on the ball in attack than we ever did, they were very well organised, were better prepared for this game and neutered us. Their goal aced ours. Why are they so disrespected?
The Faroes, who you also call a crap team, last night they played Denmark and gave them one hell of a game to a packed stadium that rocked. Surreal to to see Danish players diving left right and centre playing against the Faroes. I take it you don't watch that much intl football but are just spouting cliches. The Faroes have developed their football potential and it's still a work in process, they do their upmost to develop their technical game. They are an intl team which represents 50k people on a few rocks in the North Atlantic and despite that they managed to get themselves promoted to the third div in the Nations League. 'Pound for pound' the Faroes leave Ireland in the dust, football wise Ireland is not fit to lick their boots.

[Kingdom]

Selection was wrong, some substitutions were wrong. When you see the mistakes McClean made vs PT, compare the improvements with Doherty and Coleman as WB, surely your gut tells you the change to make is not the change he made yday! Seeing McClean on the teamsheet sucked the life out of me. What he did during the 90 mins was totally predictable. Assuming McGrath was rotated for Serbia, with the idea that we'd have enough about us to beat Az (with most of the ball) - that's a fair call - but it was the wrong call. Molumby and Cullen are different players offering the same thing - energy, destruction and defensive cover. Cullen's passing range has improved immeasurably, but isn't a schemer. Molumby will never be a schemer. We didn't need both of them.

The Warm up was poor, and sloppy. They finished with - an almost child like routine - whereby player sets up outside the box, rolls the coach, and shoots from the edge of the area. Few scored, few hit the target. Serbia x2, Luxembourg, Azerbaijan - all goals conceded from shooting from distance - we simply don't do it, and from what I can see don't have the players (Hourihane aside to do it).

Sometimes you need a bit of luck, sometimes you make your own luck. We do neither. Parrot was arguably coming into the game more when he was taken off. Horgan was poor when he came on, albeit his crossing was the best of the lot. Hourihane did very little, and the best of the players introduced (albeit for little more than a cameo) was James Collins - not rated - yet his finest contributions came winning the ball out wide, in midfield, and on the press - none of the places we needed him to be! Robinson showed that he should have started. He wasn't without fault, but he was central to most good elements of our play.

Problems for us:
- vision: Too slow, always two touches too many, one pass too late, or too much. Matt Doherty time and again had so much free space on the right hand side when the right ball would have opened play up very quickly. Azerbaijan scouted us well. They defended narrow, knowing that space out wide just invites lots of crosses in, for a team not really suited to attacking them in open play. We don't do the one thing that most teams between seeds 2 & 5 do, the 5 yd slip pass inside.

- trust: Our players don't trust each other, don't have belief in themselves, or each other. This possibly stems back to club level, where someone else will get them out of trouble. We've a huge problem in this regard. Off the top of the head, there were double-figures worth times when we simply turned down the chance to play a simple forward pass to a teammate in space (relative to the international game). It's maddening, and it's senior players (Coleman, Duffy, McClean) who are nearly exclusively the worst offenders of it.

- communication:: non-existent. It was suggested before, but I disregarded it, that there's a split in the camp. I don't think it's a conscious thing, definitely not, but I'm inclined to believe that there is something subconsciously there. It's great when you hear about such a player barking instructions - I'd much prefer players to be communicating with the overlap recipient, or the player receiving the ball. It's one of the most basic things, and we don't do it - that's abundently clear. I feel sorry for Cullen in this regard, he offers himself constantly as an out ball, and it's showing that playing for Anderlecht is helping him. His game has improved significantly. He's demanding the ball from the cbs, but plenty of times he received the ball, could have turned on it, but never got the call.

- sloppiness: Its almost upsetting to see how sloppy we were at times yesterday. I want to put it down to where the majority of our squad are in their careers (not getting game-time), but there's got to be more to it than that.
We're slow of thought and action. We make some absolutely stupid movements & ridiculous decisions. Mightn't seem like much, but when you consistently do them over 90 mins, they add up, and there were times where we simply sucked the energy out of the efforts made with just poor calculation, decisions and execution. We've actually stooped to the level that playing a pass correctly becomes a challenge at times. Too often a player has to check his run because the ball is played behind, or played to the outside instead of the inside. It's become so endemic in our play, that fans seem to have taken it for granted, or accepted even.
It's not a broken record, it's experience, and it's from coaching, but there's one example. We won a free kick, just outside our box, first half 20mins in. Duffy took the ball - the simple ball into space to Cullen was on. He dithered, passed back to Bazunu from the edge of the box, then ran backwards to parallel to the 6yd box, before Bazunu had no choice to pump it long, halfway in the Azeri half where Idah chased. that means our team is stretched across 3/4 of the length of the pitch, and we do that so often. It absolutely kills us. We do not push up the pitch quick enough, or often enough - and for me it's a trust issue We're afraid of getting caught out behind.

Further sloppiness is our inability to close down quick enough out wide. We started the game well yesterday because we put pressure on Azerbaijan from the start and from the front. We did it for about 11/12 minutes, then Aaron Connolly stopped doing it, as did Parrot to an extent. Kenny was fully merited intaking off Connolly. Maybe barrelling him out of it at ht and giving him 15 mins would have been an option, but the goal just before half-time forced his hand.

There's a few things that I've read in the posts during and after the game that concerns me.
I'm more convinced than ever - but understand I'm in a minority, and moreso that on the surface it seems absurd - that we will not improve until Shane Duffy is out of the team. As a back's to the wall defender, he's imperious, but his limitations (forget footballing ability here) are so significant that I think we're blinded by his attributes. He's slow, his positioning at times is awful, and he's so concerned by getting caught in behind, that he sits waaay too deep. And it is killing us - not in decisive individual moments, but in terms of space, our use of space (or lack of it). I can see why Kenny has picked Bazunu. He has guts beyond belief - not the blood and thunder kind - but belief in himself. He's prone to a lapse in concentration (dropping the corner yday - first reaction was a foul/nudge, but there was no replay to confirm). His sweeping up is top-class, and his distribution is excellent. I wish Duffy would trust him more.

I feel for Troy Parrot. I've seen people online complaining about him, he's not ready, etc. The movement of Parrot (off-camera) is absolutely incredible. It's clear that himself, Idah, Connolly have a rapport, and it will bear fruit in the years to come. It's very clear - and should be very clear to Kenny, that Parrot needs that free role (we've settled on calling it the "10" so lets stick with that). Not giving it to him makes mugs of us all.

We're all myopic to a degree on here, but there's things that are said that can't be challenged because this site is not allowing pictures to be uploaded. It would cut a serious amount of bull**** out.
A 3 man defence for me suits the personnel we have available, and the personnel we're going to have. However, it is not right for this team, because frankly, there appears to be a lack of trust between the main components of it.
John Egan was superb yesterday, relatively speaking. He's so comfortable in the 3 man defence, and you can see he backs himself, trusts those around him, and is born for it. Seamus Coleman struggled yesterday. I'd go so far as to say it's probably the worst game I've seen from him, by his high standards. He was by no means our worst player, but he did not play well and his unforced errors were sky high. He was not comfortable with the formation, and there were a few times where himself, Duffy and Cullen were having serious discussions about it. I don't know if he was deciding himself to stay close to Duffy, but we didn't get the benefits that we should have from it. Yet on the other side, Egan really pushed on, unfortunately ahead of him was dross.

And I'm simply baffled by the criticism of Doherty yday. He had three high-profile mistakes, but he got an epic amount of work on the right flank yday, and (in the parlance of another sport) he cleared up a stupid amount of breaking ball. He probably should have scored as well. He was clearly gassed when he came off, unfortunately.
I'd advocate going back to a flat back 4 due to Duffy. We're too limited in midfield, and we don't use the gains that we should get from the 3 well enough. What that means for Doherty and Coleman I don't know.

Right now, I see the number of players that we have as certainties on the teamsheet drop by the game: John Egan, Josh Cullen, Adam Idah. They were absolutely superb yesterday in their own right, and shouldered an incredible amount of responsibility.
Everyone knows we're in serious trouble in midfield. Any team that struggles in that area of the pitch finds another way.

Seamus should have scored inside the first ten mins, Doherty's possibly. Either go in, and it's a totally different game. Molumby & Idah should have scored in the 2nd half, and for all his reputation in the opposition box, Duffy's missed header was poor. It really could have been a 3-1, 4-1 victory very easily.

Not sure where he goes from here. The tide is turning on him absolutely now, and I don't see him getting another contract. I feel for him because as much as he has made mistakes, he's been let down by probably the worst state of footballing affairs going back to the 60s, and has been let down by players too.

[ifk101]

3-4-3 is for soaking up pressure and attacking on the counter. It suits the players we have and it works well for us. But in a game where the onus was on us to take the initiative and dictate play, the 3-4-3 left a sizeable area of space between Molumby/ Cullen and Idah, and it was crying out for a player to drop into that space and play as a 10 – and we had that player on the pitch in Parrott. As it was, we just crowded ourselves out on the flanks, and when Azerbaijan did win the ball back, it was relatively easy for them to advance up the middle and into our half of the field.
I can sympathise with Kenny in saying we had enough chances to comfortably win the game because we did. Within the early parts of the game, Doherty, Coleman and Connolly all had good chances to score and at the very minimum test their goalie – but didn’t. And this was the theme for the rest of the game, opportunities were there but we wasted them. That said, Kenny didn’t adapt to the game unfolding in front of him, his substitutions were like for like, and a competitive draw at home to a team clearly inferior to us is not acceptable (especially in context of losing to Luxembourg).
I buy into what Kenny wants to do, I know this will improve us for the longer term, but we can’t sit on our hands and see a home defeat to Luxembourg and rescuing a draw against Azerbaijan as acceptable.

[pineapple stu]

Even to this day we have Irish fans condescendingly refer to 'bad teams' at intl level as if Ireland were supposed to be a notch or two higher. Not an excuse for not beating them but AZ are not a bad team, t
The Faroes, who you also call a crap team, last night they played Denmark and gave them one hell of a game to a packed stadium that rocked. 'Pound for pound' the Faroes leave Ireland in the dust, football wise Ireland is not fit to lick their boots.
Azerbaijan are a bad team. The Faroes are a crap team.

Their players are pros and better than, say, you or me for sure. But there's different level of pros and the likes of the Elo ratings (Irl 1600, Az 1370, Far 1250) or even their results (4 points between them in Euro 2020 qualifying for example) will back that up. We are supposed to be a notch or two higher than that.

Pound for pound comparisons are meaningless. If the Faroes had 5,000,000 people, yes, their structure means they would be beating us very regularly. But they don't, so they're crap. That that's a relative comparison should be taken as read.

[passinginterest]

Couple of things you've picked up on Kingdom. First, the shooting drill, that's been the same forever and a day at this stage. Might have been the Bosnia playoff I was at, can't recall which game exactly, I may even have mentioned it here, but the shooting drill was worse than anything I'd ever seen at junior level. James McClean was the only player with a decent clean strike the whole drill, Harry Arter looked like a lad they'd pulled out of the crowd with his work shoes on the efforts were so laughable.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought Bazunu was fouled when he dropped the ball either, not sure there was ever a replay, but I thought he was bumped/barged/nudged/pushed, whatever by one of the Azeri players and that's why the ball came loose.
Good post overall, you're spot on about the lack of trust at times from certain players, and the inevitable limitation with Duffy at the back (although I don't think we can drop him at the moment).

[CSAD]

There is no chance we beat Serbia. The are on the high we are down. Unless we play with no pressure. And go for it. With the chance they pegged as back. Actually i think serbia is gonna play this way

We supposedly had no chance in Faro either …

[pineapple stu]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought Bazunu was fouled when he dropped the ball either, not sure there was ever a replay, but I thought he was bumped/barged/nudged/pushed, whatever by one of the Azeri players and that's why the ball came loose.
You can watch it back on the RTÉ Player (2:29:30) but there's no foul for me. He just takes his eye off the ball; there is one Azerbaijan player beside him but - allowing that there was no replay and the camera in the stand was a fair way away - there's no contact at all. I think Houghton called it correctly when he was said his mind got ahead of the game - he was already throwing the ball out before he caught it and took his eye off it entirely, kind of like Bonner against Holland in 1994.

[John83]

Even to this day we have Irish fans condescendingly refer to 'bad teams' at intl level as if Ireland were supposed to be a notch or two higher. Not an excuse for not beating them but AZ are not a bad team, they were actually unfortunate not to win, they provided more creativity on the ball in attack than we ever did, they were very well organised, were better prepared for this game and neutered us. Their goal aced ours. Why are they so disrespected?
The Faroes, who you also call a crap team, last night they played Denmark and gave them one hell of a game to a packed stadium that rocked. Surreal to to see Danish players diving left right and centre playing against the Faroes. I take it you don't watch that much intl football but are just spouting cliches. The Faroes have developed their football potential and it's still a work in process, they do their upmost to develop their technical game. They are an intl team which represents 50k people on a few rocks in the North Atlantic and despite that they managed to get themselves promoted to the third div in the Nations League. 'Pound for pound' the Faroes leave Ireland in the dust, football wise Ireland is not fit to lick their boots.
Bad teams are teams that lose. I know that may offend your footballing sensibilities, but I can be patronising too, and football is results-oriented. Anyone who disagrees can go watch ballet. Azerbaijan are ranked outside the top 100 in the world because they keep losing. Except to us, strangely. They don't get hammered very often, but they don't score much either. Sound familiar?

[Bielsa´s irish]

We supposedly had no chance in Faro either …
we lost that match with a little help from the referee as in Serbia but we lost

[Kingdom]

Coleman's injured so maybe that had something to do with it.

Coleman got injured in injury time - looks like he did the hamstring. So it's nothing to do with it.

[ifk101]

Just looking at the Duffy goal again, but McClean pulled that ball over the sideline before the cross went in. Got away with that.

[Kingdom]

Just looking at the Duffy goal again, but McClean pulled that ball over the sideline before the cross went in. Got away with that.

I didn't want to dampen the mood further, but noticed it myself. and if we're really being fair, the keeper should have saved it - it was straight at him.

[ifk101]

.. and if we're really being fair, the keeper should have saved it - it was straight at him.

Yes and no given how close the header was and the power behind it. He did get two hands on it, and not far from pushing it over the bar.

[Stuttgart88]

You can watch it back on the RTÉ Player (2:29:30) but there's no foul for me. He just takes his eye off the ball; there is one Azerbaijan player beside him but - allowing that there was no replay and the camera in the stand was a fair way away - there's no contact at all. I think Houghton called it correctly when he was said his mind got ahead of the game - he was already throwing the ball out before he caught it and took his eye off it entirely, kind of like Bonner against Holland in 1994.I haven't seen it again yet but that was my thought at the time too. I always hated those ones. It was a bit like the one Randolph dropped vs Wales that could have led to a penalty. As a keeper I always preferred a cross to have pace and to be well over my head, so my arms would be straight and the ball would firmly stick into your hands when it arrived. I hated the ones that lacked pace and were barely over head height, meaning your arms wouldn't be fully stretched out. They were always the ones that could pop out, especially if there was any contact with another player.