Republic of Ireland V Qatar - Tuesday, 12th October 2021 - Friendly

[third policeman]

Quite a sentiment shift from the previous round of games but so pleasing to see us play confident, positive (and dare I say well-coached football), and dominate a team like that.



Amazing to think posts like this are less than a month old.

As the author of that post, I’m happy to be consuming a large slice of humble pie. Just didn’t see that improvement coming, I do suspect that the new found flexibility, formation and coherence owes a lot to Barry. Bit if he was Kenny’s pick as coach, then that was a genius addition to the team.

[pineapple stu]

only one L1 player started last night. three last saturday including Bazunu who is obviously on loan. we are not remotely relying on L1 players
I didn't say we were relying on them. I said we had a lot, and we do. Bazunu, McClean, Arter, Ogbene, Parrott, Collins, Horgan, Keane - a third of the squad. That's a lot. Only Keane didn't play in the two games.

[ifk101]

Numerous comments about Qatar being poor. Bear in mind we were not at full strength, we fielded a team littered with players struggling at club level, gave two players their starting debuts, and another two starters are novices at this level (McGrath, Omobamidele). In the context of where we have been, where we are, and where we can potentially go, it’s all very pleasing and encouraging.


As the author of that post, I’m happy to be consuming a large slice of humble pie.

Fair play.


Just didn’t see that improvement coming, I do suspect that the new found flexibility, formation and coherence owes a lot to Barry. Bit if he was Kenny’s pick as coach, then that was a genius addition to the team.

Barry has been around since the start of WC qualification campaign. I think improvement could be seen with the Andorra/ Hungary training camp games so maybe Barry's input of having more time to work with the players began to show from there. But let's not dilute Kenny's input, he was appointed to the job on his own merits.

[EAFC_rdfl]

As the author of that post, I’m happy to be consuming a large slice of humble pie. Just didn’t see that improvement coming, I do suspect that the new found flexibility, formation and coherence owes a lot to Barry. Bit if he was Kenny’s pick as coach, then that was a genius addition to the team.

Fair play, great to see posts like that. The forum has been a great read over the last month or so.

[Stuttgart88]

Parrott, as Stephen Kelly said, put a lot of pressure on the ball. He looked hungry.

It was surely a message to Aaron Connolly by Kenny and Parrott drove that message home. He has work to do. It looks like the penny has dropped for Parrott and that he's on the right path now for his fulfilling more of his potential.

Agree on Collins. My God. He is one of those Rolls Royce centre halves. Moves along the ground with ease. Passes and controls the ball with more ease.

Good point also by centre mid on the players to come back. McCarthy, Hendrick and Cullen will be a nice conundrum in the middle. Coleman might force Doherty to right full.

I like McGrath a lot. He's so busy and tidy. Ogbene can improve. Robinson is arriving. Parrott can grow. Knight had the bit between the teeth when he came in.

Qatar were dirt but we didn't give them a chance. And the squad feels so much better than it did a few months ago.

We need to beat Luxembourg now to cement this.
Agree with all of this.

Connolly: exactly what I was thinking.

Collins: Kingdom & I saw him in the U16 Euros a few years ago. His dad was sitting in front of us. We both agreed we had rarely seen such a promising young player. That said, we were also really impressed by his partner that day, Ledwidge, who's now a sub at Shels :)

We do need to beat Luxembourg too though and be competitive against Portugal, otherwise the doubts will return. It'd be great to start the next campaign chomping at the bit.

[backstothewall]

If we beat Luxembourg next month and have a decent performance against Portugal I think he'll get a new contract, especially considering the lack of obvious alternatives out there

It as much depends on the Luxembourg v Azerbaijan game as our game v Portugal.

Beating Luxembourg is the bare minimum, but even if he does and it's not good enough to finish 3rd, it's hard to justify a new deal on the basis of finishing fourth in a three horse race.

[Stuttgart88]

The final position is irrelevant imho. We can't change the bad results from earlier. It's the more recent performances - and the public mood - that'll decide his future.

The initial Kenny mission statement is only now beginning to look like it's starting to go somewhere. The fans are behind it, the broader public seems to be behind it, we have a new generation of players popular among the public and admired. I think the last 2 games, and Portugal away, have swung the pendulum to SK's side. I think things need to go badly wrong again for him to be under threat now.

[ltfc_2004]

It was really nice to watch Ireland batter a team over 90 minutes, everyone played well and looked up for it. There seems to be a good spirit in the camp and winning is a good mentality to have. Azerbaijan and Qatar were poor but you can only beat what's in front of you.

Previous campaigns Azerbaijan away would have danger written all over it and you could imagine us escaping with a late McGeady/McClean winner after huffing and puffing for 90 minutes with a few close scares on our goal.

There is a real energy and enthusiasm for Kenny and the team. Portugal will be a sell out and a lot depends on the next Nations League Group to keep momentum building. I expect the FAI to try and capitalise with a few high profile friendlies and an old favourite like Oman lol

[Diggs246]

It was absolutely brilliant! in relation to Qatar you can only beat what put infront of you
Is this real? Is this our new team?, will we give Portugal a go and the beat Luxemburg easily like we should be doing. if so I may owe Stephen Kenny quite the apology!, time will tell

[ifk101]

Just on Collins. Would have been nice to see more of him to weigh up the alternative as there is unease in Duffy’s body shape and touch when on the ball (those sweep cross field passes aside). But liked the way we used Duffy's aerial threat last night. He was very advanced for the throw-in that led to the first goal, and moved up in open play to play alongside Robinson as striker for the third.

[tetsujin1979]

In a real "where are they now?" moment, this is on the42's review of the game: https://www.the42.ie/ireland-qatar-3-5572509-Oct2021/

Not all Irish starlets at Liverpool make it at Irish senior level – the Qatar physio at tonight’s game, Richie Partridge, is testament to that fact – but tonight Caoimhin Kelleher did make that leap, though it took 15 minutes for him to have his first touch and realise it. Such was the extent of Ireland’s early dominance.

[seanfhear]

Was that Qatars strongest team ?

[Stuttgart88]

I'm still not sure we should be beating Luxembourg easily. Serbia won there 0-1 last week, 68th minute goal. Not winning will be disappointing alright, but a professional hard fought 1-0 would do me just fine.

[tetsujin1979]

Was that Qatars strongest team ?
do your research

[Diggs246]

I'm still not sure we should be beating Luxembourg easily. Serbia won there 0-1 last week, 68th minute goal. Not winning will be disappointing alright, but a professional hard fought 1-0 would do me just fine.

I think that is because our expectations have dropped so low, but we really should be beating them handily. The place is like a large IFSC

[pineapple stu]

Was that Qatars strongest team ?
Wiki says (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar_national_football_team#Current_squad) there was no-one of any real note who'd been called up in the past twelve months but wasn't in the squad anyway.

The keeper wasn't first choice (but didn't do much wrong - beaten by a penalty, two deflections, and a header from five yards) and one or two other players were rotated in it seems, but in general it was an experienced squad. Their front two have 55 international goals between them for example.

[Diggs246]

I would be keen to keep the blue jersey as our permanent away jersey

I though it was excellent

Any takers? I haven't liked the white since USA 94

[Olé Olé]

I would be keen to keep the blue jersey as our permanent away jersey

I though it was excellent

Any takers? I haven't liked the white since USA 94

I haven't liked it since I started drinking more Guinness than lager.

[Diggs246]

Blue (not green) is actually the national colour of Ireland
So you know Ireland's national colour might not be green, right? (thejournal.ie) (https://www.thejournal.ie/ireland-national-colour-blue-828597-Mar2013/)

[pineapple stu]

I thought the keeper's jersey looked well actually. Modern keeper jerseys are awful bland rubbish.

Reminds me to start digging up a few historic jerseys to run the next Ireland's Best tournament next month.

[zero]

I'm still not sure we should be beating Luxembourg easily. Serbia won there 0-1 last week, 68th minute goal. Not winning will be disappointing alright, but a professional hard fought 1-0 would do me just fine.



Agree 100%, being able to grind out a win is hugely important. In some ways a dogged 0-1 win might be to our advantage.

There's an obvious concern now regarding who can step up to the mark if Robinson is unavailable but by the same token good to have someone who has set the bar high for others to try to match.

[tetsujin1979]

1448256524443340804

[pineapple stu]

Jaysus.

I have to say, one thing which struck me from watching that match is that I think there's still an imbalance in the ratings across confederations. And it's hard to get that right as inter-confed games are relatively rare. Eloratings has us and Qatar within 12 points of each other (which is negligible), although we caught up 30 points on them yesterday. But the group suggests they're probably little better than Luxembourg, who are 250 points below us.

All part of what makes yesterday hard to analyse. But it was fun to watch!

[elatedscum]

Are those figures accurate or illustratory estimates?

You probably had similar at the start of the first McCarthy reign. Senior players like Aldridge, Houghton, Bonner and McGrath were still involved, but others like Given, Moore, O'Neill, Daish, Harte, Farrelly, Fleming, etc etc were being given chances.

Not all of them made it - in the end of the day only 11 can play - and some of this squad will fall away too. But I've likened this transition to the start of the McCarthy reign before here - albeit we don't know if this one will be successful or not.

The last few days have been encouraging, but we've a lot of L1 players still and if such a team is rolling over sides, then you have to ask big questions of the opposition.

Still, onwards to next month with a bit more optimism than before

The 55 is accurate in terms of currently active internationals. The 95 is my own personal list and includes guys who are in the conversation like Coventry, Kilkenny, Ronan, Gallagher along with the likes of Taylor, Smodzic, Keane who have received call ups or were in provisional squads but not appeared yet...

[John83]

I feel cautiously optimistic after that. Qatar are ****e, but we've been losing to such teams recently and were never great at putting them to the sword. Sterner tests await, and I feel like the league table - which sees us 1 point behind Luxembourg albeit with much better goal difference hinting at some bad luck - is still the litmus test Kenny is failing. The game against Luxembourg next window will be critical in assessing whether Kenny has really found his feet.

I liked Ogbene yesterday. Some technical deficiencies, but his movement and pace are a big advantage. He is the only right forward we've played other than Robinson that I can recall being much of a goal threat from that position. And Robinson is happy centrally or on the left, as I understand it.

Hendrick - a player I've defended here from some pretty savage attacks - had a great game, full of energy, probing passes and offering some goal threat himself.

[SkStu]

Previous campaigns Azerbaijan away would have danger written all over it and you could imagine us escaping with a late McGeady/McClean winner after huffing and puffing for 90 minutes with a few close scares on our goal.

Such perfection in a post is a rare thing.

[jbyrne]

I didn't say we were relying on them. I said we had a lot, and we do. Bazunu, McClean, Arter, Ogbene, Parrott, Collins, Horgan, Keane - a third of the squad. That's a lot. Only Keane didn't play in the two games.

yes, but if they are not in the team then they are not influencing the result where we are "rolling over" the opposition.
we did it with vast majority of our players coming from higher than L1



The last few days have been encouraging, but we've a lot of L1 players still and if such a team is rolling over sides, then you have to ask big questions of the opposition.

[pineapple stu]

But they were in the team - five of the 15 players who played in Azerbaijan were third tier. 4 of 13 if you want to discount 90th minute subs. Either way, around one third of the players.

So it is correct to say that we have a team with a lot of L1 players in it.

[seanfhear]

I feel cautiously optimistic after that. Qatar are ****e, but we've been losing to such teams recently and were never great at putting them to the sword. Sterner tests await, and I feel like the league table - which sees us 1 point behind Luxembourg albeit with much better goal difference hinting at some bad luck - is still the litmus test Kenny is failing. The game against Luxembourg next window will be critical in assessing whether Kenny has really found his feet.

I liked Ogbene yesterday. Some technical deficiencies, but his movement and pace are a big advantage. He is the only right forward we've played other than Robinson that I can recall being much of a goal threat from that position. And Robinson is happy centrally or on the left, as I understand it.

Hendrick - a player I've defended here from some pretty savage attacks - had a great game, full of energy, probing passes and offering some goal threat himself.
Hendrick and many Newcastle Players may soon be needing new clubs. it will be interesting to see how many of them find some form.

[geysir]

Was that Qatars strongest team ?
I read somewhere that they had their strongest team out in their previous game v Portugal.
Regardless of the current merits of Azerbajan and Qatar, fans usually sense when something clicks in a team. However, the next two games will be the real deal and the measure of the campaign.

[Razors left peg]

Qatar are not a team of builders and plumbers, they are the current Asian Champions. What the hell have we ever won? Yeah they looked terrible last night but how much of that was down to how aggressive we were from the start?

I think the last 2 games were brilliant. We've been miserable to watch for so long. Yes we need to build on it in the next window, but if you didnt enjoy these 2 games Im not sure why you even watch the Ireland team.

[JR89]

Hendrick and many Newcastle Players may soon be needing new clubs. it will be interesting to see how many of them find some form.

Gonna be interesting to see where Hendrick ends up. He's got two and a half years left on a 40k a week contract. No team is going to cover that, whether it's on loan or a transfer so Newcastle will probably need to cover half his wages if they want him out.

Clark is on 35k a week and only has a year and a half left on his contract.

[JR89]

What the hell have we ever won?.

Ahem, we are the reigning Icelandic Triangular tournament and Carling Nation's cup champions.

[pineapple stu]

They're Asian champions alright, but they're not exactly setting this group alight, even allowing for no home games in it. Narrow neutral wins against Luxembourg and Azerbaijan, a draw away to Luxembourg, and easily beaten three times by Serbia/Portugal. They've Serbia and Azerbaijan as their last two games, both away.

I don't know was it a surprise that they won the Asian Cup or what. They're the number 6 ranked team in Asia at the moment, which means they'd be struggling to make it to the World Cup ordinarily, and be making up the numbers at it if they got there. But probably their form in the group this year is a better indicator of how good they are. And they seem to be not great, which is how you'd view last night's game by any objective view too

[Razors left peg]

No they arent great, but we havent been either and we drew with them a few months ago. My point is that there is clear progress being made and the last two games have been as enjoyable as I can remember in years regardless of the opposition

[pineapple stu]

Oh for sure; I made that point during the game alright.

I was surprised at how bad they were all things considered. They had even seemed vaguely handy earlier in the year in the 1-1 draw. I think some of that was us playing better but the basic errors were their fault

But recent improvements set the Portugal game up nicely. So watch as we get brought down to earth with a 4-1 defeat of course...

[Razors left peg]

Oh for sure; I made that point during the game alright.

I was surprised at how bad they were all things considered. They had even seemed vaguely handy earlier in the year in the 1-1 draw. I think some of that was us playing better but the basic errors were their fault

But recent improvements set the Portugal game up nicely. So watch as we get brought down to earth with a 4-1 defeat of course...

Haha probably. God I hope not though. I was in Portugal 2 weeks ago with all the wifes family and they were tormenting me about Ronaldos 2 goals

[seanfhear]

Gonna be interesting to see where Hendrick ends up. He's got two and a half years left on a 40k a week contract. No team is going to cover that, whether it's on loan or a transfer so Newcastle will probably need to cover half his wages if they want him out.

Clark is on 35k a week and only has a year and a half left on his contract.
Great Money = = Pity I am passed my peak.

[TonyD]

But recent improvements set the Portugal game up nicely. So watch as we get brought down to earth with a 4-1 defeat of course...

We may well lose to Portugal, but I don’t think they’ll hammer us. I think we have a chance of getting a point. Luxembourg away I’d be cautiously optimistic that we can win. Its been a long road, but I think the team is starting to look like it’s turned a corner. The recent emergence of Robinson as a serious goal threat has played no small part in that.

[pineapple stu]

Probably on Portugal, but we have to remember it's only a month since Serbia battered us in Lansdowne and we were blessed not to lose by 3 or 4.

[Olé Olé]

Probably on Portugal, but we have to remember it's only a month since Serbia battered us in Lansdowne and we were blessed not to lose by 3 or 4.

And Portugal have farrrrrr better finishers than Serbia have. Like, some of the best forwards in the world. Whilst we probably all were concerned about Mitrovic, Tadic and Vlahovic. My point is that we could lose valiantly 1-0 as easily as we could lose valiantly 3-0.

Everything hinges on beating Luxembourg for me. Even if we got a draw against Portugal, we still need to beat Luxembourg for Kenny to demonstrate that there is a plan there which is not just reliant on our defenders being better than the rest of our team. I mean, they are, but the signs from Qatar and Azerbaijan that we can be (or are!) a functioning unit in attack against teams below our level need to be solidified.

[Bielsa´s irish]

i am against Kenny and his continuity far from the EUROPA league of Nations but if the team gets victories vs portugal and lux away. Then I would accept it, his main purpose is to qualify for tourneys not developing kids that is the under 23 and younger teams .

Dont get too optimistic we have made the results it was supposed to be, at the moment he underachieved . He should have challenged port and serbia for 1st or 2 nd spot he was a disgrace on that quest. Moral victories my granny !!!

[Diggs246]

Sorry about this, wasn't sure were to post it
but does anyone know where I can buy the "blue Jersey" we wore that night?

[tetsujin1979]

Sorry about this, wasn't sure were to post it
but does anyone know where I can buy the "blue Jersey" we wore that night?
you can't, there was only a limited edition of them released by umbro for sale on faishop.com
Orga do a really nice version of it here: https://orgaretro.com/products/ireland-1921-jersey-st-patrick-blue?_pos=1&_sid=d95ca6e8d&_ss=r

[Diggs246]

you can't, there was only a limited edition of them released by umbro for sale on faishop.com
Orga do a really nice version of it here: https://orgaretro.com/products/ireland-1921-jersey-st-patrick-blue?_pos=1&_sid=d95ca6e8d&_ss=r


Thanks your a gent

[tetsujin1979]

Thread locked and archived
PGsTZFFQ_mo