Armenia V Republic of Ireland - Saturday, 4th June 2022 - 2022/23 UEFA Nations League

[paul_oshea]

If Armenia were any good we'd be 2 0 down by now.

Collins is very average. Ogbene has improved with the offside runs i.e. not getting caught offside evrrytime he's played through , he is consistently improving his game but he's still well off a proper striker. Finishing is very poor. We've been very sloppy and lackadaisical with possession, perhaps end of season rustiness and the heat playing a factor.

All in all same as it's been for years. Struggle to beat the lower ranked teams who sit deep,play well against the big nations and get a draw or 1 goal loss here and there. The way Kenny has us set up with his allwayson Plan A is we need an actual playmaker who can get on the ball and make stuff happen - that's not parrot and we don't have that player so it's not effective.

[pineapple stu]

Ouch. Cracking goal.

[passinginterest]

Ouch, what a goal. Obafemi lost it very cheaply. Response will be interesting.

[paul_oshea]

Only fair, one team playing and good at football

[centre mid]

How can a keeper be beaten from 40 yards

[tommy_c12000]

Great strike. Poor from Hendrick. Not surprising really. You’d fancy Bazunu to make that save

[pineapple stu]

How can a keeper be beaten from 40 yards
By giving the ball away cheaply, not closing him down, the ball going in off the post, and it not being 40 yards

[passinginterest]

Big difference second half has been Hendrick is wrecked. He was good first half and has been nowhere second half. Hoping to see a major response now. Game is still there to be won.

[Trequartista20]

I thought something like that might happen.

For context, Armenia are barely in the world's top 100 nations and they have lost by fours, fives, sixes and nines during the past season.

[CSAD]

Just the kind of goal you’d expect us to concede, just like against Azerbaijan…

[tommy_c12000]

Great here is Will Keane… so much for the Kenny era of great football

[pineapple stu]

Just the kind of goal you’d expect us to concede, just like against Azerbaijan…
It's actually exactly the goal I was thinking of alright

I'll stand by my comment at the start of this though - if we lose, it won't be because of the keeper. It'll be the other end that's the problem. And we've really not worked their keeper at all.

Their last game was a 9-0 defeat in Norway...

[passinginterest]

I don’t like these changes. Going to be very exposed without Cullen.

[Insidetherock]

😪😪😪 😪😪😪😪

[tommy_c12000]

I don’t like these changes. Going to be very exposed without Cullen.

Really? We’re we not exposed when he was playing? A lot of room for Armenia in his area in second half. But agree yet another unusual decision to leave Jeff on and take Josh off

[paul_oshea]

It's actually exactly the goal I was thinking of alright

I'll stand by my comment at the start of this though - if we lose, it won't be because of the keeper. It'll be the other end that's the problem. And we've really not worked their keeper at all.

Their last game was a 9-0 defeat in Norway...

There's a big thing made about cullen being this kind of all round midfielder, but we've conceded these goals so often,he's clearly not closing the space like some would lead you to believe. I was never a Whelan fan but he did cover that space well

I'm genuinely interested to see the "greenshoots"( dare I say spin) from this one regardless of this result.

It's been shocking

[pineapple stu]

It'll be fun to have you back for the ten days Paul :)

[passinginterest]

Really? We’re we not exposed when he was playing? A lot of room for Armenia in his area in second half

More that I thought Hendrick looked the more tired and sloppy of the two and leaving him in was more likely to lead to what just happens with an awful pass and a booking.

[CSAD]

It's actually exactly the goal I was thinking of alright

I'll stand by my comment at the start of this though - if we lose, it won't be because of the keeper. It'll be the other end that's the problem. And we've really not worked their keeper at all.

Their last game was a 9-0 defeat in Norway...

This for me is like the Luxembourg game, a banana skin but if we take lead the flood gates will open. Sadly we never got the goal and Armenia hung on and eventually took their chance.

[paul_oshea]

I don’t like these changes. Going to be very exposed without Cullen.

He's desperate though, regardless what he says about things not being fair or whatever. So he's doing what he thinks gets us a goal and forget anything else

[pineapple stu]

This for me is like the Luxembourg game, a banana skin but if we take lead the flood gates will open. Sadly we never got the goal and Armenia hung on and eventually took their chance.

Yep. But we did that v Lithuania at home too.

And we started brightly here too. But we run out of ideas.

Duffy is still our main goal threat.

It's a worry going into games against two stronger sides

[passinginterest]

Second half has been awful in fairness. Paying the price for poor finishing in the first half. Should have had at least a couple of goals by half time and then the game is effectively over. Still think there’s at least an equaliser to be had.

[tommy_c12000]

I do agree with Paul however, the fanfare around Cullen is still unjustified. Doing okay in an average team in an average league, and hasn’t necessarily set the world alight with Ireland with gaping holes in his area today again

[CSAD]

Yep. But we did that v Lithuania at home too.

And we started brightly here too. But we run out of ideas.

Duffy is still our main goal threat.

It's a worry going into games against two stronger sides

It’s a worry but it will be a different context as they won’t put 11 men behind the ball. A team like Armenia playing at home in 30+ degree heat at the start of a new campaign just had banana skin written all over it, just hoped we would do enough to get through with the win but it appears that’s off the table now.

[tommy_c12000]

Overall, been a poor performance. Dreadful result. Kenny will be called into question again on several levels, and justifiably so. End of season fatigue is one contributing factor. The weather conditions are not an excuse. I have given Kenny a free pass for past 2 years, this is the year we need to see substantial and durable improvement

[NeverFeltBetter]

Break to Kenny being on the brink then...

[centre mid]

Just nowhere near good or clinical enough.

[Insidetherock]

Nations League was designed to pit teams against others of a similar level.. now we know our level.. managed to catch last 15 on RTE player, and it showed exactly why Chedozie isn't still at Brentford, or any other PL club.. for tge good he does do, he needs consistency.. and that last 15 was atrocious

[passinginterest]

That was painful. First half was near enough exactly how you’d want us to play in those games. Really comfortable, got in behind them and created some genuine chances.

Second half was a nervous, shapeless mess. Kenny has to take criticism for that. Changes all came too late and none of them made an impact (and Obafemi looked like the player we saw at under 21 level where the ball just bounced off him and he did very little otherwise).

I think criticism of Cullen is not really justified. He’s not word class or anything but he’s miles ahead of our other options there. He can’t cover al the space on his own. Needs either a forward coming back or a centre back stepping out to help him of that’s our go to shape.

I’d agree with Ogbene as man of the match, but at the same time he missed our best chances and put in some poor enough balls. He was the only one who really looked like scoring or creating though.

[Bielsa´s irish]

Exactly. That goal couldnt appear if we took our chances, Azerbaijan game part 2

[nigel-harps1954]

Completely rotten performance in the final third. Totally devoid of ideas, far too slow in possession, no urgency at all, and I'm not sure how Stephen Kelly saw fit to give Ogbene MOTM, I thought he was very poor, as was everyone in attack.

Collins and Hendrick the only real positives out of the game, and even perhaps worth pointing a finger at Hendrick for not closing down the shot for the goal alongside Coleman, both backed away from the player allowing space for a shot.

Very very disappointing.

[pineapple stu]

Have to say I'm surprised by that result and performance. Expected it wouldn't be straightforward, but we deserved to lose.

The unbeaten run recently has papered over a few cracks and this is probably a bit of regression to mean.

We're solid defensively - the 30-yarder has long been a weakness of ours - but up front we offered nothing. Obafemi did nothing when he came on; it's harsh to say he was disappointing as he only had 25 minutes but I had hoped he'd have some impact.

Robinson was poor and his six-goal salvo last autumn is in the past now I think.

Are we too predictable or just not good enough? We had lots of the ball, lots of openings, but barely forced a save.

Very disappointing overall. Armenia lost their last match 9-0, and while we don't have Haaland and they didn't have a lad sent off, you have to think we shouldn't be losing...

[Bielsa´s irish]

It's actually exactly the goal I was thinking of alright

I'll stand by my comment at the start of this though - if we lose, it won't be because of the keeper. It'll be the other end that's the problem. And we've really not worked their keeper at all.

Their last game was a 9-0 defeat in Norway...


That was painful. First half was near enough exactly how you’d want us to play in those games. Really comfortable, got in behind them and created some genuine chances.

Second half was a nervous, shapeless mess. Kenny has to take criticism for that. Changes all came too late and none of them made an impact (and Obafemi looked like the player we saw at under 21 level where the ball just bounced off him and he did very little otherwise).

I think criticism of Cullen is not really justified. He’s not word class or anything but he’s miles ahead of our other options there. He can’t cover al the space on his own. Needs either a forward coming back or a centre back stepping out to help him of that’s our go to shape.

I’d agree with Ogbene as man of the match, but at the same time he missed our best chances and put in some poor enough balls. He was the only one who really looked like scoring or creating though.

Ogbene wasn't best player. Hendrick was very good and Cullen, said we didn't take our chances, a screamer was for Kenny I took it as a friendly, but we need other personnel up front ogbene is better on the right than as 9 , if we had scored we would have won it by 4 goals,

[Bielsa´s irish]

It's actually exactly the goal I was thinking of alright

I'll stand by my comment at the start of this though - if we lose, it won't be because of the keeper. It'll be the other end that's the problem. And we've really not worked their keeper at all.

Their last game was a 9-0 defeat in Norway...


Have to say I'm surprised by that result and performance. Expected it wouldn't be straightforward, but we deserved to lose.

The unbeaten run recently has papered over a few cracks and this is probably a bit of regression to mean.

We're solid defensively - the 30-yarder has long been a weakness of ours - but up front we offered nothing. Obafemi did nothing when he came on; it's harsh to say he was disappointing as he only had 25 minutes but I had hoped he'd have some impact.

Robinson was poor and his six-goal salvo last autumn is in the past now I think.

Are we too predictable or just not good enough? We had lots of the ball, lots of openings, but barely forced a save.

Very disappointing overall. Armenia lost their last match 9-0, and while we don't have Haaland and they didn't have a lad sent off, you have to think we shouldn't be losing...

We are a bit predictable up front, Kenny has sorted out defence and midfield has improved. Kids must play now I say, up front and Parrott should play as 10. He is wasted on the sides.

[Razors left peg]

That was sh1te.

Kenny's biggest weakness is against teams that sit back in numbers. We were awful in 2nd half. So disappointing. Subs made zero impact. Obafemi in particular was terrible, he couldn't even control the ball.

In games like that we are lacking a bit of guile to open up a packed defense. We don't have the skillful winger like Duff or the creative 10 like Wes. It's all very samey. All the possession in the world is pointless if you create nothing. We should have at least had more shots from distance.

We'll do well I'm sure on Wednesday but that result is a sickener.

[Bielsa´s irish]

It's actually exactly the goal I was thinking of alright

I'll stand by my comment at the start of this though - if we lose, it won't be because of the keeper. It'll be the other end that's the problem. And we've really not worked their keeper at all.

Their last game was a 9-0 defeat in Norway...


Have to say I'm surprised by that result and performance. Expected it wouldn't be straightforward, but we deserved to lose.

The unbeaten run recently has papered over a few cracks and this is probably a bit of regression to mean.

We're solid defensively - the 30-yarder has long been a weakness of ours - but up front we offered nothing. Obafemi did nothing when he came on; it's harsh to say he was disappointing as he only had 25 minutes but I had hoped he'd have some impact.

Robinson was poor and his six-goal salvo last autumn is in the past now I think.

Are we too predictable or just not good enough? We had lots of the ball, lots of openings, but barely forced a save.

Very disappointing overall. Armenia lost their last match 9-0, and while we don't have Haaland and they didn't have a lad sent off, you have to think we shouldn't be losing...
We need a 9 to fight the center backs, Robinson nor Ogbene nor Parrott nor Obafemi are that player. We are missing that player who can cause havoc,

[Trequartista20]

Difficult for anyone to defend this latest national embarrassment. Humiliation heaped atop humiliation. Kenny's been in charge for over two years now and today's 'performance' again shows that we've made little appreciable progress in all that time.

No doubt people will bring up possession stats, but this is a game we should have won, even if it meant grinding a result out without playing well.

Kenny's been given enormous latitude by fans and media, far more so than any manager has as far back as I can remember, but he's taken all that good will and largely wasted it.

Guys like Mick and Kerr must be looking on utterly dumbfounded at the sort of stuff Kenny can seemingly get away with time and again.

I'm really not sure where we go to from here. A moral victory (draw) against the Ukraine, maybe. But then what? It's all so depressing.

[SkStu]

Really disappointed in that result but especially the second half performance. Whether the heat and end of season had anything to do with how we faded is neither here nor there, it just wasn’t what it should have been all round. Did SK take his eye off the ball and had them looking at this as a gimme? It was so uninspired.

I was happy after the first half but when you see Collins sloppiness on 3-4 occasions in the first 45 you know that it’s going to be one of those nights. Harsh but I think Coleman is done as a RWB and Stevens was very poor. Thought Parrott and Ogbene showed well, Robbo had a bad night. Hard to judge Kelleher, beaten by a screamer, beaten another time but otherwise untested. On the subs, Obafemi ****ed me off didn’t look like he wanted to work too hard. Knight didn’t make the impression he could have. McClean, Browne and Keane were as expected.

If the last 6-8 games was two steps forward, this was definitely one step back. The big test here is how they and the management team respond against Ukraine and Scotland. 5-7 points please Kenny.

[Bielsa´s irish]

We need a Frank Stapleton who was more of a runner at his prime, good header and good at his feet similar to Parrott.
We need an Aldo, Quinn a Tommy Coyne, as 9 to put them under pressure.

Will Keane seems a bit like Tony Cascarino

[CSAD]

Atleast when we concede we only concede crackers…

I had a bad feeling when we weren’t putting the chances away how this was going to go, would be nice if we scored the cracker for a change, it’s boring when it’s always our opposition…

The one thing I will say is we will have more space against Ukraine & Scotland, simply put Kenny simply has to win both these matches to put any gloss over this result as while it had upset written all over it there really isn’t an excuse, we aren’t playing a world class side and we should be putting these teams away one way or another, it doesn’t need to be 9-0.

It does have to be said against Luxembourg and Azerbaijan at home we struggled massively as they put 11 men behind the ball and we couldn’t break them down but when we played Serbia and Portugal we actually played quite well so I wouldn’t put it past us getting some good results over this window and at this rate Kenny NEEDS it as he will have a hard time riding out this loss if the rest of the window goes to ****, it must also be said Portugal and Serbia are (on paper atleast) a lot better than Ukraine and Scotland so if we were able to put it up to them somewhat hopeful we can do likewise in the coming games.

Just hope to god the Ukraine that comes to Dublin is an emotionally drained Ukraine and not the one that showed up in Hampdon otherwise were in a lot of trouble.

[pineapple stu]

The big test here is how they and the management team respond against Ukraine and Scotland. 5-7 points please Kenny.
Ooh, that's optimistic, isn't it?

I know they'll attack more and present a different challenge, but still and all...

[CSAD]

Prior to the window I would have said 7 points was a good outcome from the 4 matches

Beat Armenia and one of Scotland/Ukraine at home, draw the other and then have a free hit away to Ukraine. Now I think we must win both home games and get a point in Lodz.

[SkStu]

Ooh, that's optimistic, isn't it?

I know they'll attack more and present a different challenge, but still and all...

It’s what he needs to provide after todays result and performance.

[CSAD]

Ooh, that's optimistic, isn't it?

I know they'll attack more and present a different challenge, but still and all...

Logically it would be harder but at the same time we saw this pattern in the WCQ in how we went versus Serbia and Portugal in comparison to Azerbaijan and Luxembourg.

I think if Kenny can get 7 points in the remaining games we can put the Armenia game behind us as tbh 7 points was probably our realistic goal anyway this window.

[pineapple stu]

It’s what he needs to provide after todays result and performance.
Fairy nuff. Hard to argue against that really. I just don't see it happening.

We're in relegation trouble again.

[TrapAPony]

Stephen Kenny should be given the boot. If beating Qatar, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Andorra excites you then you must have incredibly low standards. Nice guy but he just doesn't have it. He has been given more time than any other Irish manager before him mainly because of the FAI's finances and because LOI diehards want to see one of their own in charge. However, it's beyond obvious at this stage that we are going absolutely nowhere under him. The sooner he gets shown the door the better.

[Bielsa´s irish]

The result was lacking. We should blame ourselves for not scoring, I don't think Ogbene nor Obafemi are the under as 9. Coleman was very good defensively, at some point I would bring Keane for Collins and Coleman as right center back, Kenny thought the game was done and the goal was coming, the screamer was a gift for Mr Kenny.

[Bielsa´s irish]

2nd half we weren't so dominant, the Parrott substitution didn't work out. I would have taken Collins off for a 9 , Kenny wasn't so brave and got pegged back a LA Azerbaijan

[CSAD]

Fairy nuff. Hard to argue against that really. I just don't see it happening.

We're in relegation trouble again.

I don’t either but think it’s needed, I don’t think it’s impossible, While at the moment Ukraine and Scotland are better than us they aren’t great sides and if we play like we didn’t versus Portugal or Serbia we have a shot of winning either game albeit it won’t be easy. Thankfully we have Ukraine 2 days after the WC play off so they may be drained and we might have a shot of catching them cold.

[Razors left peg]

The problem is all Kenny's poor results are coming against low ranked teams because they sit back in numbers and we struggle to break that down. It's happening again and again and he's not learning from it. Rather than just changing the players we need to make adjustments to the shape in games like that.


3 front players with 2 wide and 1 through the middle doesn't work because there's no space in behind. Adjust it to a front 2 with Parrott or Knight playing as a 10.


We just kept doing same over and over