Greece V Republic of Ireland - Friday, 16th June 2023 - Euro 2024 Qualifier

[SkStu]

Hopefully. The whole playing out from the back doesn’t suit us.

Not for it’s own sake but I don’t think that’s the main problem.

[Colbert Report]

We are horrible and should be down about five goals by now.

He should resign in shame for being so tactically naive. Of course we need a new manger, I just don't see who would be willing to take over. The FAI are one of the biggest jokes in international football.

[pineapple stu]

That last attack was the game summed up. Our defence AWOL, good approach play from Greece, but no end product.

We should have been out of sight here if they had a decent striker

[Colbert Report]

James McClean is one of my all time favourite footballers, but that was unforgiveable. He shouldn't be playing for us anymore. It kills me to say that as he's been such a loyal servant, but his time has come and gone.

[MichaelCherrito]

Against a decent team, Ireland would be losing this by five goals to one.

[SkStu]

The last thing I’d want is for him to get a 100th cap - one of the most limited players ever to play for us , who’s main contribution is making rash tackles and a inability to cross the ball… picking him sums up Kenny’s lack of tactical nous

He is one of the most frustrating Irish players of all time. Most would be ok with him as a sub given the lack of options for us there but he’s been especially poor tonight.

[SkStu]

Against a decent team, Ireland would be losing this by five goals to one.

At least.

[pineapple stu]

We deserve nothing from this at all.

I wouldn't mind an equaliser tbh because we'd get the point while the general performance has surely done though to move Kenny closer to the door

[Colbert Report]

Jason Knight looks very much like a League 1 player.

[SeanDrog]

The lack of movement off the ball is so frustrating to watch. Really poor performance.

[NeverFeltBetter]

Dreadful since the second goal. I don't know what kind of excuses will be made for Kenny this time, but they're all wearing thin. Once again a win at the end of the window might put off the inevitable.

[Fixer82]

Troy Parrott’s hair sums up Kenny’s tenure as Ireland manager

[NeverFeltBetter]

And you talk about wasting money: how much money was wasted on that training camp to deliver this limp performance? There should be a bit of an inquest into what was done there.

[passinginterest]

Incredibly disappointing performance. Not sure where things go from here. Haven’t managed back to back good performances under Kenny. It’s probably time up now.

[Colbert Report]

What was Doherty thinking? I get that he's frustrated, but come on.

[NeverFeltBetter]

Doherty the moronic full stop at the end of this farce.

[joey B]

Abject failure there, the end is nigh….

[The Fly]

That was absolutely awful - pure sh*t on a stick from our patented donut team.

Sadly we’ll just have to wait for quality players to emerge and fill that hole.

[nigel-harps1954]

Hard to see a way back for Stephen Kenny after this. The beginning of the end.

[liamoo11]

Maybe the worst performance under Kenny,? Its rare you see a side so tactically out thought.

[Calcio Jack]

Doherty the moronic full stop at the end of this farce.

Disgraceful by Doherty …. But shouldn’t deflect from Kenny being the real disgrace.. cue now his usual post match gibberish interview. “.. you know , we’ll we looked you know like we you know ….”

[NeverFeltBetter]

There precious little to think positively about out there. Once again Stephen Kenny's Ireland are realistically out of the running within a few games. It's not good enough. No more moving goalposts.

[ontheotherhand]

Worst performance I've seen in a long time. Do they give stats for unforced errors in football because they would have set a record tonight. Whatever about Kenny, the team were absolutely woeful in terms of their decision making.

As said above though, that training camp was completely useless. Ferguson might as well have stayed home. Doherty is a disgrace.

Bazunu is the only one to come out with any sort of credit at all and that says it all.

[pineapple stu]

Maybe the worst performance under Kenny,? Its rare you see a side so tactically out thought.
Yup. We were so far from what he says he wants from us in terms of possession, etc, that you - again - wonder where this is going.

The contract extension should be looked into...

[osarusan]

Missed the first 5 minutes, but saw that we never even showed up for the first 15 or so, deservedly behind.

Came back into it for a bit, lovely movement for the equaliser, not much in the rest of the first half.

After their second goal, we had 42 minutes to score, and it was one of the most anaemic second halves I've ever seen. No creativity, no plan, no energy, nothing.

They looked like one of those Best XI sides at a charity event who all joined up about an hour before the game never having played together before. It was just dreadful.

Bazunu decent, the rest anonymous at best, if not memorable for how bad they were.

[NeverFeltBetter]

Fair play to Bazunu, when TOD lines up the excuse of the laser pointer, he says straight away it didn't effect him. Don't want to hear about lasers or heat or the end of the season. Those excuses do not cut it.

[liamoo11]

Fair play to Bazunu, when TOD lines up the excuse of the laser pointer, he says straight away it didn't effect him. Don't want to hear about lasers or heat or the end of the season. Those excuses do not cut it.

Yeah fair play to Bazunu

[tommy_c12000]

No idea what is going on with forum IT but wasting time on a lot of posts that get deleted

Operation Kenny has ended. Can be argued it was partly successful during a time that we had a terrible pool of players incapable for qualifying for any major tournaments. Several objectives met - saved money with a LOI manager, significant improvement in FAI finances, and several blooding of promising new players.

Kenny unfortunately hasn’t progressed beyond LOI standard as I had hoped he would. Woefully out of his depth. Now it’s time to get serious with USA 2026 just around the corner. New manager in promptly to enable ample time to fine tune things ahead of WC qualifiers.

[Insidetherock]

He has Monday to say goodbye, and a new manager will be in for the September games

The only thing I expect from him Monday, is give Mc Clean his hundredth cap, and let him finish up too

We've a young team, with potential, but this campaign is over already.. let a new guy prepare for maybe, just maybe.. absolutely poxxing a play off spot..

[shakermaker1982]

He must be close to the chop now?

If I was at the FAI I’d be wondering what they were doing in the training camps. They looked clueless from minute one.

Centre MF do not want the ball and do not offer any protection. What’s the point? Lost count the number of times they took a ball from the CB and it would go straight back or sideways. We cannot play through the lines. That was woeful.

[weldoninhio]

How much are the Greeks paying Poyet? Can’t be much more that we’re paying Kenny.

Is there gonna be a heap of Greece are an up and coming team messages in here tonight? Same as Luxembourg. Same as Armenia. Same as usual.

[Crosby87]

Depressing. Will we ever qualify for a tournament again?

[SkStu]

I have nothing valuable to add to what is being said here, just to reinforce how abject that was. The camp etc all well intended and the right thing to do but he must be totally and absolutely ineffective if that is what the end result is. Total sh!te. Unforgivable really.

[Razors left peg]

Thought we picked the right team. I thought we made the right changes. I thought we had the right preparation.... and we were absolute sh1te.

I dont have any thoughts of where we go from here. Depressed and completely p1ssed off.

[pineapple stu]

Thought we picked the right team
I think Idah has a lot to show before he starts again tbh. But other than that - yeah, I agree.

I still think with Johnstone and Ferguson, Monday will be handy enough. But then in September we play Holland? They mayn't have been great last night but they'll still have more than enough for us. Fourth place looks likely cos we've a long way to go to beat that Greek side at home

[Calcio Jack]

Where is Wally… I mean Kenny

[sbgawa]

Kenny out , at this stage it doesnt matter if he is the messiah or not , we need a change

[Supreme feet]

Appalling. Cullen and Molumby were like Darron Gibson and Paul Green in midfield, at their worst. We were naïve, shockingly organised, timid in possession, and too easy to play through. Wing-backs were beyond rubbish. Against a pretty modest team. Very disillusioned.

[Razors left peg]

I think Idah has a lot to show before he starts again tbh. But other than that - yeah, I agree.

I still think with Johnstone and Ferguson, Monday will be handy enough. But then in September we play Holland? They mayn't have been great last night but they'll still have more than enough for us. Fourth place looks likely cos we've a long way to go to beat that Greek side at home

Yeah Idah was terrible, but at least he pulled him off at half time. Same with Smallbone, it wasnt working and he changed it early. But we had no spark. Everything was slow and painful. Players couldnt make basic forward passes.

I dunno, yeah of course manager will get the flack, but the players I thought deserve a lot of the blame tonight. Doherty was awful, Lenihan kept giving ball away, Collins was sloppy, Molumby was crap, Cullen kept passing backward, O'Dowda the cause of 2 goals, Ferguson worked hard with no supply but touch was poor at times, Idah was horrible, Smallbone ineffective. Subs not much better.

I give up! Maybe a different manager will get rid of the inconsistencies in performances, but tonight Im scratching my head with no answer

[mark12345]

How old will Evan Ferguson be before Ireland are capable of playing like Greece? 18? 28? 108?

[Trequartista20]

Realistically we're out of the running for qualification after two games. It's all so predictable. The natural breaking point arrived at the of the disappointing Nations League campaign and the FAI should have acted.

Can anyone come up with a credible reason for now persisting with Kenny? Because there's nobody better available? Really? He's getting very well paid by international standards for what he does. Is there truly nobody more competent out there who'd accept the job?

It's was same old story again tonight. We're far, far too easy to play against don't even get the basics right. Kenny, as nice a man as he is - and I very much doubt his detractors feel any personal animus towards him - simply isn't up to the task. Something many of us had worked out within his first half-dozen games in charge.

[tetsujin1979]

This could have been phrased better
1669809458770321409

[Razors left peg]

This could have been phrased better
1669809458770321409


Maybe its phrased perfectly

[geysir]

Thought we picked the right team. I thought we made the right changes. I thought we had the right preparation.... and we were absolute sh1te.

I dont have any thoughts of where we go from here. Depressed and completely p1ssed off.
We have some decent players but we don't have the quality at midfield to go 3 at the back and definitely not away from home. Even Greece at home play a standard 4 at the back and have a covering midfielder to protect that space in front.

[SwanVsDalton]

Chastening night - embarrassing, shambolic and surely the end for Kenny, whether it comes with the quick immediate hook or at the end of a slow death in November.

I was a big fan of the appointment and I really wanted it to work, but this rollercoaster, while never boring, has quite outstayed its welcome.

I agree the players carry a lot of the blame. Many of them are too experienced now to be spoonfed. But watching them with sustained spells of possession in the second half was just so, so painful - a bunch of guys who clearly didn't know where to go, what to do. Players bunched together in the final third, moving into the same zones or completely static. Can't say anything more damning than the attacking player we missed more than any other was Shane Duffy.

We need to go back to cutting out cloth for a bit. That doesn't mean we have to fall into any old two-banks-of-our Trapps but that was a very attacking team that got shown up in every phase. We can't go out so naive, so clueless again. Northern Ireland are out there almost getting away points in Copenhagen with Jonny Evans and 10 AN Others. I'd take a bit of that again while we try to figure out who the hell we are.

[mypost]

Yeah fair play to Bazunu

Yeah fair play alright. Third consecutive loss with him in goal now. All one goal scorelines.

No Irish manager has ever won in Greece. No Irish manager has beaten Greece at all. The team is crap. The players are pub standard. Add in heat, and a cobbled together bunch of rusty players at the end of a long hard season, and all the ingredients were there for what happened, so they happened. Changing Kenny is not going to turn water into wine.

[Dave77]

Tonight was so poor. First time in Kenny’s time I thought players didn’t seem to be really believing in their manager/ managers plan. Unfortunately I think players seemed to have lost confidence which is reflection on Kenny and management team.

I was all for Kenny, knows Irish football and seemed to always believe players can play above themselves (2016 Dundalk in Europe). However tonight they looked utterly outclassed by very average international team. It’s terrible that very average players from Greece look so comfortable in tight spaces, always positive in possession where Ireland played back even when they had chances to turn. 2 wing backs for Ireland consistently sat deep rather then push on, mcclean had acres to move into but never went into space even when Johnston had gone inside.


One of the posters here said could anyone come up with arguments to keep Kenny. Unfortunately I can’t but only thing in his favour is FAI are broke and would cost them a few quid to get rid of him but also they would have to pay him off and then pay a new manager. Kenny is on €500,000 a year. I assume FAI could not afford to pay much more. What manager would come and work for that kind of figure. I don’t think it’s an attractive job at all. Not an argument for Kenny just an observation.

****e night

[Real ale Madrid]

Disappointing performance more than anything. Midfield is a massive problem and I'm not sure what the answer is. O'Dowda shown up. Too many gaps. Kenny needed to hang his hat on this campaign and this was a key game.

[eitoof]

You can blame Kenny all you like but it's actually extremely simple.
This is one of the worst crops of players we've ever had. To some extent, we're all guilty of overhyping the players but if we actually look at them dispassionately, they are almost all bang average players.
Ferguson obviously has potential. Looks like we have a couple of decent keepers. And that's it. A bunch of championship players in the main who I'm sure are honest, decent lads but a million miles from the level of player Ireland used to have in the glory years.

[SkStu]

Tonight was so poor. First time in Kenny’s time I thought players didn’t seem to be really believing in their manager/ managers plan. Unfortunately I think players seemed to have lost confidence which is reflection on Kenny and management team.

I thought the same tonight too for the first time. I’d been thinking it all throughout the second half (given how they came out and how poor all the subs were, Johnston excepted) but in some ways it was the Doherty red card that cemented it for me.

Probably taking it a step too far but I wonder if this is the sort of performance and general game that would put Cannon completely off?

I missed the post game interview - anything worth reporting from that?