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

I said after Luxembourg that Kenny was finished, a caretaker in all but name. Well, it might not be a loss but a draw against a side of this quality is still a disaster. I guess he's doubly finished. I was all for time and the experiment being given a chance, but never with dropped points , at home, to the bottom seeds. Any trace of goodwill for the Portugal performance was just wiped out.

I no longer think he should be given the campaign, he should do the honourable thing and resign now. If he refuses he should be sacked. Who should replace him is a fair question, but he shouldn't be in his position. I sympathise with the injuries and COVID absences and the little things that went against him, but these results aren't acceptable.

Bazunu was fine, helpless for the goal, that late spill a sign that he's not all there yet. Idah's effort I appreciated, thought Horgan tried when he came on. Duffy was Duffy. We didn't lose. I don't have much positives to otherwise speak of. Poor going forward, too many players were passangers, we were outplayed for spells by a side in a triple figure ranking position. We were lucky to get a point. Kenny out.

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Originally Posted by passinginterest

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

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You've missed the sarcasm smiley :)

Pathetic showing that.

Yep thats as bad as its been for a long time. I dunno what the answer is but this is not it.

Kenny looks like a dead man walking on the sideline. I think this is it.

Waiting to be told how the evidence of my own eyes is wrong and we are moving in the right direction. I appreciate it may take a while to put that narrative together.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

You've missed the sarcasm smiley :)

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Ah someone has to counter the pure negativity. It’s a shocking result and there’s a huge lack of confidence in front of goal that’s just killing us. 20 scoring chances, it’s been a feature of the regime so far, but not sure if that’s a management issue or a player issue or both. I’m still not sure what another manager does differently.

20 chances, one conversion. That is unacceptable. For any team, of any level, of any age.

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.

No more excuses. Kenny out. He's worse than Stan.

Ach, now that I think about it my oul van isn't great in the heat anyway, the empty quarter might have been a bit much for her.

Qualification was realistically already gone. Was hard. You place kids the wont save your day. Molumby was playing good al of the sudden went like a rugby crazy. Needs a psicologist. Connolly wasnt fit enough we didnt get any luck. Ireland have away the first half. If he doesnt beat Serbia he must resign.

Thing is there's no progress, it's small steps forward followed by giant leaps backwards. I've said it before that I really wanted this to work with Kenny, but you have to call a halt sometime. Let him have the Serbia game because what's the point of him not taking it, but after we lose that game - and really, how can anyone expect that we won't? - that's it. I'd be willing to hear arguments for just about anyone else.

Kenny has to go now. It was obvious after 20 minutes that we needed to change formation and get 2 through the middle. His subs were awful. I've defended him up to now, even said he should get the next campaign if we got 6 points in these games. We were so tactically inept today that I've changed my mind completely. That was horrific

Appalling once more. If Kenny really does care about Irish football and its future he'd do the decent thing.

He's absolutely killing our coefficient, making his inevitable predecessor's job that much more difficult.

We ended in desperation centering in and out. Got bad luck with that screamer bad timing toó. The team improved in 2 nd half. First half we played at parches. Molumby was an engine but then he went crazy ..

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Originally Posted by passinginterest

Ah someone has to counter the pure negativity. It’s a shocking result and there’s a huge lack of confidence in front of goal that’s just killing us. 20 scoring chances, it’s been a feature of the regime so far, but not sure if that’s a management issue or a player issue or both. I’m still not sure what another manager does differently.

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No, that's fair.

I think the biggest thing for me was that the goal was Duffy's. And a lot of our chances were a cross into the box to the big guy. There was no hint of more creative chances which I can only presume we're trying to create. No hint of being able to crack open a defence with a nice pass. Just predictable stuff.

The goodwill from Wednesday has largely gone; we've shown we can defend but can't attack. I don't know where we go next

I didn't think any of those 20 chances were that good, goal excepted. There was determination but with a disappointing quality of football for this level, not just from Horgan but also from our better players, poor quality decision making.

Like, if you told me John Kiely would be willing to see out the campaign, I would prefer him to be in the seat.

Exactly. Their goal was really bad luck. We recovered but at parches. I thought Molumby was really good 1st half .. Then he went loco!