That's actually even worse than I thought - we're the only team they've ever beaten on penalties at a World Cup!
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That's actually even worse than I thought - we're the only team they've ever beaten on penalties at a World Cup!
I take issue with the Hans Christian Andersonisation of Kenny’s time in charge of the 21s. “His ace”?? He had them for 12 games. They were no more “his team” than Giles etc were Cloughs team.Quote:
Originally Posted by passinginterest
We’re told his time there was a big success, even thought he failed to qualify with probably the best underage team since Kerrs.
We were constantly told that he needed time to put his stamp on the senior team, that you can’t judge him over 10-15 games etc, yet the reverse is expected to be believed about his time with the 21s. It’s mind blowing.
Yeah I agree with this. The group he got at 21s were excellent all the way up from 16s to 17s and 19s and we'll documented on this forum for a number of years. We had discussed the fact that we had what appeared to be more quality players spread across a few age cycles than we had seen for a long time and that this would feed into the 21s and hopefully seniors. It was the reason that in those very bleak nights of getting hammered by Wales in the nation s league we felt there was a better cycle on the way. Kenny got these players when he took over at 21s so was lucky in that respect but to his credit did well with them as would have been expected given their underage results
previous managers never looked at those excelling in younger age groups though. there were people from certain circles in football bemoaning kenny on twitter for calling up the likes of bazunu and parrott etc to 21s instead of letting them play 19s. he needs to get some credit at least for taking the plunge with the younger better ones and not just playing a load of 21 year olds with 6 months of eligibility left.
Well at least we have a name. However, as someone who wants a new manager because of the below issue...Quote:
Originally Posted by BOOMSHAKALAKA
...the inquisitions after games from Tony should be fun....Quote:
He struggles to put a cohesive sentence together.
"So Marcelo, you useless idiot, we have gone 10 games without a win, conceding 40 goals in that time. How do you explain the downturn in results?".....
"Si, hdgjxghvv gcgjfdgjjfgdddj jgcfjkkdddggg igf gffhjjfddgg fcbklkfssgjjffv gffh khgvvvjjdddrghh kkg khgfvhhffcjjfg vbk hgddff jkgfgbjbvvbkgfhhfh lhjjfdsdpgggffh ffjjgddfjkjj kkgv cvbhfdfggh dfjlllggvvijgff cvbnkkbvcd ujffgh kkfdfgjncddjj hhkoohtdsghj fhjjkbfssghnjnkkj futbol"
Translator: "Yes, well basically I think the team is useless at football"
"Thank you Marcelo"
"Gracias"
The nature of the discussion is tiring, but if his critics were to give him the time to do the job instead of wanting him out after every single game regardless of the result, the debate would be healthier.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Most of the losses he's had were during the first half of the 30 games, with mitigating circumstances. Yes we've lost games since then, but the results in the second half of those games have generally been par for any Ireland manager in the past 20 years. Whether that's good enough for people depends on what they want from an Ireland team, and whether they were prepared to give Kenny any sort of chance from the beginning in Bulgaria.
The uncomfortable truth for them is, we won in Malta. We won 50% of our home games this year, won 50% of the last 6 games, and we don't fire managers after winning friendlies. If we catch France on a WC hangover and get the same scoreline, it's only those who still want him out at all costs, who will whinge about it.
Yep mypost, it's a futile discussion to a point, because he's in the job for the next year, and if he's dismissed, it'll be a cheap in-house replacement - Keith Andrews or Jim Crawford.
I'm in the camp of 'I like what he's trying to do, and will give him leeway as long as we're bringing through young players and playing constructive, modern football, but I worry about his competence to organise us - especially our attack - and I'm frustrated by the results against weaker teams.'
The worst thing is when a manager is committed to something that obviously doesn't work. Like Kerr picking Kilbane in centre mid, or Trap leaving out ball players and picking cloggers who actually cost us goals, and constantly gave the ball away, because 'defence'. Or lots of managers picking Glenn Whelan. At least Kenny has shown some ability to change the formation and personnel when it's not working, rather than doubling down on mistakes.
The second-worst thing is when a manager goes back on his good principles. Like Kerr abandoning youth and good football in favour of Holland and Kavanagh in midfield and 'lamp it up to Gary Doherty'. I supported Kenny when he was picking Omobamidele, Nathan Collins, Parrott and Idah ahead of Duffy, Clark, Hogan and James Collins. I don't support him when he picks Hendrick and Hourihane ahead of blooding Coventry, Hodge and Smallbone. I supported him when we were beating presses, playing good ball, creating chances with good passes into feet. I don't support him when we're hoofing crosses into 5'10" and 5'7" centre-forwards when they're playing against gigantic Norwegian centre-backs.
This is typical mypost ******ology.Quote:
Originally Posted by mypost
"Give him time to do the job" - but he's had 30 games. "We won 50% of the last 6 games" - as the saying goes, there's lies, gross lies, and mypost's statistics. Two of those wins were dreadful performances against Malta and Armenia.
Unfortunately, after a decent enough last quarter of 2021, things seem to be going backwards now. "We won in Malta" - because they gifted us a goal we never looked like scoring. We scraped past Lithuania in the 97th minute. Enough of those performances, and one will bite you - stand up, Yerevan. And we got out of jail in the home game too.
One of the main criticisms of Mick was that we were really starting to struggle against the lower seeds - Georgia and Gibraltar in his case. We dropped two points in Tbilisi which was seen as a really bad performance. Now we take these sort of results as de rigeur. But if you aim to play passing, possession football like Kenny does (and that's a good thing) you should start to see an uptick in results against the minnows. They can't just sit and defend long balls; they have to be smarter - and they're not, by definition. So when Malta - whose best player is at Oxford - comfortably match us (worst player - Oxford) for 90 minutes, one howler aside, then there's problems. And when that happens with regularity, it's alarming.
Yes, the squad is the worst it's been in living memory - and it's unbalanced too; lots of defenders and no attackers - so that's a mitigant in his favour. But let's have less of the bull**** stats please.
(I do agree with Supreme Feet about the worry over who the successor would be given no budget and a possible contract pay-off if we sack him tomorrow)
I was wondering recently if the several goals we've conceded from 20 yard shots would have happened with Glenn in the team.Quote:
Originally Posted by Supreme feet
I've said it before and I'll say it again. We don't know our team. Under McCarty, Trap, O'Neill, Kerr, Charlton...after a couple of years we'd a good idea what the team was. Now nobody knows.
Bazunu in goal for sure...after that...Egan, Doherty and maybe Cullen are the only dead certs to start when fit.
Kenny hasn't built a team. I'm not sure his vision was built around players but rather a system that anyone could be put into.
Even Stan brought in Jonathan Douglas and stuck him in midfield for a campaign to break things up. He wasn't a Premiership player but he was probably the right man at that time for that particular job. That was his job for that campaign.
It seems totally fluid at the moment and after two years, for me, that's not good enough. There's no stability in the squad.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fixer82
We'd all disagree with our own opinions for a starting 11 and formation whereas in golden eras players were nailed on to start. Players should be nailing down their positions ideally with their performances, for example I thought Ogbene and Knight were invaluable going forward after the small upturn a while ago, but both not selected for whatever reason as starters. I genuinely wouldn't have a clue who to select. The manager really should have a nailed down 11 in his head, but he could be a horses for courses type.
OK, here I go defending Kenny again :) or rather I should ask the question: is it fair to say the following?
Bazunu, Doherty, Egan, Collins, O'Shea, Cullen, Molumby, Knight, Obafemi and Parrott all start if fit / playing regularly / available (like Knight wasn't) now I'd say. McClean probably too.
Coleman is touch and go.
Omobamidele, O'Dowda, Obafemi, Parrott & Brady have all been injured at various times, necessitating changes. Brady and O'Dowda haven't had the opportunity to make a starting spot their own. Ogbene, Robinson, Hendrick, Browne and Hourihane come into the team depending on others' fitness. Brady and O'Dowda being back puts doubt on McClean's position.
Duffy hasn't been playing. Idah, Connolly came and went in different circumstances. Horgan was tried and ultimately seen not good enough. Obafemi and Parrott's emergence has phased out Collins...
Bazunu's regular club football keeps him ahead of Kelleher.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fixer82
if anything theres too much stability, hes still calling up hourihane and having to use hendrick.... nearly everyone could belt out 8/9 starters. we've had issues with forwards mostly down to injury/club form. seems a bizarre angle to come at SK.
Gareth Southgate and Didier Deschamp have been in the job for forever and don’t know their best teams
To be fair, they both have far, far bigger player pools to choose from
The funny thing is that I would contend that Kenny has already done both of those "worst things" you have listed. He continues to try to implement a system that we don't have the players to successfully play despite two years of evidence right in front of his face that it won't work in its current form. And his overall selections and substitutions in the recent friendlies confirm that the youth development angle seems to have been well and truly discarded in favour of conservative selections that seek only to try to save his own position as manager.Quote:
Originally Posted by Supreme feet
Speaking about Kenny and his system which he can't implement, how about that nation the same size as us which just knocked Brazil out of the World Cup? Looks like we're on the road to nowhereQuote:
Originally Posted by Eirambler
Fairly pointless comparison. To just compare populations means little, just as it would if we beat China with their billion plus population.Quote:
Originally Posted by mark12345
Every Irish manager, Kenny included, is hamstrung by the abject state of our domestic structures, facilities, and training programmes, or lack thereof.
The real question is whether he is doing an acceptable job with the resouces at his disposal - is he achieving what he can realistically be expected to achieve with the players available to him. For me the answer is still a No.
Does he look like he's getting closer to achieving that? For me, it's another No.
And after the time and games he's had, that's unacceptable.
read this article today and thought of my post above. While i wont say "i'm right" as it is clearly a very nuanced topic, the article does support that possession without intent is meaningless in terms of team effectiveness and that good players make a big difference. Anyway, more so thought it might be a good read for those interested...Quote:
Originally Posted by SkStu
https://theathletic.com/2352067/2021...c-in-football/
I would say the population comparison is significant. How can Croatia (and indeed Uruguay) with similar population do infinitely better than us. It's all down to coaching. And while ours may have improved a bit, we're still not remotely close to these standardsQuote:
Originally Posted by osarusan
I think people are overestimating the standard of Croatia's domestic structures to be honest. Generally what their national team has achieved is done despite their domestic setup, not because of it.