I was born in 1983. This is by far the weakest group of players we've had to pick from in my time watching football. Qualifying for the World Cup in 2026 is not a realistic target, never mind 2022.
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I was born in 1983. This is by far the weakest group of players we've had to pick from in my time watching football. Qualifying for the World Cup in 2026 is not a realistic target, never mind 2022.
I would agree as regards 2022. I think it's far to early to know what standard we might be at by the time the 2026 qualifiers roll around though. I'd say there were a lot of Irish football supporters in 1985 who thought we'd probably never qualify for anything ever.
Things can change quickly. But not quickly enough for this year's World Cup qualifiers if we're being honest.
get to play offs and win the semi. that would constitute "getting to the play offs as a minimum" without topping the group...Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
I do think we have a realistic chance of playoffs. I think that we will be much better in March with hopefully a settled squad and no covid.Quote:
Originally Posted by Trequartista20
I completely agree with you about Arter or Horgan. I'd much rather play a younger player that could develop into something than a guy how has never been anything. I still think Connolly and Parrott will be great for us, and we have some very good young midfield options in Molumby, Knight and Cullen.
I'm still very positive about Kenny, I think he's done well in ridiculous circumstances. But I might change my opinion if March is a disaster
I dunno, there have been a few times over the years we'd have said similar things. The team that went through qualifying for the 98 World Cup, despite finishing second, weren't great by any means. But a few months later we had Robbie and Duff and things looked different. Drawing at home to Iceland and Lithuania and losing in Macedonia were far worse results than this group have produced.Quote:
Originally Posted by Colbert Report
Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
What do you mean by "as a minimum"? As in, it's an abject failure to finish third with the current pool of players? That's cloud cuckoo land stuff.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jbyrne
No, that would constitute getting to the playoffs and winning the semi.
Putting covid and player pool aside. No one could possibly think Stephen kenny has done a good job to date. He might, and fingers crossed will do a good job in the future, but 1 goal in 9 games and obviously 0 wins is appalling
Considering that we finished second in the last world cup qualifiers, as fourth seeds, in a much tougher group, finishing third would be a step back IMO.Quote:
Originally Posted by John83
getting to the play offs, and losing the semi, by finishing second in the group should be the minimum.Quote:
Originally Posted by John83
Well, I disagree that it's realistically something we can currently expect, but I certainly hope for an outcome that good. Who knows? If Connolly - or anyone else - starts scoring for us soon enough then my expectations may rise quickly, but we're up against a couple of sides that would consider finishing below us an utterly disastrous qualifying. How many experienced players do we have who aren't considered past it by many here?
I'm looking at the squad and recent call-ups on wikipedia. There are three categories of player:
- Senior players I've read lengthy arguments here to drop as they're not good enough / unsuited to the system / past it: Randolf, Duffy, Christie, Shane Long, and every senior midfielder we have: Hendrick, McClean, O'Dowda, McCarthy, Arter, Brady and Hourihane.
- Players with under a dozen caps. (Only Maguire, Horgan, and Browne are close, and the flaws of the first two have been argued about extensively)
- That leaves three full backs (Coleman, Doherty and Stevens) and three centre halves (Clarke, Long and Egan)? Oh, and our great hope: Callum Robinson, 15 caps, 1 goal.
Six defenders and a forward who doesn't score is not the core of a squad that's going to scare Serbia or Portugal. That's what Kenny is working with.
My minimum expectation is that Kenny ends the campaign with a rejuvenated squad in which we've identified a starting midfield and forward line capable of creating and converting chances, while more or less preserving our defensive stats. After that, we'll actually be in a position to expect results, maybe even very good ones. If it happens right away we can hope to compete in the group, and if it happens too late, Kenny will be sacked. I think the latter is the more likely outcome, followed by an intermediate result where we start poorly / inconsistently and improve dramatically over the campaign. I would like to be wrong.
Portugal are going to top the group, possibly with a 100% record, I'm not arguing that.
The two games against Serbia will decide second spot, a draw in the opening game in March will be a decent result, and we should have at least six points before we play them again in September (beat Luxembourg, beat Azerbaijan. lose to Portugal) that game will be a must win to finish second and get into the play offs.
I see no reason to assume that we'll match their results against the rest of the group given our current toothlessness.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
results like this scare me greatly, I would be suprised is we get max points off them
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09/09/19 ECQ Azerbaijan 1 - 1 Croatia
That was the only game in that qualifying group they didn't lose - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_E...up_E#StandingsQuote:
Originally Posted by Diggs246
They've won six games in the last three years (Faroes twice, Latvia, Bahrain, Kyrgyzstan, and Cyprus), haven't won at home since November 2018, and are currently on a run of four consecutive 0-0 draws.
It might be tougher than people think, but we should still get six points from them
Fair enough, 1 point in their qualifying group, would suggest they are not to be feared ala GeorgiaQuote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
Have you seen how our squad now compares to the squad for the last World Cup campaign?Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
This is absolute nonsense. Seriously. There's nothing more to be said. Serbia have a player who's scored almost as many international goals in the last 5 years as the entire Irish team have. We are odds against to finish second in the group. Something that's odds against cannot be the minimum expectation.Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
I just hope we score a goal during the campaign.
weve got to get out and beat the serbs this time, and hope a flawless campaign from Portugal...Serbia got it hard first two games will define their fate at home.
If we got 1 goal per game in the last 7 competitive games we would have gotten to the play off final v NIR and 10 nations league points. Given our xG (washes out mouth) was 1.31 I'm hopeful of a competitive campaign.Quote:
Originally Posted by osarusan
We're keeping a few clean sheets, to be fair. The record in front of goal is obviously awful but the passing style doesn't seem to make us any more vulnerable at the back than we were playing puke football.
Agree. An apparent inability and/or reluctance to alter or tweak tactics during games is what worries me most about Stephen Kenny. Hopefully he's learned from the goalless run because his credibility has taken a massive hit. He needs improvement before crowds return or he'll get one hell of a bollicking.Quote:
Originally Posted by Diggs246
I dont agree with the mantra we dont have the players, this is international football, no prima donnas could be a key factor, to play the underdogs, we must frustrate Serbia away, the thing is Kenny plays it very openly, and the serbs as the balkans players most have that bit of flair and craft to see a killing pass. From Safet Susic and Dragan Stojkovic till this date.Quote:
Originally Posted by Colbert Report
Kenny's structure must be compact, concrete performance, a tactic performance, a 4-5-1 with quick players from the sides, mistakes will be there, distractions as usual from them, they are drifters when frustrated.
Just to make it work later on, we need a point in Belgrado at least, and a Portugal victory 3 days later, we need 5 wins a 2draws and we might get a chance.
17 points is what we need
Another situation is the attendance, no pressure can help the bigger nations, the fans they always lift the underdogs, as long as there is no attendance, Portugal will win it easily, we must get something from them, our first game is a 6 point match.
Then we could try an all out attack vs the 4th and 5th plus qatar.
Yeah Mitrovic, but what if they cant bend it from crucial places from the sides or corner kicks into the box, then this" Cascarino type of player" is nullified, as long as he is outside the box we will be fine, of course Mitrovic will try to get near Coleman on the far post so if seamus plays he must be very prepared the height difference is huge. Tactic is super important to defend a big guy like Mitrovic, plus he doesnt track back, he isnt good as a teamwork player, so in a way Mitrovic is a luxury player, of course a guy who can score at international level at his prime is something to consider, but as I said we must be smart...avoid silly free kicks from the sides, and keep this fellow out of the box as much as Kenny can set his game planQuote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
I would play it tight in Belgrado with a high line if Mitrovic plays from the start, a bit of width from the sides, good height from the back, I wouldnt play Dara yet.
I would go with
Randolph 33 1,88
Doherty 29 1,86
Egan 28 1,85
Clark 31 1,85
Stevens 30 1,83
Coleman 32 1,77
Cullen 24 1,75
McCarthy 30 1,79
Brady 29 1,76
Connolly 21 1,75
Robinson 26 1,78
They also have Dusan TadicQuote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Alan Kelly to leave goalkeeping coach position: https://www.fai.ie/ireland/news/alan...m-ireland-role
I wonder will we ever know the reality of the situation
Normally I'd be calling for Stephen Kenny to get the sack based on our absolutely awful performances under him, but I don't think it is fair to judge the guy when he's basically just putting together whatever players are eligible and don't have covid. Once this thing is all over, and I hope that will be soon, I think we should give him a full qualification campaign before judging him, as we would with any other manager.
A few pennos gone the other way against Slovakia and who knows
A few years from now, when people are talking about news and sporting events of 2020, the Nations League is not going to be high up on the list.
https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2021...hing-position/
'No reason has been given for Duff's departure, although it is understood he was unhappy at an investigation launched into a video shown to the Ireland players before their friendly against England at Wembley in November last year.'
Most peculiar... what's going on here?
If I was to speculate, I'd say he was ****ed off there was an investigation at all. A lot of players probably think that.
would there have been an investigation without a leak?
If things were going ok in the camp, its hard to believe that video has prompted Duff and kelly to resign. You would have to wonder if they think kenny isnt up to it or the player arnt up to it or both. Deep down do they give a **** about a video
You’d like to think that both of them had the upfront-ness to contact Stephen Kenny directly to explain their points of view / position. Maybe they did.
They probably did to be fair, the more I think about it, the video is a red herring Damien Duff is a national hero, he hasn't quit over a video or the FAI's poor handling of it
Alan Kelly had asthma and covid was here for quite sometime before he quit
if duff left over the video then i would be very disappointed in him. yes, the FAI pay his wages but he is working for the betterment of the team on behalf of the fansQuote:
Originally Posted by Diggs246
It's hard to tell with Kelly - there's a lot more games being postponed now because of covid and he may well have wanted to give it a couple of months to see how things panned out before deciding that it wasn't really safe to return to that environment with an underlying health condition. Or it may just be a convenient excuse. We'll probably never know really. At least there's time there to sort a replacement.Quote:
Originally Posted by Diggs246
If anyone has ever been involved with a B.S. workplace investigation you know how toxic that can be. For guys like Kelly and Duff, the Ireland job is a labour of love. Kelly has a full time gig already with Everton and Duff sounds like he was dragged into the setup to start with.
Neither were doing it for the money and in that situation if you or your boss is accused of something stupid I can understand walking away.
Just for your knowledge, Charlie Queiroz was fired by Colombia a month ago after a fall out with players in the dressing rooms, and popular fans favourite former player and taxi driver Joe Pekerman is also available, and he is the more famous neighbor of the whole Hurlingham City area and zip code.
It starting to feel a bit like we're wasting our time with an obviously out-of-his depth Kenny, used to dealing with semi-pro players. But I'd love to be proved wrong.
After recent events (player/coaching defections, the video scandal and our lack of credible results and performance in previous matches under his stewardship) in the possible event of Kenny falling on his sword/being relieved of his duties who would be best placed to take over from the hapless management currently in place?
Any views?
I have been far from impressed with what I have seen so far, both on and off the field, but he does deserve a run at the world cup qualifiers all the same. Things could get very messy if we slipped up against Luxembourg or were heavily beaten against Serbia though.
As for replacements, it's hard to know. I have a feeling Hughton will get the job at some stage, whether he's next in line it's hard to know, possibly it will depend if he's out of work when the job comes up again. Maybe the one thing in Kenny's favour is a lack of alternative options.