England V Republic of Ireland - Thursday, 12th November 2020 - Friendly

Going to keep trying to pick positives. Matt Doherty had been brilliant defensively of all the chances conceded almost nothing has come down his side.

Apart from not closing down very well for the Sancho goal, Hemdrick has been pretty good, busy and not giving it away as much as other games.

O'Shea is going to be a big player for us and I think the future is him and Egan.

Idah has huge potential, needs a run of club games but he showed little flashes.

In the run up to the game we lost 3 starters in Robinson, Connolly and Coleman. Before the squad we lost Stevens and McGoldrick. Early in the game we lost Egan, so its a long way from a first choice eleven. A lot of options getting chances and some showing they're not really up to it.

It's been easy for England. As an Irish sports fan you have to get used to losing to England. That's inevitable given the population difference etc. But it should NEVER be easy for them, in any code.

I have no problem with trying to play a bit of football. Some of the stuff we have played this last decade has been brutal. And it's important to have this club in our bag.

What gets me is the lack of pressing. Under Kenny we've stood off every opponent we've faced and let them play. We can't afford to do that against anyone, but doing it against the old enemy is unforgivable.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sbgawa

Timing is everything , we had a manager Jack Charlton who played puke football with probably the best squad of players we ever had (would one player on the pitch tonight get into the 88-94 teams) and we have a manager now who wants to play football with possibly our worst squad ever.

---

Check out the line-up when Ireland last lost to England. Great team. And they were nowhere near the game.

Jack came in and played the right system to get results. With very good players too to be fair.

Back to tonight, we can’t seem to counter attack at all.

Also, England’s passes go to feet. Ireland’s passes go a yard either side of feet which is always going to stop you attacking quickly

Knives will be out for Kenny now. We've a lack of any sort of depth/quality. There are 5 or 6 players who shouldn't be anywhere near International football. A morale boosting win over Oman would've been preferable.

Doherty has spiralled downwards in the last 7 or 8 months.

can't believe lads on here are going down the 'we don't have the players' route. why even bother playing at all in that case?

if you don't have the quality of players you have to come up with an approach that stops the other team playing. not just fold and keep trying to knock it about pointlessly.

this is a failure of tactics and management. it's early days but there are no signs of progress whatsoever.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BOOMSHAKALAKA

The reality is that it may look better to be passing it around and playing out from the back etc but our players aren't good enough to play that style without conceding soft goals and we can't create many chances. We may not have liked their negativity but Trapattoni and O'Neill have been proved right, our players aren't up to it and to compete, we have to play negative football. I really wanted the Kenny era to work but it's crumbling here. He'll need two good results to save himself.

---

It's difficult to disagree with this. I wrote this at half time, and its still fairly relevant, I hope today has been a wake up call for the ardent blinded fans, and for the Management too. You can talk as much as you like about building and possession but we're never going to have players capable of playing that game against England, but we have as in the past has shown against other teams the players capable of scraping out a draw or a freak result from time to time.

"Its a bit worrying really, because you know whatever other manager we had whatever system was played we'd have come out of Wembley with a draw. But for all the talk of having possession and and passing football, we have looked more than second rate against England. And defensively very fragile. I actually thought we'd improved slightly defensively but I just think now that was more the opposition than anything we were particularly doing. We are opened up very easily, when we dont have the ball and the counter is very dangerous for us, because defensively we cant go man to man. And you know now when we go behind its very unlikely we will score - perhaps a late consolation but nothing more. Very worrying indeed. Idah definitely isnt the future either.

We've always been well off the top, but rarely have we shown it so clearly, because we've made up in other ways. We need to have a system where we can contain the big teams, like before, like other managers before Kenny did. Don't be too proud or too stupid to just think we have to play passing, possession football, or we'll be throwing away more competitions just for a potential pipe dream."

Kenny is rightly getting an easier time than other managers would, the disinterest in sport in general with more pressing, major issues in peoples lives and the world , have all worked in his favour, corona has effected all teams but definitely he has been more unlucky than most with injuries and corona related pull outs. But he's had a lot of games now, and I dont see things improving greatly in the next 2 either. We are well off the ability of an England type team, but we're even further off battling to draws or even keeping the scoreline respectable. We still look nothing like scoring either. :(

Interesting to see hear that most people are now seeing that we do need to change and adapt except against the minnows/smaller teams - its encouraging. Those who think that they are better fans for wanting some nice pleasing brand of football
and willing to throw away campaigns for this dream are actually the selfish and less patriotic ones.

The only positive from tonight is that England took it easy on us in the second half.

Utter dross. Did we even put a decent tackle in? Not even a booking against England.

Kenny has to change something, this is not working.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by centre mid

Knives will be out for Kenny now.

---

I mean how many games do people want to give him? If we go 15 games without a win, 10 games without a goal, would people start to question him then? Or should he still get more time because the passing in out own half kinda looks pretty from a distance?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by shakermaker1982

The only positive from tonight is that England took it easy on us in the second half.

Utter dross. Did we even put a decent tackle in? Not even a booking against England.

Kenny has to change something, this is not working.

---

you didnt like my negativity shaker, but sadly its been well founded here. Being serious for a minute and not gloating but I saw it very early on, that is why more tahn anything i wanted this game, i wanted to be positive and hoped for a 1-0 but deep down i knew we needed a reality check, especially for the more blinded amongst us. We've got that now, and hopefully Kenny adapts accordingly.

ANd don't be fooled by who why when chose or let this game happen, it doesnt matter when or who you play, you have to be ready and be as effective as possible - we were nowhere near either today

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sbgawa

bonner
Irwin, McGrath,Moran, Staunton
Houghton, Keene, Townsend, Whelan
Aldridge, cascarino

Would any player on the pitch tonight replace one of these

---

Randolph maybe. Bonner was hit and miss

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sbgawa

Timing is everything , we had a manager Jack Charlton who played puke football with probably the best squad of players we ever had (would one player on the pitch tonight get into the 88-94 teams) and we have a manager now who wants to play football with possibly our worst squad ever.

---

Check out the line-up when Ireland last lost to England. Great team. And they were nowhere near the game.

Jack came in and played the right system to get results. With very good players too to be fair.

Back to tonight, we can’t seem to counter attack at all.

Also, England’s passes go to feet. Ireland’s passes go a yard either side of feet which is always going to stop you attacking quickly

I like that we try to play football. But that doesn't mean we go to Wembley and set up like we are Barcelona with Shane Duffy in the Mascherano role. We can set up like that against the lesser teams. I was hoping that when we play the big teams we could try to play good football in a different way, more Atletico Madrid our something. Acknowledge your weak points but play intelligently, and don't revert to hoof ball.

Does Kenny actually have more than one tactic?

I fear that if this carry on continues that there will be a backlash and we will go back to a hoofball manager.

to be fair we can't carry on like this. that's madness.

I actually didnt realise that people on here weren't so single minded about the passing and also about Kenny and only having one tactic. Its very enlightening. For once consensus on foot.ie :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by brine3

I fear that if this carry on continues that there will be a backlash and we will go back to a hoofball manager.

---

I fear that if things continue like this MON & Micks tactics will be vindicated. It could become apparent that hoofing it and being hard to beat is our modus operandi and that’s where it ends.

What we need is adaptability, get the best out of our players, play the nice game when its possible, but not against top tier teams. Be very hard to beat, but playing 90% of the time decent, easy on the eye football. it can't be all hoof nor can it all be passing happy passing along the backline and midfield.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by D24Saint

I fear that if things continue like this MON & Micks tactics will be vindicated. It could become apparent that hoofing it and being hard to beat is our modus operandi and that’s where it ends.

---

Yes this is is what I am worried about as well . We'll hear "oh well we tried to play and it didn't work".

I cannot recall mentioning your negativity Paul :)

I was delighted when the Trap got the gig. The last 12 months were painful though and it was time for him to go.

I was over the moon with MO’N when he was appointed. I thought we were brilliant at times during the Euros. It did turn sour towards the end. The press went after him and it fizzled out

McCarthy - I wasn’t a fan of his return but he was pretty much par with the results he achieved.

I had hoped the Kenny experiment would give us something different. For too long we were told that the players just needed a bit of faith from their manager. They had been talked down too long. What did experienced managers like the Trap and MO’N know about the modern game etc etc.

Well Kenny and his philosophy has had a reality check. He needs to compromise on his principles to have any chance of surviving. Our build up play is too slow, we aren’t accurate with the basics and we are cut open far too easily.

We are too passive everywhere and too easy to play against.

Some amount of hypocrites on here,maybe a few should lose their short memories and remember what they have posted in the past.So make up yer minds will yee either yee want to see us try play football on the floor or we hoof it .

To be fair we also had Slovakia on the ropes for much of the game and lost on pennos. Those pennos went a different way and we may well be celebrating tonight. Them's the breaks.