Andorra V Republic of Ireland - Thursday, 3rd June 2021 - Friendly

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Originally Posted by John83

Hungary are a much better team than us. They're at the standard people seem to think we're still at. If we get a score draw there, it'll be a big step forward.

And to be clear, I already switched to the Kenny out camp after Luxembourg broke my patience.

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I had a look at their squad and I didn't think that lined up with your assertion re Hungary. However, their recent results most certainly do. Very impressive.

Recent match results

31 Mar 2021	Andorra v Hungary	1-4
28 Mar 2021	San Marino v Hungary	0-3
25 Mar 2021	Hungary v Poland	3-3
18 Nov 2020	Hungary v Turkey	2-0
15 Nov 2020	Hungary v Serbia	1-1
12 Nov 2020	Hungary v Iceland	2-1
14 Oct 2020	Russia v Hungary	0-0
11 Oct 2020	Serbia v Hungary	0-1
08 Oct 2020	Bulgaria v Hungary	1-3
06 Sep 2020	Hungary v Russia	2-3
03 Sep 2020	Turkey v Hungary	0-1

Failure to beat Andorra should see an immediate end to Kenny's tenure, either through his resignation or sacking, his position would be unjustifiable. There's really no other way of looking at it.

As for Hungary, that will be a difficult but useful game. Defeat quite likely I would say, but a draw not impossible at all.

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Originally Posted by NeverFeltBetter

Failure to beat Andorra should see an immediate end to Kenny's tenure, either through his resignation or sacking, his position would be unjustifiable. There's really no other way of looking at it.

As for Hungary, that will be a difficult but useful game. Defeat quite likely I would say, but a draw not impossible at all.

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I don't see Kenny leaving, he thinks he can turn things around. If it comes to him being sacke, he shouldn't look for a pay-day it would be quite low.

Worth noting on the Eloratings site that Hungary are about 130 points ahead of us, which means they should be expected to beat us two times out of three (ignoring draws)

They've had a great run of form (as flagged) and at the end of 2019 they were actually 100 points behind us.

Our rating there has been sliding too quickly to really treat it as stable. Our performance rating under Kenny is closer to 300 points below Hungary, which gives us odds of more like 4:1 against a win. You'd hope that's an excessively pessimistic estimate. They have quite an old squad, and I'd guess they'll start to slide back in the next year or two. Still, a crap time to play them as they're better than their reputation, just like Qatar were, and Kenny's maybe a bit unlucky to have two such games - where a decent result will look bad, and a good one shrugged off as hardly unexpected - at a time when he needs a bit of positivity.

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Originally Posted by Diggs246

I dont want to start world war 3, but if Andorra beat us 2-0. If there anyone here currently in the "kenny camp" that will defect?

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100% I'd change my mind. I still think there have been a lot of mitigating factors up to this point which is why Im still in the "Kenny Camp". A loss to Andorra would have to be the end of him no doubt. Andorra and Luxemborg are not like for like. I believe Id be right in saying that Andorra are mainly part timers?

Half their squad on wiki is domestic-based anyway, so yeah, I can't see too many of those being full-time pros.

There is an Andorra FC in the Spanish leagues; they're in the play-offs for promotion to the second flight. But there's no Andorran players with them.

Coleman, Doherty, Clark, Stevens, Egan, Brady, McCarthy etc don't deserve the drudgery of this silly friendly. I see no sense in picking players with over, say, five caps. If Stephen Kenny selects them it's primarily to save his own bacon. A team from Foot.ie would beat Andorra.

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Originally Posted by Snapshot

A team from Foot.ie would beat Andorra.

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I sincerely hope Kenny avoids anything like that sort of attitude anyway.

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Originally Posted by Snapshot

Coleman, Doherty, Clark, Stevens, Egan, Brady, McCarthy etc don't deserve the drudgery of this silly friendly. I see no sense in picking players with over, say, five caps. If Stephen Kenny selects them it's primarily to save his own bacon. A team from Foot.ie would beat Andorra.

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Albania only beat them 1-0 in a World Cup Qualifier 7 weeks ago. And yes, Albania are a bit worse than us currently, but I assume they didn't drop all of their best players for that match either. If Kenny doesn't take the match seriously, he deserves to lose and to be fired... out of a canon overlooking the deepest valley in the Pyrenees.

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Originally Posted by Snapshot

A team from Foot.ie would beat Andorra.

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Pick your eleven and bench there :) and formation. Line us up. Paul O'Shea on data analytics with an etch a sketch and a box of Crayolas.

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Originally Posted by Snapshot

Coleman, Doherty, Clark, Stevens, Egan, Brady, McCarthy etc don't deserve the drudgery of this silly friendly. I see no sense in picking players with over, say, five caps. If Stephen Kenny selects them it's primarily to save his own bacon. A team from Foot.ie would beat Andorra.

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Their U21s have had some creditable results recently, drawing with Albania and England, and beating Turkey.

I concede the Foot.ie International Selection might struggle against their U21s. Try stay on topic please.

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Originally Posted by CraftyToePoke

Pick your eleven and bench there :) and formation. Line us up. Paul O'Shea on data analytics with an etch a sketch and a box of Crayolas.

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There seems to be a need from you to try and mock other(s) post(ers) for lack of ability to form an opinion for oneself, or at least the know-how to offer anything close to an informed one, biding time to wade in behind someone who puts a long winded post together. :D Its been long noted, and noticed crafty, not called that for nathin :P

As well as O'Dowda, Kevin Long, and, likely, Brady being out, Clark, Hendrick, Stevens and Browne have been struggling with injuries for a while and require rest...

Stephen Kenny’s summer camp plans hit hard by spate of injuries:

https://m.independent.ie/sport/socce...-40447730.html

I'd imagine Jack Taylor and Jason Knight are in need of rest too, and Duffy might not make it. We might be missing quite a few for this one.

Still, it gives some of the younger lads a chance. The likes of Omobamidele, Richards, McGuiness, McGrath, Coventry, Odubeko and Scully might be in line for call-ups.

Taylor and Knight have all summer to rest. Unless they're injured they would be mad to miss it, Taylor in particular.

I'd say that will only be the start of the dropouts for this. Most of the older generation of players will find reasons to be elsewhere I'd imagine.

I'd expect it to be something like the Staunton 07 US tour - a footnote of the ill-fated Kenny era. Ryan Johansson or someone else equally obscure might have a cap by the time it's over.

https://www.balls.ie/football/the-sq...hey-now-430064

Yeah, and to a large extent that'd defeat the point of the exercise for me.

Also let's be honest here, we do need to win one of these games and the more players that are missing, the more something unthinkable might happen... Andorra have never rolled over lightly for us in the past - took the lead in Lansdowne in 2002 World Cup qualifying and we made heavy weather of things on our last trip in 2010 for example. We've not exactly strengthened since then either.

Plus this goal from the win in 2010 (on 1:43)

Any player that pulls out of this squad for anything other than a legitimate injury should be ignored for the rest of the campaign. I remember in Traps early days he had a similar camp and Liam Miller and Paul Green became mainstays of his team because they were in that early camp and he trusted them.

Kenny being under so much pressure needs the players to buy in to what hes trying to do and if they blow off this squad because they are tired then I'd leave them out of future squads. If we were going to the Euros this summer you wouldnt hear any nonsense about tiredness, players would be fighting to get in the squad.