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!

The question is. Are be better than Zimbabwe or north Korea?

As soon was the team was announced you felt the writing was on the wall.

As far as Kenny's replacement goes, I suppose it all depends on the FAI's finances.

If we really are brassic, Jim Goodwin, for example, could hardly do any worse.

I told everyone Collins had to start here. We lacked a 9. Idah is good but he can play on the sides. We really got unlucky under him. If we lose to Serbia he must resign. Take the good stuff and make over the bad parts

Huff and puff but nothing else. Azerbaijan are atrocious, and we had no idea whatsoever how to break them down. No guile. No leadership. Dire stuff.

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Originally Posted by Razors left peg

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

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I agree with this regarding the formation and the subs. Horgan woeful. Mcclean so wasteful . Doubt he will be sacked I'd give him a bit longer

Kenny found semi-pro Rovers a step too far, let alone Dumfirmline.

It's unfortunate but the sceptics have been proven right - It's time to finally put this guy out of his misery.

We haven't been able to reliably break down poorer teams since Roy Keane was in midfield.

When we played against these kinds of teams post-Keane, it was always the same type of performance.

It's the same old thing. So whatever project Kenny is trying to implement, it's not happening, for whatever reason. Be it the players not listening, poor players, wrong tactics, or whatever.

It's time for Kenny to put his interests to one side and move on for the good of our country. It's also time for those in the media who back him none stop to say it as it is. He's way out of his depth. Just because he's a LOI man doesn't change that. We've gone so far backwards under Kenny that it could take us years to recover. If he comes out with excuses again in his interview, he should be ran out of the place tonight.

Hard to analyse it at this stage. I do think there’s an issue with Kenny’s use of subs. He rarely seems to get them right and they rarely make us better. We’re awful in midfield. Cullen is fine as the defensive pivot but there’s no creativity ahead of him. McGrath looked like he might offer that, but assuming he had an issue of some sort not to be involved today.

Molumby and McClean were presumably there for the tempo. It worked to an extent with Molumby but he’s a liability at times, McClean just hasn’t got the pace anymore and without that he offers nothin. Set pieces up to Hourihane coming on were woeful, McGrath was missed for that alone too.

Connolly needs to find his confidence somewhere, there’s promise there, but for now he doesn’t offer enough. Idah will come good, he had chances today to add to the hold up play, he’s always been a player who scores in bursts throughout the age groups. Once he scores he’ll keep scoring.

Considering we’re still not really creating chances by playing through teams I’d like to see a more traditional front 2 against Serbia, maybe Idah and Robinson or even Idah and Collins, if most of our play is only going to lead to crosses into the box.

If the forwards aren’t scoring you hope the midfield will chip in with a few, but there was no sign of that. Maybe Browne would have offered a bit more of a threat or even Hendrick. The fact none of them are playing regularly bar Cullen and McGrath does nobody any favours.

We were awful under O’Neill/Keane just a as bad under McCarthy but Kenny is simply useless and has brought failure to a new depth so should go…. Of course he won’t on account of his misguided belief that he has something to offer…. As already posted failed abysmally at any big job he held in the past so don’t expect him to walk but needs to pushed

Why would he change the wing backs from Portugal. They were both brilliant. He took away Coleman as attacking threat and put in McClean who gives the ball away all the time. That was the start of the issues. Then after 20 mins we could see 3 up top wasn't working. Idah needed a man beside him. Game was crying out for a bit of cleverness in midfield. Jamie McGrath left on bench! Taking off Connolly at ht for Horgan was mind blowing. It was doubling down on what wasn't working rather than using Connolly off Idah. Hourihane needs to stop being picked for squads, he's a waste of a jersey. We actually improved when Collins came on, because he was a 2nd striker that we needed

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Originally Posted by BOOMSHAKALAKA

It's time for Kenny to put his interests to one side and move on for the good of our country. It's also time for those in the media who back him none stop to say it as it is. He's way out of his depth. Just because he's a LOI man doesn't change that. We've gone so far backwards under Kenny that it could take us years to recover. If he comes out with excuses again in his interview, he should be ran out of the place tonight.

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Kenny is out of his depth as you say. But my God so are the 15 or so players who pulled on the shirt tonight and for several nights in the recent past. Only joy I get out of Irish football these days is following the U 21's, a team that can actually put the ball in the net.

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Originally Posted by Razors left peg

Why would he change the wing backs from Portugal. They were both brilliant. He took away Coleman as attacking threat and put in McClean who gives the ball away all the time. That was the start of the issues. Then after 20 mins we could see 3 up top wasn't working. Idah needed a man beside him. Game was crying out for a bit of cleverness in midfield. Jamie McGrath left on bench! Taking off Connolly at ht for Horgan was mind blowing. It was doubling down on what wasn't working rather than using Connolly off Idah. Hourihane needs to stop being picked for squads, he's a waste of a jersey. We actually improved when Collins came on, because he was a 2nd striker that we needed

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I think on paper there’s a logic to moving Coleman inside as he can carry the ball out and you hope McClean brings drive and tempo and pace. But I fully agree, given how well they both did in Portugal, it seems mad not to have left them as they were. Omobambidele looked confident enough on the ball that he could have probably done similar to Coleman in the central position anyway.

I thought Horgan for Connolly made sense to be honest; Connolly (and Parrott and, to a lesser extent, Idah) offered nothing up front and we needed to shake things up. Horgan nearly set up a goal within a minute or two of coming on.

I think there's lots of issues all coming together into a perfect storm here. The FAI mismanagement under Delaney has led us to a stage where we've no experienced players of note. Our young prospects are just that - young prospects. Maybe they'll come good, maybe they won't, but they shouldn't all be on the pitch together. And then there is almost certainly an element that Kenny isn't up to the task of leading them - any more than Byrne or Scales were really worth the call-up based on their LoI performances.

I think today was the worst case scenario - all the good from last Wednesday is gone, all our weaknesses in terms of attack are still there, it's really hard to see us getting anything from Tuesday, and I'm not sure how much we're really progressing.

All quite depressing really.

Not sure I have enough posts to comment on the game, but.....

That simply wasn't good enough. The players have to take a lot of the responsibility for it, but I thought SK's performance on the sideline was terrible.

The subs - what was he trying to achieve? If it was a choice between Connolly or Parrott at HT - how did he think Troy deserved to stay on, he looked completely lost in the first half and was even worse in the second. Connolly wasn't great, but he did create a sitter for Idah and worked the keeper himself.

Molumby was another who should have been hooked at the break. Running around like a headless chicken, contributing nothing. And then to replace him with Hourihane who only delivered one good cross/free-kick (EDIT actually he delivered a few decent balls in to the box). McGrath or even Hendrick would have been the better option.

McClean is a busted flush at this stage. He doesn't even bring energy to the team like he used too. Horgan is much better at it than him now, but unfortunately is just as awful in possession.

I can't understand how the coaching team didn't see a change in formation was needed at HT, we needed two up top for the second half. It was plain to see.

Maybe we needed Ciaran Clark.... :p

The Kenny Out brigade never miss an opportunity. Half these posters were nowhere to be seen after the Portugal match when we performed well.

I don't know what I think re Kenny at present. I admire a lot of what he is trying to do but then the selection tonight was wrong on a few fronts so I find it hard to defend him.

Overall, I'm torn.

In fairness, the more this goes on, the more the Kenny Out brigade kind of have a point.

The Portugal game has been wasted tbh.

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Originally Posted by Olé Olé

The Kenny Out brigade never miss an opportunity. Half these posters were nowhere to be seen after the Portugal match when we performed well.

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While we did well in patches in that match we could just as easily have conceded 5 in that match between the missed penalty, Jota header against the post and Bernardo Silva sitter. I thought it was a bit OTT to be over praising Kenny & the players after that match. At the end of the day Kenny has to be given the boot. He isn’t up to it.

I wonder is 3 at the back hurting us when we play teams like Luxembourg and Azerbaijan where we are expecting to control the game whereas against teams like Serbia and Portugal where we expect not to have much of the ball it works so much better. Definitely what was noticeable today and against Luxembourg is the frantic play. Add that to some of the terrible misses we’ve had and it tells me the issues particularly in these games is mentality. 3 at the back works against teams equal or better than us but against teams we should be expected to beat we should play 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3.

Lucky not to lose that game and at times Azerbaijan looked the better passing team.

Agree 100% with the points made about the wingbacks played against Portugal - the rationale for the change would be interesting to hear.

Cullen and McGrath were a far better partnership than Cullen and Molumby. I think Molumby will have a great future , but today he is a long way from delivering anything near an international standard performance - could not effectively replace Mcgrath on Wednesday and could not impose himself on the midfield today. All the more cudos to Cullen for still managing to perform. Not sure why Kenny left Molumby on so long.

Got the tactics wrong up front - a front two would have made all the difference. (EDIT - frankly Kenny did no favours to Idah - left him exposed and demanded way too much)

Shocking performance against a terrible team we made look half way decent. I don't think Kenny really knows what to do.