Republic of Ireland V Armenia - Tuesday, 27th September 2022 - UEFA Nations League

Im not too pushed about that. We dominated 1st half, Molumby got stupid and had to be replaced and were left with a black hole of Hourihane and Hendrick in midfield that has killed us for years. Hourihane is the most complacent player Ive ever seen and it just seeps through the team. We thought we had it won and it nearly caught us.

Our squad depth is obviously still very weak when you see the subs that came on. We need a few to step up from the 21s now.

But all in all theres plenty on here that say its all about results ..... so a win is a win and we move on

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Originally Posted by Diggs246

"Hourihane...well....I think he was involved in almost every breakdown in play"

Where do u buy your coke...its good sh*t!

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Did you not watch the game?

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

It wasn't even great for an hour.

They were wojus. We got a set piece and a wonder goal out of nowhere. I never felt we had the guile to play through them though. And when they were giving us the ball 30 yards out, that's poor.

Then the less said about the last 20 the better obviously

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We have no cutting edge, and this has consistently been the case under Kenny. If we don't score from a set-piece or someone creating something out of nothing, like Obafemi did tonight, then we're struggling.

Okay you want to play out from the back play and move the ball into midfield. Then what? We create so little from open play. We don't seem to have a plan, and even at this stage, the team lacks an identity.

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Originally Posted by ontheotherhand

Did you not watch the game?

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I did. Hourihane was hopeless, like he is every time he plays for Ireland
He is a league 1 player and should be nowhere near our international team
He's lack of aggresstion is mortifying and his ability to disappear is at the paul daniels level

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Originally Posted by Trequartista20

We have no cutting edge, and this has consistently been the case under Kenny. If we don't score from a set-piece or someone creating something out of nothing, like Obafemi did tonight, then we're struggling.

Okay you want to play out from the back play the ball into midfield. Then what? We create so little from open play. We don't seem to have a plan, and even at this stage, the team lacks an identity.

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That's exactly it for me. I don't know is it the players aren't good enough or is it a coaching thing. Probably a bit of both really. But while we're not at seven games without a goal level, I don't think we're creating enough at all from open play. It's a big worry

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Originally Posted by Diggs246

I did. Hourihane was hopeless, like he is every time he plays for Ireland
He is a league 1 player and should be nowhere near our international team
He's lack of aggresstion is mortifying and his ability to disappear is at the paul daniels level

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Nobody has seen Paul Daniels for ages ! !

Stephen is talking brown. We were not brilliant/exceptional and we could not have scored 4 or 5 we'd two attempts on goal after they'd scored. He's really losing the run of things , it's very worrying cos he's going to be here a while yet. He's got an altered view of reality. I really don't think he sees the problems.

Our most potent threat is our centre backs. And that's been the case since Robbie went off form

I'm looking back at Kenny's tenure and I think there's just eight performances I am happy with: the Slovakia loss (albeit on pens), the loss away in Portugal, Azerbaijan away, Luxembourg away, Qatar at home, Portugal at home, Belgium, Scotland at home. Two of those were friendlies, two of them were against seeds we wouldn't even think about after beating them in cycles past, two were defeats. That leaves Scotland and the Portugal 0-0.

Kenny has had 28 games now, 21 of them competitive. That's more than enough to form a judgement. If the best that can be said is that he is blooding players for the next manager to benefit from, OK. But if that's the thinking, when can we get that next manager in?

That went exactly how it should do against Armenia. Until it didn?t.

It was generally OK relatively good but done our best to throw it away.

Molumbuy is going to get a costly red card in one of our qualifiers I would be near sure of that.

Subs were poor and have to say not sure Kenny has the know how to make the required in game tactical tweaks (maybe this where someone like Anthony Barry came in useful?) and his subs are generally poor.

I say this as a Kenny loyalist of course (I run the Kenny cult in the Donegal hills) but certainly worrying things there from toward the end of that game.

Hourihane should never play for Ireland again, and I think that was already long the case anyway.

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Originally Posted by paul_oshea

Stephen is talking brown. We were not brilliant and we could not have scored 4 or 5 we'd two attempts on goal after they'd scored. He's really losing the run of things , it's very worrying cos he's going to be here a while yet. He's got an altered view of reality. I really don't think he sees the problems.

Our most potent threat is our centre backs. And that's been the case since Robbie went off form

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In fairness, he's got a queue of media types who would have been out to hang previous managers with a run of form like this ready to make every excuse in the book for him.

No Molumby or Cullen in midfield and we're fcuked. A past it Hendrick and Hourihane and a league 1 right back, not suprised Armenia started to walk through us.

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Originally Posted by Diggs246

I did. Hourihane was hopeless, like he is every time he plays for Ireland
He is a league 1 player and should be nowhere near our international team
He's lack of aggresstion is mortifying and his ability to disappear is at the paul daniels level

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So....you're on the same coke I am then?

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Originally Posted by ontheotherhand

So....you're on the same coke I am then?

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Confused! Are u saying he played well or did I miss understand u completely.?

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Originally Posted by Diggs246

Confused! Are u saying he played well or did I miss understand u completely.?

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I think he was involved in almost every breakdown in play

He was poison.

Breakdown in our play, rather than theirs, which is I think where the confusion is

As expected, I am none the wiser after these two games. Baffling stuff.

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Originally Posted by ontheotherhand

I think he was involved in almost every breakdown in play

He was poison.

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I thought u were saying he broke down all of Armenias attacks!

So neither of us are on coke...which is good

I would aim the blame for this evening falling apart at the players. Not sure how much criticism deserves to be aimed at the manager when they were 2 up against an awful team with 20 minutes to go. More of a problem of individual mistakes rather than systems, I would say.

Hourihane had a stinker and I'm sure he knows it. Silver lining is that he will only be on the pitch if there's a few injuries.

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Originally Posted by yurt

I would aim the blame for this evening falling apart at the players. Not sure how much criticism deserves to be aimed at the manager when they were 2 up against an awful team with 20 minutes to go. More of a problem of individual mistakes rather than systems, I would say.

Hourihane had a stinker and I'm sure he knows it. Silver lining is that he will only be on the pitch if there's a few injuries.

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I think the problem is that Stephen Kenny
Put him on the pitch...instead of just pushing Brady into the midfield and bringing on McClean or Coleman

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Originally Posted by Diggs246

I thought u were saying he broke down all of Armenias attacks!

So neither of us are on coke...which is good

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Maybe I am on drugs. I was completely at a loss as to why you would think I was complimenting him. I'd already posted probably more than enough about how bad he was and of course I assume my posts are read by everyone.

Sorry for the confusion.