Unfortunately we're seeing Josh Cullens limitations..
Same with Burnley.. he's an excellent Championship player, but he'll be dropped in a week or two at Burnley, and he'll spend the rest of his career getting teams to the Premiership, them getting let go
What kind of food is served in French stadiums? Do they have fancy hotdogs
No shame in this performance at all. France are really, really good. While we're all disappointed in the result, I think this went as well as it could have.
Agree on Cullen, as I’ve said previously he’s a championship level player. Burnley will need to upgrade in that area if they are to survive
It would be great to get someone new in now, it is inevitable so why waste time when you can give the new guy early dead rubber competitive games
Smallbone looks like a better long term option as a 6. Can actually play the ball forward.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crosby87
We did better in DublinQuote:
Originally Posted by Colbert Report
We just didn’t lay a finger on them second half. The one thing we knew would happen is that France would come out blazing and looking to put the game to rest and we made it so easy for them. A bit cynical but stick a foot through them early in that half and set them back a bit. Take a yellow. But we just let them come at us. After that goal there’s nothing you can do as players, heads drop and it’s just damage control.
The entire program is stuck in neutral at best
Men against boys. Lucky not to lose by more. France coasted and did what was needed.
SK will be happy enough, only 2-0 in the end.
one of those awkward situations where the head says i hope we don't get a result v the dutch in case it means he stays on. He couldn't have done much more tonight (bar the obvious mistake of starting stevens), but it's the other results and performances that should see him shown the door.
Another game/result like that in a few days and SK will be getting another few months. Somehow.
France won without really needing to break a sweat. It was always going to be like that I guess.
I find it hard to criticise anybody as the opponent was just better. We were game enough I suppose, but we're just a very limited team and were simply outclassed.
We're parked on a hill with a dodgy handbrakeQuote:
Originally Posted by Crosby87
there were some positives - kept the goal difference down so still in the box seat to finish 4th in the group.
Yup. We put ten men behind the ball and just defended. Practically zero ambition in the second half. To an extent I don't recall us ever playing before.Quote:
Originally Posted by SkStu
Yet it worked I suppose - even if France missed two or three glorious chances. It really could have been 4/5 but wasn't.
I think Kenny comes out of that one about as he went into it. But we can't do the same on Sunday surely?
One random stat - four games in and we mathematically can't win the group
Reality is.. you now see the group take shape..
France will win it easily
Holland will easily take second
If Ireland beat Greece at home.. they'll likely finish third.. depending on goal difference between the two sides and Gibralter
Finishing third.. is where we're supposed to finishing.. playing to our seeding
We've brought through, a whole new squad.. not even a new team.. Ebosele tonight is the 19th new debutant..
We've played most of the last 8 games, with an u21 team.. hopefully, hopefully.. the next manager, because I expect Kenny to be gone next week.. can take on those players.. do well in the world cup qualifiers, probably not qualify there either.. but have a mature team ready for the Euros in 2028..
We're playing better football than when Kenny started.. but we need results..
Stevens, Browne, Duffy, Mc Clean, Keane, and a few more.. we may as well drop them now, but they'll maybe get the end of the campaign.. but we do have lots of.. potential
Hopefully it's going to come through
Crikey - France had 25 shots but only 5 on target. Wasteful stuff
The opponent are just better, of course but the bar is so low that we didn't lose 4-0, the players showed up in the correct tops, no one appeared to lack sobriety or show up at the wrong stadium so we are happy.
In the glory days of foot.ie it would not be good enough. Age has mellowed many of ye!
France are legit the best team in the world - and probably better than the best club side which is rare for international football, like even that great great Spanish team probably weren’t as good as the Barcelona side that existed at the same time. No shame to lose to them.
Saying that, performance in the second half was underwhelming…
Whoscored saying Will Keane didn't touch the ball in his ten minutes on the pitch - https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/16...France-Ireland
And still got a higher rating than Adam Idah :p
Maybe he was told not to Stu.
Have to love Ogbene. Just a sound lad. Actually, it’s a fairly likeable squad all round.
I know we expected the result but the performance was left wanting. First half was fine but the second half was below expectations. I don’t want to pick on him but McClean shouldn’t have come on for Stevens. It was the wrong decision on an obvious problem. Overall the changes and substitutions around half time made us worse. And I’ll say it again, someone should have stuck a boot in and taken a card when France were coming for their second goal. All you want to do in that game context is stay in it, keep it at one nil as long as you can and then adjust and give it socks for the last 15 minutes. Even if we concede, at that point I’ll take the argument that the performance was effective…
I’m not surprised at the result and I had no hopes so I’m not really disappointed either but there’s very little to take away from that other than individual positives like the effectiveness of Ogbene, Duffy did well on his return, Browne at RWB was a good shout and Idah, I thought, did admirably in a thankless role.
If the glory days of foot.ie were anything to go by, we’d have avoided nights like tonight. If we’d been right, a midfield of Owen Garvan, James McCarthy and Darron Gibson would have ensured top seed status for the last ten years.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crosby87
Yes, but against that Kenny has unfathomable loyalty to James McClean. I never thought I'd see an Ireland team with a fourth-tier player in it. It's ludicrous and embarrassing. People have mocked LoI call ups, Joey Lapira... but this is as low a moment as any of those. The grand ideas he had at the start have been replaced by a paralysis of fear. Time to hand over the reigns so somebody else can benefit from those 19 debutants.Quote:
Originally Posted by Insidetherock
Seriously? That was as negative, incoherent and unstructured as any Ireland performance under O’Neil or Mick. There was no fluency, very little movement and a complete inability to keep possession for more than 2 passes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Insidetherock
We need a fiery meet up like we used to have at Crackbird to sort things out.
It was like a 1930s German beer hall.
We will start with 50 manager names and whittle it down to 5 before sun up.
Crackbird :D :D
Crosby, it’ll be Neil Lennon. Accept it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crosby87
Thought McClean was one of our better players in fairness. That's not saying much, mind. But I thought he did okQuote:
Originally Posted by SkStu
mcclean is still our best left back, let that sink in for a minute.... with nothing much coming up behind himQuote:
Originally Posted by Eminence Grise
Maybe so, but it's on Kenny for not breaking out of this miserable dependency 10 or 15 games ago.
He was better than Stevens, granted, but he was still caught out of position a few times and Dembele still had him for pace every time. And then Coman rinse and repeat.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
I suppose I’d have looked for O’Shea instead as a better choice. Possibly Manning if the game context was different. Ebosele would have been risky.
Royals or something like that from Pulp Fiction ! !Quote:
Originally Posted by Crosby87
Its not James fault. I love the guy, but I love Diana Ross too, and she would also be too slow at this point.
I'd sooner have Jimbo hitting penos tbf.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crosby87
Yeah, it's not a ringing endorsement for sure.Quote:
Originally Posted by SkStu
You have to love McClean but he can't keep up to level in the fourth tier. We need other options. And it's hard to work out who they are based on tonight. Festy got sold a couple of times for example. But it was against France; what can you do.
I just don't see where we're going here, and a lot of the promising young kids seem to be stopping that bit short of potential (like the comments about Cullen earlier)
Well I can’t stand him …. Like Kenny a spoofer of limited talent over the years , who never was up to much even at his peak, and more often than not was a liability as gave away the ball continuously, couldn’t cross the ball and collected yellow cards - his only talent seems to be his almost obsessive pride in playing for us which may somewhat admirable but adds nothing to the team - it’s an insult to the shirt that he’s managed to accumulate so many caps…. Hopefully soon he and Kenny will be goneQuote:
Originally Posted by Crosby87
Vent it all out buddy, make yourself clear, don't let it eat you up inside.Quote:
Originally Posted by Calcio Jack
I don't get this angry hard on for Jimmy Mc post match from some of the usually more reasoned posters on here, Stevens was being humiliated, watch it back, his head was gone he'd been torn a new one so many times consecutively. If its McClean or have a Paris look see as to whether Manning has learnt defensive positioning and attention to duty since Saturday, well, its the Derryman isn't it ? & it did improve matters down that side, it didn't make things perfect, it didn't even make things right, but it stopped the bleeding & gave Stevens a chance to get some much needed counselling as the 45 he produced will have left a scar.
Who has been passed over in the overhaul who should by now be our left sided defensive go to Eminence ?
Thought McClean was excellent tonight. One of our best performers in a match where we were seriously out of our depth.
Him and Ogbene did really well