I misread what Clerkin said at the end of the article. For whatever reason I did not read the ''Won't they?'' part. I do agree with him though in that I am unsure that we will get a win against Andorra under Kenny.
I read it as he's saying he thinks Clerkin is 100% sure, based on "I wouldn't be as sure..."
Maybe Trap can clarify though
I misread what Clerkin said at the end of the article. For whatever reason I did not read the ''Won't they?'' part. I do agree with him though in that I am unsure that we will get a win against Andorra under Kenny.
Last edited by TrapAPony; 01/06/2021 at 8:30 PM.
"We lost because we didn't win"- Ronaldo
The question was asked previously, would people change their mind on Kenny if we didnt beat Andorra? I think most people said yes, he'd have to go.
If we beat Andorra and Hungary would it change anyones mind who want him out now?
I think the manner of the wins would be relevant.
I think we need to see evidence of a cogent playing style against Andorra - to beat them playing the passing football Kenny is trying to bring in.
The Hungary game - we know ourselves how unusual results can come up in the last match before a side heads to a major finals
Who got the A in honours English? Ill accept their understanding of it.
I believe he's just saying that he wants to believe things will get better for Kenny, but he's not wholly convinced it actually will.
I'm not on the fence, I've given up on the Kenny era more or less, other than it being an exercise in giving debuts to players who will hopefully go on and achieve better things for us in the future under another manager.
So for me two good wins would move the dial from "he should just go now" to "he deserves a few more games in the autumn to see if there is any real progress being made". But it would still require a significant upturn in fortunes in the autumn for me to have any wish to see him still in post come the end of the year.
If we fail to beat Andorra I think his position is untenable.
If we beat Andorra and Hungary it would be a step in the right direction, even if we win both ugly.
If we scrape a win against Andorra and lose and are outplayed by Hungary I think he’d have to go.
It will be hopefully the first time (or second after Qatar maybe?) that Kenny will have had a match without some sort of Covid controversy going on.
Our game against Qatar felt like we were starting to get a grip of what Kenny’s system is.
We’ll have a better idea in a week
Well, not beating Andorra would have to be a nail in the coffin. But if he were to go, I’d want him replaced with somebody with the same mindset: somebody committed to Irish teams playing good football and believing we can play good football, and having the nerve to hold tough while the results are bad. You can keep your washed-up last spin on the money-go-round usual suspects.
In some ways, Kenny’s like the latest owner of a used car – the thee previous owners tore the guts out of it, never had it serviced and now nobody can figure out why the Volvo estate isn’t purring like the Merc it never was. To be honest, I think there are some who would want him out even if he won the Euros because, you know, they’re just not the World Cup. In fairness, the criticism he gets here is pretty reasonable and knowledgeable but it’s not the case everywhere.
But, ever the optimist, I’m hoping for a comfortable, albeit low-scoring, win and something bigger than a baby step towards progress.
Hello, hello? What's going on? What's all this shouting, we'll have no trouble here!
- E Tattsyrup.
Putting the outrageously poor results aside, Stephen Kenny's mentality is shocking. He has repeatedly referred to the Slovakia and Serbia games as brilliant performances. WE LOST. it is humiliating that our national team manager references losses as a positive. What does anyone on here really think the players think of him??
I think it is, if our manager refers to two games we lost. If I'm honest I think Serbia beat us in 2nd gear. He said we were brilliant in that game. That is absolute lunacy.
Whats he supposed to say? "Jaysis lads we really are sh1te, we have no players, what else do ya expect me to do?"
He is a positive person and thinks he has us on right track. Some of us think there are signs of that even in a brutal run of results with a squad that in undergoing a massive rebuilding process.
Considering our current squad of players, obtainable managerial alternatives, financial plight of the FAI exacerbated by the COVID pandemic, 2 losses to Andorra and Hungary do not change anything for me.
I’m focused on the long game and am clinging on to the hope that a core of our youngsters mature into superstars over their next 2 to 3 years. These World Cup qualifiers have been written off. Focus should be on building for Euro 2024. I’m content to give Kenny the full Euro 2024, and if no dramatic improvement by then, then it’s time for a change. I am looking for a cohesive performance and progressive embedding of our young talent, who largely have had disappointing season...gut wrenching for Irish fans. Let’s hope for better next season
We drew against Slovakia btw. I thought it was a decent performance with probably the strongest team we've managed to have out under Kenny
There were a number of decent performances - I would say we played reasonably well in at least half of our matches so far. It's a bit shortsighted to just choose to ignore that and point at the results in isolation, as depressing as they have been.
We've clearly had a major problem putting the ball in the net but this predated SK. We were never overly prolific but I think it began to move towards more chronic levels in terms of chances created in the latter half of World Cup qualification campaign under O'Neill, and the subsequent NL was a new low.
In hindsight McCarthy probably managed to get a few of drops of blood from a stone overseeing us score in three of our four games against Denmark and Switzerland! But we had a pitiful goals/chances created return against Georgia and Gibraltar.
The worrying trend regards SK's side is that two of our more dismal performances were amongst our most recent (Bulgaria/Luxembourg). I'd also worry about his forced bullish interviews more recently, for me he's not exuding calm and is starting to look out of his depth. Sighting his CV after the Qatar match wasn't quite Stan territory, but it certainly reminded me of him.
Overall I kind of agree with Tommy above, maybe not to the point I'd give him the full Euros no matter what, but I can see the logic in terms of lack of finances, viable alternatives and the generally accepted view that this was never going to be a quick fix.
Is that because of Kenny or because an old squad is getting older and new players simply aren't coming through to replace them though?
Answer is probably a mix of both - but there's definitely an extent to which this is a continuation of a long-term linear decline, and the nature of long-term linear declines is that the current performance is going to be worse than previous ones.
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