The "experienced" players he listed as not being there are exactly why I still want Kenny to do well. He's been brave to cut the deadwood that other guys like Kerr would have kept. Randolph would prob still be our keeper if it was up to Kerr
brian is talking through his hoop.
Yeah, as much as I love Brian, he does seem to have issues with Stephen Kenny. Apart from Seamus Coleman, I cant think of any other experienced players we’re missing. Couldn’t believe it when he mentioned Hourihane.
On the French game. Scary stuff so far. This could end up a real thumping. Still, we might actually be better if France romp through the group, maybe give us a shot at taking the Dutch ?
Out for a spell, got neglected, lay on the bench unselected.
It might be fair if the experienced players he mentioned weren't all the players we are delighted we've moved on from. I think collectively the pro Kenny and anti Kenny lads would all agree that the players Kerr listed were part of the problem and Kenny was right to move on from them
When you say "It might be fair if..." - the reason you've then given is why the comments are fair, no?
I've no idea what you mean but let me explain my point further. Kerr listed Duffy, Hourihane, Robinson, McGoldrick and Brady as experienced players left out. Kerr thinks we need more experience. Does anyone think we are missing these players? Or was Kenny right to move on.
Apart from the lad who was calling for the return of Jack Charlton and would probably play Duffy as a striker, I think most here are glad we have moves to a younger squad. The "experienced players" left out are deadwood that we are glad we have moved on from
No, we’re not. Plus one retired three years ago and another is injured and not available. We have experience covering the others (Egan for Duffy and McClean for Brady). Hourihane is a joke. It was an absolutely rubbish point from Kerr.
But Kerr himself says "That needed to be done" of those guys. The point then is that when you cull experience like that, what experienced players you have left become more important.
He then concludes by saying that because of this, it's "important that some of the experienced guys play [on Monday]" - referring to Coleman and Doherty in particular - "but I'm not sure the manager thinks it's important that experienced players play in this game"
That all sounds reasonable to me?
Coleman is injured,McClean, Hendrick and Egan all came on the other day and Doherty started. Doherty and Egan will start vs France, McClean might and we'll see what story is with Colemans injury.
So Kenny does use experienced players, Kerr is talking out his ar$e
Well that's a different point to what you were arguing originally in fairness!
It was his last line that bothered me. “I’m not sure the manager thinks it’s important that very experienced players play” - he didn’t end it with “in this game” though it may have been his reference. I had referred that back to his initial point about Kenny leaving out experienced players therefore not valuing experience in general. Either way, it was a dig and he made his point about Kenny not valuing experience fairly poorly whatever way he intended it.
It really isn't, I don't understand why this is even being argued to be honest.My point is that the players Kerr listed as being left out needed to be left out. He said that Kenny doesn't believe in experience, untrue, but he is rebuilding a squad with young players.
I said in previous post that if Kerr was in charge we'd prob still have Randolph in goals. There are things Kenny can be criticized for, Kerrs comments the other day missed the mark completely and I think most here would agree with that
Kerr would have Given in goal, forget about Randolph.
I think the problem with the Kerr point is that he positions it as a choice for Kenny to value experience less than Kerr would, when I think that the current reality is that we have only a handful of players with significant experience playing at the highest level. And now we are reaching a point where the young talent has progressed to a point where their abilities surpass the experience benefits of limited players like Hourihane, Hogan, Keane, Duffy who haven't played that much at the top level. Conversely, when Mick was manager, the young talent hadn't really broken through and he had little choice but to stick with middling players, with more experience (remember, that when Mick took over, Matt Doherty was only in his first Premier League season). So I guess my point is that the pendulum has swung towards putting out the talented youngsters in this campaign and Kenny is just accepting that, moreso than him actively forcing the issue, as Kerr seems to imply he's doing.
In terms of the qualifying and the interest we now have in other groups, there have been a couple of significant results already:
On the positive side:
In Group A, Sweden were soundly beaten 3-0 at home by Belgium: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/65071966 - Austria also got off to a good start with a 4-0 win over Azerbaijan
In Group D, Wales look like they might put up a fight for their spot post-Bale, snatching a late draw in Croatia: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/64997971
In group G, I was a little concerned about the potential for a resurgent Bulgaria to take a qualifying spot ahead of Serbia or Hungary were eased as they lost 1-0 at home to Montenegro (anyone remember when Bulgaria were practically invincible at home?)
In group J, Slovakia and Luxembourg played out a scoreless draw, doing neither of them much good
On the concerning side:
In Group I, Israel got off to a poor start, with a home draw against Kosovo
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