Missing the bigger picture - is Kerr to blame?

[jimbob117]

kavanagh for keane was the only suitable substitution ffs..

Was it really? was elliot not an option? silly comment.

[onenilgameover]

kavanagh for keane was the only suitable substitution ffs.. so kerr is to blame for the lads missing easy chances, the keeper getting obrien sent off , them getting a free that wasnt for first goal a peno that wasnt for second goal and not giving us three clear pens.. all brians fault .. get a grip you mupppets .. we will win our next four games and top the group

How can you think Kavanagh for Keane was the right decision?????????Thats insane....2 nil up after eleven minutes...bring on a holding midfielder....nice one lads this ones sown up...lets just kick it about for awhile. I don't want to be bad mouthing Kerr too much. Not sure I believe in luck but something funny happened so **** it I'ill blame the gods. Anyhoo if Kerr doesn't take us Germany from the position we were in not even the Gods will save him.

Brian Robson seem like a good idea now? Has Kerr won an important match? He wanna feckin start

[mypost]

How can you think Kavanagh for Keane was the right decision?????????Thats insane....2 nil up after eleven minutes...bring on a holding midfielder....nice one lads this ones sown up...lets just kick it about for awhile. I don't want to be bad mouthing Kerr too much. Anyhoo if Kerr doesn't take us Germany from the position we were in not even the Gods will save him.

Has Kerr won an important match? He wanna fecking start

Brian Kerr has had 5 big qualifying games in charge, Russia, 2 in Switzerland, and 2 against Israel, taken leads in 4 of them, and couldn't defend any of them. The team appears to have no gameplan when we go in front, so we invite pressure onto us, and teams score against us at will. Personally, I like being favourites for games, it means you have reached a standard that is better than your opponents, which in theory means that you should win. But because of our reputation as no-hope underdogs, we only like to chase games, not win them. We were coasting 2-0 up against Israel, and like in Tel Aviv, we let it slip again. In the World Cup, to lose a lead once is bad luck, to do it again against the same team, is careless, and catastrophic. In both games against Israel, bad substitutions were made, bad tactics were chosen by the coach, and we dropped 4 points to a side we should be able to brush aside easily.

Irish people don't want to be plucky underdogs anymore. We demand success. We are capable of it, and these days we should be able to qualify for tournaments without breaking sweat. The Israel game may have finished 2-2, but to me, it feels like we lost 4-0. It's a truly devastating result to digest over the summer, which a win in the Faroe Islands won't ease the pain of. You get no prizes for beating them or Cyprus. I'm a fan of Kerr, but unfortunately, it appears that he's only capable of beating part-time teams who don't give a monkeys against us. As we are unlikely to qualify now, our exit from the World Cup will promptly lead to his instant dismissal as Irish coach, and he'll only have himself to blame.

[concanta]

I think we are no longer the favourites to qualify but to say that we probably will not qualify is a bit harsh - its all in the balance and I really think that this group is very unpredicatable....I truly beleive if we have ALL and I mean all players - ie this team

Given

Carr
Cunningham
Dunne
O'Shea

Reid
Kilbane
Keane
Duff

Morrison
Keane

against France then we can definitely win......someone needs to get a victory against eachother outta us, isr, france and swiss - that will eliminate the loser from the equation....

First thigns first concentrate on the faroes and get a win - all i ask for is a 2 goal win and no injuries or suspensions...that will be job done
As I said in earlier post I would not be surprised if Israel struggle against the Faroes....they are like the 'old' us they are good at chasing games and fighting back - they will be expected to win easily against the faroes and the away game will not be easy...... if we beat France I think the group is ours but I know that is a massive if.... saw france paly last week and they were impressive but lets consider who they were palying ..... a sh*t hungarian team......we have been impressive in friendlies but its competitive games that count ( as we know to our cost) I still think they have massive issues and it is possible for us to turn them over - we need the crowd 100% behind them and create an occasion like the dutch one in 2001

[tonycuna]

Was it really? was elliot not an option? silly comment.

Elliott for sure..
And what do u think about an other option? Doherty for Keane?
He can do defence and/or attack, so if BK would defend @that moment, he could do it with Doherty, that can play at front at the same way

In my opinion the right options were Elliot or Doherty.. Kav was the very last option at that stage of the match

[drinkfeckarse]

Have to agree with some in that I was worried when he brought Kavanagh in for Robbie. Nothing against Kavanagh at all, he did well enough I felt but Brian Kerr failed his first major test at home with that one decision.

Straight away it handed the Israeli's a boost and gave them the psychological edge. That was it, Brian was happy with 2 nil and felt we could "hold out", play it safe and maybe just maybe, catch them on the break again. It handed the initiative to attack back to them.

The fact he didn't bring Elliott on is another failure on his part. There was never going to be a better oportunity to bring the lad into a competitive fixture rather than a friendly. A like for like swap would've been just the ticket as Robbie was causing a lot of problems.

But no, Brian "played it safe" and when safe fails he resorts to bringing the Doc on (who did well btw) and hoofing it up the park route one style looking for a lucky second ball. An amateur tactic.

Had we got the goal we fully deserved this would've glossed over all this for the vast majority of fans but not me. I still believe we've a great chance of qualifying but Brian Kerr failed dismally when it came to having the courage of his previous convictions and I've a feeling we should get used to this.

[Stuttgart88]

Agree with all of drinkfeckarse, and more. Duff just isn't an option upfront. Proven, proven, proven.

Can I just ask though: was Elliott definitely one of the named subs? I think he was.

[mjpcc]

Elliott for sure..
And what do u think about an other option? Doherty for Keane?
He can do defence and/or attack, so if BK would defend @that moment, he could do it with Doherty, that can play at front at the same way

In my opinion the right options were Elliot or Doherty.. Kav was the very last option at that stage of the match

I agree it was wrong to move Duff. But Elliott for Keane was not an option. If you look back at the posts concerning Eliott before this game most people would agree he has not shown himself ready for the big stage yet. To bring him on after 25 minutes would have been a huge gamble on Kerr's part.

The real problem is we do not have many striker options and Kerr had very limited choices.

It is definitely a worry that we can not defend a lead and I have my doubts about us qualifying now.

[zinedineontour]

we had no option but to put duff up front .. doherty would not have lasted all game .. i dont want to see us booting the ball up in the air every attack but was effective with doc for the last half hour as an impact sub ..elliott is not ready for game of that level yet but with time and games in the prem he will be ... but for the ref and goalie we would be not having this conversation and not due to brian kerr ... you would swear we are world beaters judging by the comments .. we are not ..

[rodoman]

How times have changed about cutting the back off Irish Players. I've seen posts here praising Ian Harte for his goal, BIG DEAL, he did the only thing he can do on a soccer pitch, a free kick, after that he's useless, he played with Levante in Spain last season where are they now, in the second division after relegation. He was woeful in WC 2002, Iremember walking out of the room when he stood up to take the penalty against the Spanish.
I'll be the first to admit that John O'Shea is prone to a few booboos, christ we know that but I feel a lot more comfortable him playing than Harte. As for us to start looking for a new manager I don't think we should start looking yet, and not to start the Irish Press taking the same vein as the English press, blow the team up to be WC winners then kick 'em between the legs when they make errors. Let them have the monopoly on that discracful aspect of journalism, the Irish press have more class than that, except for one malignent little b****x who we have to put up with on RTE everytime the BIG play.

[JimmyP]

Kerr doesn't seem to be able to handle enforced substitutions.
He can plan meticuolously and make great preperations, these seem to be some of his strong points, but when he's put on the spot to make a decision like that - he seems to fluff it.
I'm a fan of kerr but the thing that bothers me is that he's not learning the lessons, and it's distressing.

I know it's always easy for armchair pundits to pick apart what should have been done after the fact, but in the case of leaving Morrison on in Israel until he had to ask to be taken off, and putting Kav on for Robbie, were genuine "No!" moments and seem obvious at the time.

When we put Andy Reid on for Morrison in Paris, I thought it was a gamble but felt good about it, and thought we did ok. But Doc was the only other potential striker on the bench at the time.

[Stuttgart88]

I'm refusing to get drawn into a "we can't qualify with Kerr in charge" rant because I think we can & sod all the doom & gloom - I think we will.

But I think it's hard to disagree with anything else in The Guardian:

A Brian shame

After the Republic of Ireland's awful 2-2 draw with Israel on Saturday, Paul Doyle argues that manager Brian Kerr has made his own bad luck.

Monday June 6, 2005
How bad was the referee in last Saturday's Republic of Ireland-Israel match? Worse than tax. How bad was Irish manager Brian Kerr? Worse than the ref. The man in black denied Ireland a clear penalty, handed one to Israel for a non-existent foul and red-carded Andy O'Brien for being hit by the opposing goalkeeper. Truly, not even the most pungent egg sandwich has ever stunk as much as Kyros Vassaras did at Lansdowne Road. But even in spite of this, Ireland should have pocketed three points and the main reason they didn't is because Kerr tore his own team apart.

What makes this even more excruciating for Irish fans is that the 2-2 draw, as shoddy as it was, would not have wrought so much damage on Ireland's qualification campaign if Kerr had not blundered so badly in previous games. He surrendered victory in each of Ireland's three away matches, forcing a side that should have had a healthy lead in the group into a position where any ****-up would be nigh-on fatal. And on Saturday, he administered the ****-up.
Ireland were 2-0 up after 11 minutes and palpably superior in every department - they seemed certain to do what they so foolishly chose not to do in Tel Aviv two months ago: batter the Israelis while they were down. Instead, Kerr again intervened to offer them a hand up. It was not, of course, Kerr's fault that Robbie Keane had to come off injured in the 23rd minute but that is not what turned the game. What turned the game was Kerr's perverse reaction to it.

Instead of applying a plaster - replacing Keane with another striker - Kerr attempted to perform major surgery. His decision to unleash Graham Kavanagh, a hard-working midfielder who, despite his unerring set-piece deliveries, is simply not an international class player meant moving Damien Duff from the left flank, where he had been bamboozling the visitors, to centre-forward, a position where both Mick McCarthy and Kerr have previously deployed him to infinitely less effect. Kevin Kilbane, who along with Matt Holland had seized total control over the middle of the park, was shunted out to the left.

These changes unbalanced Ireland and gifted the initiative back to Israel who, in fairness, had the wherewithal to grab it, albeit with the assistance of a referee who awarded a penalty against John O'Shea for neglecting to stop a forward from falling.

When, in the 64th minute, Kerr finally plucked up the courage to introduce another striker, it was at the expense of Andy Reid, who had set up Ireland's second goal and was, since the neutering of Duff, their most creative player. Gary Doherty went up front and immediately wreaked havoc. He won everything in the air, laying the platform that enabled Ireland to dominate the last half and hour - they were then denied by an incredible miss by Duff and a series of freakish saves by goalkeeper Dudu Awat, but it was plain for all to see that if Doherty (or Stephen Elliot) had been on the pitch since the 23rd minute, Ireland would certainly have had a third, at least.

Ireland have a small squad. When the likes of the two Keanes or Damien Duff are missing, it severely weakens them. Therefore, when all three are fit and available, the manager must take maximum advantage. Throughout the campaign, Kerr has refused to do to this.

Away to Switzerland and Israel, a full-strength Irish side swaggered into an early lead only for Kerr to become negative, concede territory and ultimately settle for draws. Against injury- and suspension-ravaged France in Paris, a full-strength Irish side were in the process of delivering one of their most accomplished away performances and outclassing their illustrious hosts, only for Kerr to become negative, concede territory and ultimately settle for a draw.

His reasoning? Ireland would beat all three at home so there was no need to beat them away. That assumed his team had some kind of magical immunity to injuries, suspensions, bad referees and inspired opposition goalkeepers. And that France will be missing as many players in Dublin next September as they were in Paris last October. It's a woefully misguided policy.

Kerr should simply have helped himself to away victories when they were offered to him on a plate. By declining, he ensured that Saturday's shambles was an accident waiting to happen. To reach Germany, Ireland now need to be flawless in their remaining four games. With Kerr in charge, they've no chance.

[JimmyP]

he did the only thing he can do on a soccer pitch, a free kick, after that he's useless

He saved us when he was left one on one with one of their players on the break, after we had 10 men and no one else back.

[rodoman]

He saved us when he was left one on one with one of their players on the break, after we had 10 men and no one else back.

Point taken, but if you, me, John, Paul, George, Or Ringo's on a soccer pitch for 90 minutes you're bound to do something right. After all he is a defender, that's his job, to stop the opposition scoring

[dancinpants]

All this talk about Kerr unsettling the team on Saturday. And half of you want him fired for it now!!! - yeah, coz getting a new manager in with 4 qualifiers remaining WOULDN'T be unsettling.... . Is it too much to ask for some people to give EVERYONE in the Irish camp their backing for 4 more f**kin' games? If we don't make it, then you can vent your spleens all you want until you get what you want... Kerr's head on a plate (sure don't we do it to everyone eventually), and if we do qualify and have a good run in the finals - well ye can just pretend ye backed Kerr from the very start.

[jimbob117]

Exactly, and remember we have only lost 2 games out of around 28!

[onenilgameover]

Exactly, and remember we have only lost 2 games out of around 28!

These knid of no brain comments are really unsettling...What does that mean unless we qualify...absolutely zip!

[Fergie's Son]

I wholeheartidly agree with the article inthe Guardian. If we do not qualify then yes, Kerr should be dismissed.

[mountie]

Hi all, first posting ,but been following this site a long time. Thought you guys might like to read Paul Doyle column in the Guardian. www.guardian.co.uk....football link on Monday june 6th. I personally agree fully with his comments. Any thoughts?

[onenilgameover]

Hey and welcome Mountie...The link doesn't work there...