Republic of Ireland v Finland - Wednesday, 14th October 2020 - UEFA Nations League

**paul_oshea** · 14/10/2020, 6:31 PM

Originally Posted by ontheotherhand

A lot of ****e posted on here as usual. Lads are forgetting McCarthy's first games in charge. W0 D1 L4 GD -7.

That one keeps getting brought up, that was a massive overhaul, was it not close to 6 players retiring? Its apples and oranges. And Mick brought us to two play-offs which we lost? It took him 3 attempts and then we got hammered against switzerland. We got to a last 16 of a world cup which was great, but thats all a nation our size can ever really hope for. Are we really saying we're happy to hold off until 2026 before we qualifying for something again(not including this playoff)? We're a small nation, we can't throwaway qualifying campaigns, the performances have to match the results.

**Bielsa´s irish** · 14/10/2020, 6:31 PM

Originally Posted by paul_oshea

Couldn't have put this better, we all like the underdog story, the hollywood type movie, we'd all love for kenny to succeed, and its not about that, but you have to weigh up the performances and the overall play and then work against the results and what we've actually achieved thus far. No one remembers the performances, they remember the results. And the performances will soon be forgotten but the results willl still be there. And when Euro 2020 comes around no one will be saying, jees do you remember brownes miss or hourihanes one cleared off the line. And for those with the "give it time rebuild for a few years" in 2022 at what point do we say hold on this isnt working?

how did we play?

**Bielsa´s irish** · 14/10/2020, 6:33 PM

we need to get Bamford, Sheridan and more forwards. Maguire only as a winger

**paul_oshea** · 14/10/2020, 6:34 PM

Same as the last few games you've seen BI

**Real ale Madrid** · 14/10/2020, 6:36 PM

I'm not sure at what point you say it's not working. But it's not after 5 games anyway. Kenny like every manager before him will get a full qualification campaign and there will be an assessment after that.

We have 2 more Nations league games in Nov and then it's 3 WC quals in a week in March so I'm hopeful in he long run the blooding that has gone on this week will pay dividends then.

**Razors left peg** · 14/10/2020, 6:36 PM

I asked before and never got an answer... those that think this is terrible and we shouldn't be trying to build this kind of passing game plan, what would you rather us do? Should we go back to the 11 behind the ball in every game? Do we forget how bad things really were under MON and Mccarthy. Gibraltar away, Georgia away when we needed the win.

Its been a bad start for Kenny with results but at least we can all see he's trying to build something.

**Trequartista20** · 14/10/2020, 6:38 PM

Originally Posted by ontheotherhand

A lot of ****e posted on here as usual. Lads are forgetting McCarthy's first games in charge. W0 D1 L4 GD -7.

We've just replaced McCarthy with Kenny, so that slightly undermines your presumed point. But whatever..

Mick won one of his first eight. But those were friendlies, and against some of the best teams in the world at the time: Russia, Czech Republic, Portugal, the Netherlands and Mexico amongst them. So that's not really an entirely direct nor particularly useful comparison.

**Bielsa´s irish** · 14/10/2020, 6:40 PM

I read Roy Keane comments,, he said we are toothless up front. I only excuse Kenny if he uses this games as a try out, i guessed Horgan can be useful as an impact player, Maguire never as a main forward, Connolly with all this turnaround did what he could.
I dont have problems with conceding, we have to scored dont think is sensible to play England now, cant we play a minnow just to get some things in shape instead of Bosnia away?

**seanfhear** · 14/10/2020, 6:47 PM

We have big heap many average players ! !

**jbyrne** · 14/10/2020, 6:49 PM

Originally Posted by ontheotherhand

A lot of ****e posted on here as usual. Lads are forgetting McCarthy's first games in charge. W0 D1 L4 GD -7.

and mon with the north. dreadful run of results then they became a decent side. so decent that many on this forum held them up as an example of what we should be like.

those giving out are failing to give any allowance for the dreadful hand kenny has been dealt with the covid situation.

we have only 1 goal in 5 but could just of easily been 5 or 6

**backstothewall** · 14/10/2020, 6:49 PM

I came here thinking the game was starting at 8.

Lucky me by the sounds of it.

**pineapple stu** · 14/10/2020, 6:50 PM

Originally Posted by NeverFeltBetter

Coming up on seven hours without a goal... What's our record?

We're four matches without a goal at the moment; we scored in injury time in Bulgaria, so that's 360 minutes - 6 hours - without scoring.

Our record is actually the transition between Jack and Mick which has been referenced here - 5 full games and 500 minutes between John Aldridge scoring in a 2-1 win over Latvia and Keith O'Neill scoring in a 2-2 draw against Croatia.

Then four games without a goal in 2018, or 462 minutes between Aiden O'Brien scoring in a 1-1 friendly draw in Poland and Jeff Hendrick's winner in Gibraltar.

**ontheotherhand** · 14/10/2020, 6:53 PM

Massive overhaul? You mean like we are going through right now? Apples and oranges I'd agree with in a sense as Mick wasn't dealing with covid disruptions and had Keane, Staunton, McGrath, Aldridge etc, i.e, some of the best we've had in their positions.

I'm not quite sure what point you're making overall Paul. Mick started poorly and ended poorly with a few bright spots? He punched above our weight for a time? Mick did well to get us to playoffs but we must qualify for tournaments now as a bare minimum?

We have the players we have. At least we are seeing some new blood come through and we are trying to play instead of just holding on in the hopes we nick a corner in the last 3 minutes and Duffy can get his head on it. Saying the performances have to match the results is an odd cliche. If you play ****e in a game but manage to rob 3 points does it set you up better in the long run? Would you rather be lucky for a few games in a row or build a platform where luck isn't as necessary?

**Closed Account 2** · 14/10/2020, 6:53 PM

I think we should get rid of Stephen Kenny now. I felt the same out in Nicosia years ago when we took a hammering out there, sometimes you just know it’s not only not working, but failing spectacularly even this early. We have been on the slide for a while, arguably since the Danish playoff defeat at home. Mick steadied the ship and got us within touching distance of Euro 2020/2021 the wheels have come off now. I know he’s got the team playing a sort of tiki-lacka where we play aimless short passes, and have a complete reluctance to get the ball quickly into the opposition box, and I know this will please a small but highly vocal element of our support irrespective of quickly the losses start racking up. But there is absolutely zero cutting-edge, we just do not look like scoring and it’s not as if we’ve been facing teams rammed with world class defenders. We look like a pot E team and all of Europe would be rubbing their hands at the prospect of playing us, even minnows like Luxembourg and Litchenstein would fancy their chances of beating us home and away. It doesn’t have to be this way, we need to make the change, there are better options we need to take them.

**ontheotherhand** · 14/10/2020, 6:53 PM

I only wish we'd gotten that MON instead of the MON we got.

**brine3** · 14/10/2020, 6:57 PM

Originally Posted by Razors left peg

I asked before and never got an answer... those that think this is terrible and we shouldn't be trying to build this kind of passing game plan, what would you rather us do? Should we go back to the 11 behind the ball in every game? Do we forget how bad things really were under MON and Mccarthy. Gibraltar away, Georgia away when we needed the win.

Its been a bad start for Kenny with results but at least we can all see he's trying to build something.

Maybe they want us to go back to being the keep it tight, hard to beat team that got trashed by Denmark in the playoffs.

Or maybe it is the free-scoring displays of swashbuckling football that Mick served up in his most recent reign. Where we scored hardly any goals and finished third in the group.

I dunno. I think Kenny is trying to do something new. He's missing loads of players and we are in the middle of a pandemic. Frankly I couldn't care less about the Nations League. I still don't even know how it works. So let him experiment. Against Slovakia we looked good and had the penalties gone the other way we'd be 90 mins away from the Euros.

But please let us not go back to the paddywhackery put em under pressure passion stuff.

**seanfhear** · 14/10/2020, 6:58 PM

Originally Posted by backstothewall

I came here thinking the game was starting at 8.

Lucky me by the sounds of it.

It was not far off cruel and unusual punishment = = Standard enough Irish fare !

Is there anything that FIFA can do to put an end to such savagely bad football ? A lot of international football at this level is awful !

**seanfhear** · 14/10/2020, 6:59 PM

Originally Posted by ontheotherhand

I only wish we'd gotten that MON instead of the MON we got.

I’d keep his number handy. I wonder would he take the job. I suppose it depends on how the Club Management is going for him.

**tetsujin1979** · 14/10/2020, 7:00 PM

Originally Posted by ontheotherhand

I only wish we'd gotten that MON instead of the MON we got.

That MON lost to Azerbaijan and Luxembourg. Any other international association would have sacked him after that

**pineapple stu** · 14/10/2020, 7:02 PM

Originally Posted by cfdh_edmundo

We have been on the slide for a while, arguably since the Danish playoff defeat at home.

We've been on the slide a long way before that.

Did Mick get to touching distance of the Euros? Realistically we were a distant third; a draw in Georgia, scraping past Gibraltar twice, and easily beaten in Switzerland when it mattered. So touching distance then becomes having to win two matches in a play-off? I don't know; it's a bit of a stretch. (I still think Delaney was a fool for sacking Mick as soon as he'd started btw)

I don't think I could go back to watching the ****e we played under Mick pt 2 (Mick pt 1 was fantastic), O'Neill and Trap though.

Bottom line though for me though is we don't have the players, especially up front, and that's the key worry. There's some players coming through but there's a lot of kids and like when Mick did the same thing in 96, that transition takes time. Kenny is giving them a chance though, which is exactly what's needed.