No, it was the first one that came to my head. I'm sure there's loads more. But I only needed to find one because your claim was so clear. And daft
No, it was the first one that came to my head. I'm sure there's loads more. But I only needed to find one because your claim was so clear. And daft
In fact, for a more recent example, look at Randolph's pass on Helsinki which led directly to their goal.
Randolph should presumably never play again, etc
He couldve gone back as far as thursday. Would that have helped? Should we put together a highlights package of irish players ****ing up over the past few years? Duffy and Hourihane could fill an hour on their own.
One misplaced pass does not a bad footballer make. Anyone who has watched byrne play at multiple levels knows that was highly unusual for him. If it hadnt happened we'd all be raving about his previous touches and passes. It did, so we move on. I've no doubt he will make amends. He lit it up against Bulgaria first time around.
We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. No disrespect intended.
It isn't about agreeing to disagree. It's about acknowledging you're wrong. Ontheotherhand makes a good point - look at Cyrus Christie's headed "pass" on Thursday which led immediately to England's second goal.
There's three examples now. Do you think they were all somehow much better than Byrne's pass?
Okay, I'm sorry. You're right. Footballers make mistakes all the time and Jack Byrne's was no worse than a host of others we've seen recently.
Knight was flat footed as well, that happens when you only meet a teammate after one training session
I have to see this. Any link of the pass/ sending off
I thought Knight was at fault at the goal, didnt follow Brooks
Yeah, not going after anyone because of what league they play in. Byrne's mistake led directly to Hendrick being sent off. Knight was no great shakes but he didn't make any glaring errors.
Three biggest mistakes today were:
1) Byrne's pass in injury time
2) Hendrick kicking a Welsh player in the back of the knee for no apparent reason. Should have been a straight red and a three match ban
3) Hendrick mis-judging a bounce when he was the last man back during a corner, almost leading to a Welsh goal
I’m trying to put myself in Kenny’s position. if I was managing a side that couldn’t score. What can you do?
Change the personnel? He has made changes, he is missing players but there is nobody obvious on the subs bench that is a major omission. Keeping Hourihane on the bench is the way to go. He plays in the PL for Villa but he’s anonymous whenever selected.
Change the playing style? He tweaked that today, the players mixed it a lot more. I’m guessing the players were given the freedom to play what was in front of them. Duffy is not great on the ball so less pressure on him.
The formation? We didn’t create many clear cut chances. I think we need another body up top. Will he deviate from the 433? I don’t know enough about Kenny but at this moment in time, I do not think the personnel within the squad is able to make a 433 work. Diamond? Bog standard 442? At what point does he make the change? I think we are getting very close to the point where a formation tweak is made to provide more of a forward threat.
It’s also all very easy to say let’s take a punt on this kid or that kid. “It cannot be any worse that what we have, let’s blood all the youngsters” etc. We’ve all said it at one point (I know I will have done). Let’s give Idah, Parrott or any other hot prospect etc a run of games. Hoping they will be the next Robbie Keane. But you know what? It’s nigh on impossible for a kid to make an immediate impact at this level. They are still learning the game (sound like Roy Keane here), they need games but this development needs to be done week in week out at club level. We are expecting miracles, a hot teenage prospect playing up front now probably needs 2 seasons of football at a good level before he can be expected to make a decent dent at international football. Idah and Parrott need 25 + games in the Championship this season to kick on. Connolly is getting starts at Brighton, it looks promising but he is still only a baby really.
I really do not know where the goals are going to come from any time soon. We are relying on McClean and Duffy to nick a goal here or there, this has of course been a major issue since Robbie retired . Nobody else knows how to score. I really hope we try and offer some support for whoever ends up leading the line versus Bulgaria.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
I don't think there are many on here defending the results in that way any more. Those defending Kenny are pointing to retirements and injuries and the level of our opponents and suggesting that maybe we can't expect to be pushing England or even Wales for the moment. Changing the manager is not a magic bullet. Take Duffy and McClean out of the team, as many here are calling for, and you're left with a collection of players with 0 or 1 international goals ever. They're not going to magically start scoring because we revert to 442 and direct passing. No one "doesn't really mind losing games", but some people seem to think that with the right manager and formation, anything is possible. Is it, ****. ****e players, ****e results, barring the occasional miracle. Wales started today with a lad up front from Man Utd and another who just moved to Spurs from Real Madrid. Their other forward is 23, and has 15 caps in spite of injury problems. We had a 19 year old boy who has scored one league goal for Norwich; a limited player lining out for Stoke whose most recent accomplishment for us is getting sent off; and a lad who hasn't scored for Wycombe since he moved from Hibs, where he managed a goal every 11 games in the highly regarded Scottish Premiership. Idah and Horgan have scored a grand total of 0 goals at international level. The alternatives to them are not really any better. Our best forward was McGoldrick, who just retired. Before that, it was Walters, who retired. Before that, it was Keane, who retired. Long was in the mix throughout that period, but is past his best and was in any case unavailable. This is not championship manager. There is no bug where if you just get the striker to mark the goalkeeper you'll net a hatful of goals. There is more pain ahead, and the main difference getting rid of Kenny will do is change who incorrectly gets the bulk of the blame for that from the fans.
You can't spell failure without FAI
We are not blessed with a plethora of options upfront, but Bulgaria struggle to keep clean sheet so at home to them is theoretically the best chance we have of scoring in this group.
I do think the main thing for him is to try and stem the flow of defeats. In our current plight, i would be over the moon with a 0-0, it would keep us above Bulgaria. I think he should switch to a 5-3-2 or 3-5-2. Basically 3 center backs, two wing backs; two defensively minded midfielders, with someone like Brady ahead of the that at the top of midfield. Upfront I'd go for Long (experienced, good hold up play, can pressure the Bulgarian center backs a bit, in some ways McGoldrick would have been ideal) and then a more mobile striker ahead of him.
It's an age old tactic, but packing the defence and rear areas of midfield with bodies will stifle the opposition, and will give us a bit of defensive solidity. If we have pace out wide we can use this to hit Bulgaria on the counter, the defensive midfielders can cover for the wing backs if they are occasionally caught up the field. Russia actually just played quite a similar game to this today after they had a man sent off early and shipped two quick goals to Turkey. They packed the central and rear areas of the pitch but used pace out wide to hit the Turks on the counter, in the end they lost 3-2 but tactically it was reasonably good given they were a man down for most of the game and trailing 3-1 early on, they were unlucky to lose, and 3-3 would have been a fair result.
I’m a big Kenny advocate, like any fan of the team I hope he’ll get there. One thing I’ve noticed is his record with Dunfermline is very similar to his start with Ireland, struggled to score goals. His selection of Idah reminds me of McCarthy’s stubbornness to persist with Harte and Kennedy back in the day, that worked out ok, but Idah needs constant first team football, the other two were getting it.
As Irishmen we dilute our sense of nation by depending on the English to bring us our balls
I think it was poor organisation, two of our guys went for their guy at the near post. Our defenders seemed to actually collide with each other - there maybe have been a foul, not sure.
In the collision Duffy (I think) got a glance on it at the near post, effectively pushing it to the far post. A Welsh player then got his head on it and sent it back toward the center of the goal where Brookes bundled it in.
We're a gas team. It seems if we beat Bulgaria and Russia (and Romania?) lose, we could get into pot 2.
In other years, getting into pot 2 would be a cause of celebration. The problem is if we are in pot 2, I think pretty much all of the pot 3 teams are better than us. In fact, I wouldn't fancy us getting the better of any current pot 3 sides over two games. There are pot 4 teams like Slovenia that have players like Oblak and Illcic. Teams like that will fancy their chances of taking 4 points off us. Moving onto the pot 5 sides, would many on here be confident of us taking 6 points off the likes of Cyprus or Belarus because I wouldn't.
I really think as a country and as a fanbase, we need to accept where we are at. Not a hope we make the world cup and that's even if we get the most favourable draw possible. The only good performance in Kenny's regime was away in Slovakia where we deserved to win. The rest has been poor and all this talk of a new way of playing is patronising. They are premiership and championship players so being able to pass the ball amongst themselves for short spells is a basic requirement. You look at minnows like Luxemburg and they play football - can only imagine how Kenny Cunningham or Stephen Ward would laud us if we played like them.
Kenny should not be judged too cruelly yet. Tactically he hasn't done anything that impresses me and he is lucky to have a lot of games which not all managers are afforded. However, it's time that he puts down his marker for 2024 with his selections and that involves puting the younger players in to the team en masse. Perhaps that could slightly impact us in the short team results wise - lets be honest it can't get any worse - but the likes of Brady, Hendrick and McClean have had their day and will only get in the way of the likes of Molumby and Knight. I have a soft spot for Randolph and Duffy but likewise we need to be getting Bazunu in the team and getting a centre half into the team that is comfortable on the ball seeing as that is how "new Ireland" wants to play.
As far as I'm concerned if we finish 3rd or even 4th in a wc qualifying group but by the end of the campaign we have a young talented team ready for ec 2024 qualifiers, then he deserves to be given another campaign.
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