'We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.'Originally Posted by seanfhear
Old Oscar never had to watch this muck though.
You can't spell failure without FAI
"There are so many players to come back in before our next round of fixtures; Byrne not starting tonight, given the vast number of cry-offs, means he's never going to start."
Proof positive that Kenny isn't the keenest and it was only ever political-motivated call up. But most of us had worked that out anyway."
Politically motivated. I love that narrative. Was it political when McCarthy played him against Bulgaria for 30 minutes and he set up one goal directly and one goal indirectly? Or when O'Neil involved him in the training camp when he was playing in Holland? Kenny didn't pluck him out of nowhere to appease the LOI fans, at least half of whom hate Jack any way because he plays for Rovers. He is a backup and a good one based on what we've seen so far. There doesn't have to be a conspiracy theory around it. Brady went off and he came on. It's fairly straight forward. The squad isn't blessed with creative talent so like it not he will be in and around teams until someone else can step up.
He came on and did well again tonight. We were a better team for the few minutes he got for me. Much better patterns and we created more chances. Wasn't hard to be better but he did far more than Hourihane did all game. I'd say Brady as well but he had our best shot on goal. He was fairly anonymous outside of that though and I always feel like he thinks he doesn't have to work hard in the 10 role and the ball should just come to him.
Cullen did well too and Parrot actually moved for the ball. All of it made is more dangerous but Jack did his part and at this stage it's getting a bit tiresome to see how quickly people want to knock him but give others like Knight a free pass. Knight had a good second half but played an absolute hospital ball in the first half where he looked generally out of his depth. Nobody was jumping online to criticize him oddly enough.
Last edited by ontheotherhand; 18/11/2020 at 9:27 PM.
It is in a way, I guess. Trap and MON were on 2m a year, weren't they?
Can't afford that any more.
I'll wait for Trequartista20 to show proof of the underpants first.
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
We couldn't afford it then either.
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
He did. It's how he ended up in court.
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
Don't get me wrong, I would have had Byrne in my starting line-up tonight. But what was it, 16 players who pulled out of squad over the course of the these games? With others also unavailable for various reasons. And still Byrne couldn't manage to get a start, with players not in the original panel starting ahead of him.
What other conclusion could you possibly come to other than that Kenny doesn't really fancy him?
I'd agree that it's odd but there are other reasons on offer:
That it's him or Brady most of the time and Brady is more established?
That Kenny is a bit of a coward and doesn't have the balls to throw him on knowing the reaction from the anti-LOI brigade might get him sacked unless Jack scores a worldy?
That Kenny still hates Rovers?
That the players who came in were all in slightly different positions?
That we don't really play a formation that suits Jack?
My honest opinion is that I think Kenny rates Jack but possibly thinks he isn't physically ready for 90 minutes and that he will use him when he really needs the creativity at the risk of him maybe losing the ball or not tracking back as fast as other options like Molumby/Cullen/Knight can when games are really tight. We don't really cater to someone playing in the 10 right now because so much has to be done in midfield to counter the fact that Hourihane is useless and we have nobody to take the pressure off up front by running channels and getting the ball to stick to them for more than a second. But also that Kenny is a bit of a coward.
I'd love to see Jack, Cullen, Knight and Parrot all on at once but tonight was the game for it and Kenny bottled it. Tbf Parrot wasn't fit but it was clear after 30 mins that Brady and Hourihane weren't interested in or able to do the job.
There are other options apart from Paul Jewell, Phillipe Troussier and Stephen Kenny
You would hope there is a break clause. That's standard enough in contracts these days. Surely even the FAI insisted on that before appointing an manager who's only experience outside Ireland was short lived in the SPL that ended in relegation.
The woeful financial situation of the FAI is only getting worse with him in charge. The pandemic is covering this up, but the vaccines are coming. When we get back to life in 2021, and the government support ends, who in gods name is paying to watch that dross?
Traditionally we replace the League of Ireland guy with a former player, who in turn gets replaced by a big name from the continent, followed by a long ball merchant, then back to Mick McCarthy.
I'd be willing to break the cycle. We could go with someone who has been out of the game for a while, or a young coach with ideas. How can it get worse? It's been 11 hours since we scored a goal.
JFC
Sam Allardyce has never done anything for free in his life.Ha yes, i should have said i was curious to what they are up to now, i dig ya
Big Sam is free these days too
Martin O'Neill is the reason why Jack Grealish was tormenting Belgium and Iceland instead of Wales and Bulgaria this week.
Bring Back Belfast Celtic F.C.
I'm not sure if this is serious? What sort of ideas, beyond what Stephen Kenny is trying to do?
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
Pity it’s not performance related. The FAI would be making money out of him.
We could start conceding goals too.
Seriously, it can always get worse
Mick wasnt great, we need to create more chances per game, Kenny says 4-3-3 but it is 4-2-3-1, not working
I said "ideas". Stephen Kenny has an idea. He wants to play 4-3-3 and knock it about a bit.
It isn't working and he won't try anything else. We haven't seen so much as something off the training ground at a set piece.
O'Neill got pelters for not working on set pieces. They were dreadful tonight. Far worse than anything in the O'Neill era.
Bring Back Belfast Celtic F.C.
The idea that “hmmmm this isn’t working, let’s not persist with it for 8 games of not working”.
Grealish didnt want to play, period. Rice was his agent.
[QUOTE=backstothewall;2058137]I said "ideas". Stephen Kenny has an idea. He wants to play 4-3-3 and knock it about a bit.
It isn't working and he won't try anything else. We haven't seen so much as something off the training ground at a set piece.
O'Neill got pelters for not working on set pieces. They were dreadful tonight. Far worse than anything in the O'Neill era.[/QUO
The same, yeah, his system is not working, may work a 3-4-3 / 3-5-2/ 3-6-1 LikeArgentina in Mexico 86/Italy90
We had zero shots on target against Bulgaria. In a home game. Think about that.
In a game where the fans were more concerned about scoring than the result, where we would have been happy with a goal, even in a loss, we failed to trouble the opposing goalkeeper.
Kenny's honeymoon period is now well and truly over. The 4-3-3 formation is clearly not working. We obviously can't score with it, and in more than half the games where is been used, we've failed to keep a clean sheet.
Excuses about players not being available are all well and good, but a good manager would recognise that repeating the same mistakes would end in the same results. Kenny didn't recognise this, and persisted with a formation that few (any?) of the players use at their clubs.
In defence, Duffy and Long were fine, and with two enforced changes at full back, dropping Randolph, an unforced change, would have been a needless change. Having said that, Travers and Kelleher must be wondering what they have to do to get a chance after eight games have passed without either player seeing a minute of action.
When the starting XI was announced, I asked this question
For most of the first half and the early part of the second half, there didn't appear to be one. This meant there was no clear link between defence and midfield, and the defence was often left exposed by three players, none of whom seemed to have been told to sty around the centre circle. The Bulgarian midfield were happy to let our defence have the ball, knowing that they would struggle to make a clean pass to the midfield players, which allowed them to claim possession and push forward.
Up front, Curtis, Collins, and Horgan tried hard, but failed to test the opposition. Horgan looks good at times, but he's clear he's James McClean without the unlimited running. Collins is a Championship striker - I actually like the guy, and have a lot of time for how he's played his way up through the divisions in England - but he's not international class.
Of the substitutes, Cullen was the standout improvement on what went before, and (fitness permitting) should have started.
I'm not #KennyOut yet, but the qualifiers for the World Cup in 2022 will start in March, and if we go through those fixtures without a win, without a goal, it might be time to cut our losses on him
The lowest winning percentage for an Ireland manager since Jack Charlton took over is Steve Staunton's 35% - Kenny's is zero (obviously), and he'll need at least five wins from the fixtures in 2021 just to match Staunton's total.
AKA the second half against Denmark in Martin O'Neill's Waterloo.
If we end up playing Denmark next I'd seriously consider a 1-5 just to get the 1.
Bring Back Belfast Celtic F.C.
Two positives, we got relegated from Div 2 of the UNL last year, this year we didn't and we saved Eur1.5m
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks