I've just read the Irish Times summary and this stood out in the context of this conversation:Originally Posted by passinginterest
At times it was hair raising: a back pass from Josh Cullen to Gavin Bazunu travelled too fast to the goal for comfort and the sight of Shane Duffy, with no safety net, sweetly sidestepping a rushing Ronaldo was both delightful and terrifying in the same moment
Ha. Except when we get them obviously. Then it’s all about the performance. Of course, we should have beaten Portugal cos they weren’t really trying, Yada, yada.
Out for a spell, got neglected, lay on the bench unselected.
No, there's Pineapple Stu saying that maybe we shouldn't get carried away by a 0-0 draw against a team playing within itself and resting half their starting 11, against whom we looked like not scoring if the game continued until next Tuesday. For that, he seems to have been cast in the role of Peig.
Luxembourg is key. Win there and we finish third, and if we could be accused for making hard work of it at least the trajectory is good after a bad start. Lose or draw, and the debate about whether we keep Kenny on or not has teeth.
You can't spell failure without FAI
Yeah. Anything but a win vs Luxembourg, and all the positivity disappears like snow in a ditch.
We've been here before with a positive performances against Serbia and Portugal followed up by embarrassing results vs Luxembourg & Azerbaijan. Any repeat of that and he should be shown the door.
Eventually there has to be a defining moment. Kenny has been treading water up until now, but on Sunday night he has to either sink or swin.
Bring Back Belfast Celtic F.C.
what exactly constitutes "getting carried away"?
pretty much all the positive posters in relation last nights game have simply cited improvement from where we were, that we look more organised, we appear to have a decent match plan, some good individual performances and that there's a bit of excitement around the team again etc.
resting half their starting 11 is neither here nor there given the players who started for them would most likely walk into our team and are playing at a higher club level than ours.
Well they kinda had to rest Raphaël Guerreiro, Bernardo Silva, and Rafa Silva who all started the last game as they were injured.
I think results are all important but when you get knocked out of world cup qualifying by Luxembourg after 2 games, then performances matter a lot if a manager doesn't want to get sacked.Ha
Kenny dragged us so far backwards that beating Azerbaijan was celebrated as if we'd qualified for a tournament. There are no doubts that we have improved since Anthony Barry came in but losing to Luxembourg should mean the whole coaching ticket get the boot.
with some nations ending an era, Argentina, Portugal, Brazil, France, Belgium etc etc , I could understand why they will extend his contract, but if it was my decision I would say get a proper replacement. I see things as Brady not so much of a change, and Portugal came for a point should have won if not for Seamus Coleman last grasp save vs Ronaldo and the post in his header on second half, and had one more at the very end vs Bazunu that could have nutmegged him luck it stayed in his legs
Well in my post #153, I flagged this one, which I think is definitely getting carried away. A wonderful performance to be proud of?
I think others downplaying Portugal's approach to the game to add merit to our performance also counts.
I still absolutely stand by that post which i should also point out had a level of appreciation from other posters. And was also reinforced by other similar posts over the last 4-5 pages. In fact, i would go so far as to say that my post is more indicative of the general sense around yesterday on here and on broader social media than the feelings of yourself, Boomshakalaka, Bielsa, Paul O'Shea and the like... (
I dont think that post is about getting carried away - it is appreciation for a team that is humming along quite well now and fairly easily holding a team like Portugal at arms length. Lets be proud of that, no? I dont put a lot of stock in comments that suggest Portugal werent all that interested in winning (someone should ask Ronaldo about whether he wanted to win or not) and/or didnt put out a team of sufficient quality to expect to comfortably win (does Santos have such a luxury?).
I see a lot of the losses turning to draws and draws turning to victories over the next year or two. We are clearly on an upward trajectory (please god we beat Lux) in terms of performances and results.
And that's fine. I stand by my criticism of it, and others have agreed with me on how seriously Portugal were taking the match, and whether last night was really just an variation of sorts on the solid defence/no attacking threat we've seen over the Kenny era. An improvement, but balanced with help the Portuguese approach gave us.
But that's discussion for you. I don't think it's negative to not be as positive as you though.
I don't really pay too much attention to what social media say btw; we all know foot.ie posters have higher standards than Twitter
I think a lot of the negativity stems from people who've been brought up watching schoolboys and junior football and spending games screaming "get it away ta fuk" as if the ball is something to be frightened of
I was a massive Kenny critic, but to be fair things have started to look a little bit more promising. There is more football being played and in certain areas there is a lot more cohesion and stability. Defensively we look organised and secure, and this is an area where we have a decent pool of talent and experience. Cullen has been a great find, and Hendrick’s renaissance has been an unexpected boost. It’s still way too soon to be an irreversible progression and Luxembourg could end either way. My main worry is that apart from Robinson we really don’t offer a goal threat, and some of his selections seem capricious and retrograde - especially forward selections. We’ll all know a lot more after Sunday.
Just a little counter arguement to the Portugal not trying stuff....
My brother in law, who is Portuguese, has been calling for them to get rid of the manager for about 3 years. He thinks they are far too conservative with him. Spoke to him today and he doesnt think the players werent trying, no body there is talking about that narrative, but they are saying that Santos set up the team not to lose like he does far too often. Of course there were players left out but if Portugal really didnt care last night Ronaldo wouldnt have played 90 minutes.
I keep hearing about the Luxembourg game as the stick to beat Kenny with. Yeah it was crap, but hes not the 1st manager to have a nightmare. Jack Charlton did against San Marino or Lechinstein (cant remember it exactly).
For Kenny the Luxembourg game was when he had a stupidly unsettled squad with Covid pull outs every game. It was also an empty stadium which Im sure the players struggled to raise themselves in. Its not an excuse, but they are mitigating factors. We can see an absolute improvement in the team since the squad has become a bit more settled and there are fans back at games. You can say that its the same for both teams, but when one teams players are used to playing in front of smaller crowds and empty stadium might affect them less.
Sunday will be interesting. I expect the players to have a bit of revenge in mind too so I think we'll fly out of the blocks at them.
There is a lot on nonsense being talked on here which is leading me to come to this forum less and less. The remark I seen yesterday about how we would have won that game under McCarthy was the peak of it. I dont know if some lads are just craving a bit of attention or what, but theres always Twitter if thats what you are looking for.
I think most reasonable fans who were very anti Kenny will admit that theres a massive amount progress in the last year with a young team. 5 of the starters last night were in their 1st qualifying campaign I believe
It was Liechtenstein, we drew 0-0 and, given that Charlton was gone at the end of that campaign, I'm not sure that it adds much to your overall point.
I was just making the point that it can happen even with a better team
I think Staunton should have remained as manager, if you ignore the 5-2 against Cyprus and all the other poor results and performances, he was doing a great job.
Your point would be fine if Stauntons teams were improving with every game!I think Staunton should have remained as manager, if you ignore the 5-2 against Cyprus and all the other poor results and performances, he was doing a great job.
You completely missed the point.
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