If Kenny is an Unlucky General then .................
For me is simple after this draw, Kenny has to step down.
France at home defeat
Greece in Salonika/ Athens a defeat
Gibraltar at home a narrow victory a draw.
Then it comes Holland and Co. Doomed
The guy has bad karma I think.
If Martin O Neill is a wiseguy lucky coach, this Kenny coach is the opposite.
He must resign
We were in Pot 3 (2020) and Pot 4 (2018) before Kenny came along. Like, come on..Originally Posted by Diggs246
I suppose another way of looking at it is he?s kept us in the third seed spot despite the challenges of a change in approach and a significant change in personnel.
That's a long way from "specialising in underperforming" to be fair.
It's hardly a criticism anyway to say we were backs against the wall away to Portugal. We'll be backs against the wall against France and Holland away like we would any top side away from home.
The point being made was that the performance in Portugal - 28% possession, 6 shots v 29, 3 corners v 14 - was a benchmark performance for the team to hit.
I don't think it is at all, and I think if France/Holland have those sort of stats against us, we could easily lose 3-0/4-0.
You can acknowledge we defended well while at the same time recognising that the overall team performance wasn't the sort of one we should target on a regular basis.
Last edited by pineapple stu; 10/10/2022 at 8:17 PM.
To be honest if we want any chance of 2nd we simply have to beat France in the first game. If I look back to 2018 when the Dutch and French were in the same group Sweden actually pipped the Dutch but despite that they didn?t do that well over the 4 matches against the top seeds, they beat France yes (very lucky, France basic handed Sweden their winner in the last kick of the game) but what happened was the French beat the Dutch twice and the Dutch then slipped up in Sofia. What we could do with winning the Greek & Gibraltar games (home and away, easier said than done but that has to be the target). Be competitive at home against the French and Dutch and fingers crossed we somehow pull the unthinkable in one of them and after that see how the cards fall.
You could say the same about Portugal though considering who they had in their attack. I think you are massively overestimating Holland and France quality in comparison to Portugal. Portugal had Jota, CR7, Bernardo Silva in their attack and couldn?t score for 89 minutes with those stats, if they couldn?t score then what?s to say the others would? Maybe if they scored from every chance they created which is unlikely even for a general as unlucky as Kenny.
we did struggle to get out 2nd half but at the same time they really didnt create much at all. we limited them to what were mostly speculative long range efforts dont think they carved us open much at all? seriba at home was the worst performance of the lot tbh that was a real pasting.
not that much:
Ukraine who finished ahead of us, got Italy and England.
Armenia who finished bottom of our group got Croatia, Wales, Armenia, Turkey, Latvia.
Nothern Ireland who were 5th seeds got: Denmark, Finland, Slovenia, Kazakstan, Northern Ireland, San Marino. Genuinely if Kenny had lost almost every game we had since he arrived that might have been our slot in the groups.
We had 66% possession, 8 v 1 corners, and 21 v 4 shots against Armenia. So against other opposition with those stats we win 3 or 4-0? Benchmark performance to hit?
Doesn't tell the full story though, does it? Sometimes you need to watch the games ....
And with 7 shots on target from 29 should tell you (like watching the game would) a lot of those shots were desperate shots because they couldn?t break down the Irish defense.
Presumably the penalty saved, and goals in the 89th and 96th minute are three of the shots on target. 12 of the 29 shots are classified as "shots blocked" - defenders doing their job in other words :-)
Terrible draw for Ireland
Not the worst draw for Kenny in that Ireland could lose home and away to both Netherlands and France and not have people calling for his head. Greece a potential threat in that regard, but hard to know how they'll be looking when the games come around.
Gibraltar...he has to manage wins home and away. If not surely it is over then and there for hm.
Correct on Portugal - hence the comment that they're often less than the sum of their parts lately.
But what's to say others would have scored with those stats? Perhaps the fact that others have scored with those stats? From 2020, a game with 44% possession, 4 shots v 20, 2 corners v 12 ended England 3-0 Ireland. We barely laid a glove on our last trip to France in 2018 - 24% possession, 5 shots v 18, 2 corners v 9 - and we were flattered by a 2-0 scoreline. Go back a bit further, and you have Germany 3-0 Ireland, with 25% possession, 12 shots v 28, 4 corners v 16. That's going to happen more often than not when you give up that many chances.
So again, the performance in Portugal was not a bench-mark performance we should be looking to achieve. And you could reach that conclusion by watching the game as well as looking at the stats.
Last edited by pineapple stu; 11/10/2022 at 10:07 AM.
So, you are suggesting a contract extension for the next two qualification campaigns? (dependent on wins against Gibraltar and possibly Greece (depending on how Greece turn out to be)). Because if he is currently incentivised to lose with the difficult EC draw, a contract extension for the next WC qualification campaign removes that incentive and aligns our best interests?
I might be wrong here but was there not a situation a while back were all we had to do was beat a hopeless Bulgarian team in Dublin. To mentain or go up a pot? I might be wrong
I think there's a significant number of fans who don't care about qualifying anymore. The old 'we don't have the players' line that is trotted out when a team is a mess. There's an attitude of let SK at it, sure we'll never qualify anyway, give the young lads a chance and knock the ball around at the back.
Something Mick McCarthy only barely managed to do, to be fair.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
I think he should already be gone.
Im just saying that the kind of opponent that a defeat against would really generate pressure on him becomes less likely with the draw we got.
To be fair, Switzerland did knock France out of the Euros and qualified for the World Cup ahead of Italy.
Posting Permissions
Quote
Bookmarks