Greece V Republic of Ireland - Friday, 16th June 2023 - Euro 2024 Qualifier

**mypost** · 16/06/2023, 10:01 PM

Originally Posted by Trequartista20

Realistically we're out of the running for qualification after two games. It's all so predictable. The natural breaking point arrived at the of the disappointing Nations League campaign and the FAI should have acted.

Can anyone come up with a credible reason for now persisting with Kenny? Because there's nobody better available? Really? He's getting very well paid by international standards for what he does. Is there truly nobody more competent out there who'd accept the job?

It's was same old story again tonight. We're far, far too easy to play against don't even get the basics right. Kenny, as nice a man as he is - and I very much doubt his detractors feel any personal animus towards him - simply isn't up to the task. Something many of us had worked out within his first half-dozen games in charge.

You could have Klopp in charge of this lot, and we wouldn't qualify out of this group either. So we keep doing what we are doing, come what may.

The brits lost in Denmark to tonight. Presumably after spending 85 minutes with the bus firmly parked in it's own box. How many more points than us did they get? 0.

That's what some people want us to go back to. Pragmatic, turgid, unsuccessful muck, and another �3mn down the drain.

**pineapple stu** · 16/06/2023, 10:03 PM

For Monday so (which may be a point to split the thread)

Doherty is suspended. Probably just a one-match ban? Was stupid but not dangerous

Idah has to be dropped. We can't afford goal-shy forwards against Gibraltar at home.

I'd like to see Johnston start for his ability to run at weak teams (he didn't have much impact tonight though). Browne for Doherty?

I think we should be able to make minimum changes and run comfortably here. But they've only lost 3-0 at home to France and Holland; maybe they've shored up.

But really we need a convincing win on Monday - and we then play Holland and France in September...

**Insidetherock** · 16/06/2023, 10:08 PM

Things we may as well realise

Forget Josh Cullen.. he's too small.. he'll be out of the Burnley team after 3/4 games in the Premier League, and will make a good career for himself moving to different Championship teams

O Dowda isn't related to an international footballer

Give Mc Clean a huge send off Monday night, it'll be his last game

Obafemi needs to start with Ferguson. Parrot or Idah can replace Ferguson when he's wrecked.

Jason Knight shouldn't be playing international from League 1

**ontheotherhand** · 16/06/2023, 10:09 PM

Originally Posted by mypost

Yeah fair play alright. Third consecutive loss with him in goal now. All one goal scorelines.

No Irish manager has ever won in Greece. No Irish manager has beaten Greece at all. The team is crap. The players are pub standard. Add in heat, and a cobbled together bunch of rusty players at the end of a long hard season, and all the ingredients were there for what happened, so they happened. Changing Kenny is not going to turn water into wine.

Are you seriously blaming Bazunu for tonight? Not sure why anyone would even entertain your other points with that as your opener.

**Yard of Pace** · 16/06/2023, 10:14 PM

Senior players coming out and talking in monotone clich�s about the game, almost ignorant of how important a game it was we lost, and talking about Gibralter.....

The players have stopped playing for the manager.

That's it. Finito.

It's hardly difficult to see during the game. It was woeful. And they care. But not under Kenny. They don't care anymore.

**ontheotherhand** · 16/06/2023, 10:31 PM

Originally Posted by Insidetherock

Things we may as well realise

Forget Josh Cullen.. he's too small.. he'll be out of the Burnley team after 3/4 games in the Premier League, and will make a good career for himself moving to different Championship teams

O Dowda isn't related to an international footballer

Give Mc Clean a huge send off Monday night, it'll be his last game

Obafemi needs to start with Ferguson. Parrot or Idah can replace Ferguson when he's wrecked.

Jason Knight shouldn't be playing international from League 1

I don't necessarily disagree with you but if not Cullen then who? Even if he is only ever going to be a good Championship player, he's still better than any other option we have right now.

I wonder what they worked on in Turkey. Whatever it was, Greece punched them in the face early on and it went out the window. They looked completely lost tonight.

**Crosby87** · 16/06/2023, 10:34 PM

He took responsibility and said the job comes with criticism and he has to take it tonight.

**pineapple stu** · 16/06/2023, 10:47 PM

Random - possibly pointless - stat.

Kenny has taken one point from his first two games across his four qualifying campaigns.

Every campaign has basically been over before it began

**osarusan** · 16/06/2023, 10:59 PM

Originally Posted by mypost

Yeah fair play alright. Third consecutive loss with him in goal now. All one goal scorelines.

No Irish manager has ever won in Greece. No Irish manager has beaten Greece at all. The team is crap. The players are pub standard. Add in heat, and a cobbled together bunch of rusty players at the end of a long hard season, and all the ingredients were there for what happened, so they happened. Changing Kenny is not going to turn water into wine.

Originally Posted by mypost

You could have Klopp in charge of this lot, and we wouldn't qualify out of this group either. So we keep doing what we are doing, come what may.

The brits lost in Denmark to tonight. Presumably after spending 85 minutes with the bus firmly parked in it's own box. How many more points than us did they get? 0.

That's what some people want us to go back to. Pragmatic, turgid, unsuccessful muck, and another �3mn down the drain.

Truly, there is no delusion like mypost delusion.

**Crosby87** · 16/06/2023, 11:09 PM

Imagine being on the bench tonight?
On the plane home are you thinking "I can't get into THIS squad??"

**Razors left peg** · 16/06/2023, 11:52 PM

Originally Posted by Crosby87

Imagine being on the bench tonight?
On the plane home are you thinking "I can't get into THIS squad??"

Jeff Hendrick, Alan Browne and Jamie McGrath will be fuming alright. How dare they not be picked

**weldoninhio** · 16/06/2023, 11:54 PM

I�d say f right off with that. We�ve a golden generation. But at the back, get rid of it. We aren�t Man City. Launch it away and try again. Keep passing, but not at the back

**weldoninhio** · 16/06/2023, 11:58 PM

Sam Smozich looking at the thinking he can�t get into the squad. Kenny needs to go now

**SkStu** · 17/06/2023, 12:08 AM

It�s weird how we�ve had both ends of the extrems of �this is the worst crop of players we�ve ever had� to �this is a golden generation� on here tonight LOL.

My opinion - it�s somewhere in between but we should absolutely be doing better (results and performances) with this crop than we are.

**pineapple stu** · 17/06/2023, 12:11 AM

Yup. Golden generation and not one of them can get their game in the Premier League (or Serie A or La Liga)? There's an oxymoron right there.

I had feared a performance like tonight. I don't even mind it - as a one-off. But it's too often now. I think there has to be more in the squad than that. Greece were deserving winners but weren't great really, especially up front

**ontheotherhand** · 17/06/2023, 3:36 AM

It's a golden generation in the same sense that Donald Trump has a golden toilet.

**placid casual** · 17/06/2023, 6:41 AM

There is no desire for 9/10ths of these players to go on and achieve anything on the international stage. They are well paid to sit on the bench in substandard english leagues. They've made it financially, reached their ceiling of ambition and now they can freewheel into football obscurity. Doesn't matter who is in the dugout.

**Dermobohs** · 17/06/2023, 7:19 AM

Yes, and John o Shea, splinter arse, coaching them in collecting wages from the bench!

**Eirambler** · 17/06/2023, 8:41 AM

Originally Posted by Yard of Pace

I've been incredibly unimpressed with Gus Poyet as a manager whenever I've seen his teams play and hope that Kenny can get the better of him.

I think Kenny should probably be gone by now, or soon, but I would never in a million years want him replaced by Poyet.

And I think this presents us with a big chance. Poyet is absolutely no managerial genius. A hot-headed, tempermental spoofer, in my opinion.

Originally Posted by liamoo11

Maybe the worst performance under Kenny,? Its rare you see a side so tactically out thought.

Outthought by Gus Poyet. Says it all really, doesn't it?

Originally Posted by mypost

Yeah fair play alright. Third consecutive loss with him in goal now. All one goal scorelines.

No Irish manager has ever won in Greece. No Irish manager has beaten Greece at all. The team is crap. The players are pub standard. Add in heat, and a cobbled together bunch of rusty players at the end of a long hard season, and all the ingredients were there for what happened, so they happened. Changing Kenny is not going to turn water into wine.

Everyone and everything is the problem apart from the person who is actually the problem. Beyond parody.

(Not to mention a ridiculous shot at the one player who could walk off the park with his head held high.)

A fan of the north on the wind up perhaps. No other explanation for it.

**Predator** · 17/06/2023, 9:14 AM

It's clear that Stephen Kenny got his selection wrong last night as evidenced by his half-time sub and the early second-half changes. I'm a huge admirer of his optimistic defiance and how he insists that his teams try to impose their games on opponents no matter who or where, but it's not working. Is that down to tactical approach or does it go back to the relative lack of quality? Egan and Doherty said preparations couldn't have gone better...

A highly frustrating game to watch and it is hard to see where we are going with performances like that. A lot of people in the media have the knives out now and at this point it's hard to muster any sort of optimism. Limp defeats to Luxembourg, Armenia and Greece. Defeats to Portugal and France held up as moral victories to be celebrated ("look at how well we played") but you could argue we blew those games too (as Roy Keane famously said about the draw against the Netherlands in Amsterdam back in 2000).

What is going on here?