Republic of Ireland V Belgium - Saturday, 23rd March 2024 - Friendly

[Razors left peg]

C'mon Razor, you have a Will Keane poster on your bedroom ceiling. Well, I've heard anyway.

Ive told your Mrs not to be telling stories again! (sorry couldnt resist )

[SkStu]

Will Keane? Won't Keane?

Questions that will plague the Irish national side forever apparently.

First Roy, then Johnser, now Will.

[elatedscum]

This is a stupidly attacking team but **** it.

This is the team I’d start against Belgium:

Kelleher

Doherty
O’Shea
Collins
Ebosele

Cullen
Knight

Ogbene
Szmodzics
Johnston

Ferguson

-
Probably makes more sense to play Coleman instead of Festy and moving Matt Doherty over to the left. But could see Doku rinse Coleman pace wise. The lack of game time after the injury worries me…

[Eminence Grise]

Direct Quote: "Marco Rossi is nothing bud-a-pest"

I'm here all week.

Don't know whether to laugh Orbán you.

[Crosby87]

This is a stupidly attacking team but **** it.



-
Probably makes more sense to play Coleman instead of Festy and moving Matt Doherty over to the left. But could see Doku rinse Coleman pace wise. The lack of game time after the injury worries me…

Yes we will Count Doku's goals I'm afraid.
The dark side of things.

[Snapshot]

Absolutely, but it usually spirals into a faux outrage and the manager doesnt know what hes doing. Discussion is one thing, but the guy being left out always seems to be the messiah

Absolute nonsense. I made a case for a player, provided facts and figures. Trying to do the right thing. Suddenly we're in your bedroom with Crosby's missus and a mirror on the ceiling. Chrissakes.

[Razors left peg]

Absolute nonsense. I made a case for a player, provided facts and figures. Trying to do the right thing. Suddenly we're in your bedroom with Crosby's missus and a mirror on the ceiling. Chrissakes.

Lads not allowed make jokes now?

Keep making your case for a 31 journeyman who has less pace than my dead grandmother if it makes you happy, but remember if you are allowed your opinion so are those of us who roll our eyes at someone getting annoyed over a nothing player

[Snapshot]

Lads not allowed make jokes now?

Keep making your case for a 31 journeyman who has less pace than my dead grandmother if it makes you happy, but remember if you are allowed your opinion so are those of us who roll our eyes at someone getting annoyed over a nothing player

Another disgraceful post from you. You're out of control.

[SkStu]

Relax the cacks.

[Razors left peg]

Another disgraceful post from you. You're out of control.

Think me and you have very different definitions of out of control and disgraceful. Jaysus, picking Will Keane as a hill to die on is an odd one, even by this forums standards. But fair play, keep fighting the good fight, its funny at least

[tetsujin1979]

Ok you two. Go to neutral corners.
There's been pages of debate on a player that isn't in the squad, and little interest in it, outside of both of you.
Either take it to your inboxes or let it go.

[John83]

Absolutely, but it usually spirals into a faux outrage and the manager doesnt know what hes doing. Discussion is one thing, but the guy being left out always seems to be the messiah

That certainly happens, but I don't see it with Keane. I think people who mention him suggest that his goalscoring record is consistent enough that his mediocre cameo isn't enough to dismiss him as a condender for the squad. They think he might be a decent option. That's a long way from him being the messiah, or even from the manager being a very naughty boy for leaving him out of the squad.

[JR89]

That certainly happens, but I don't see it with Keane. I think people who mention him suggest that his goalscoring record is consistent enough that his mediocre cameo isn't enough to dismiss him as a condender for the squad. They think he might be a decent option. That's a long way from him being the messiah, or even from the manager being a very naughty boy for leaving him out of the squad.

That's just the typical response from folk when anyone asks why isn't player A, B, or C in a squad. It was the response that was always given when people questioned why Szmodics isn't in squads.

[pineapple stu]

That certainly happens, but I don't see it with Keane. I think people who mention him suggest that his goalscoring record is consistent enough that his mediocre cameo isn't enough to dismiss him as a condender for the squad. They think he might be a decent option. That's a long way from him being the messiah, or even from the manager being a very naughty boy for leaving him out of the squad.

Exactly this.

Plus the options in the squad at his expense are distinctly mediocre too. Idah, Obafemi and Parrott have 22/23/23 senior club goals in their entire careers. Keane has 24 in the past 18 months.

And against that, you have the reasonable view put across by ifk101 that Idah and Obafemi in particular may offer something different up front, whereas Keane may be too close to Ferguson/Szmodics in style.

[Razors left peg]

That certainly happens, but I don't see it with Keane. I think people who mention him suggest that his goalscoring record is consistent enough that his mediocre cameo isn't enough to dismiss him as a condender for the squad. They think he might be a decent option. That's a long way from him being the messiah, or even from the manager being a very naughty boy for leaving him out of the squad.

I literally have a fella calling me a disgrace and out of control for making light of Keane.... think thats a bit OTT no?

[John83]

I literally have a fella calling me a disgrace and out of control for making light of Keane.... think thats a bit OTT no?

I think that was in distaste at the dead grandmother joke. In any case, tets has asked that that strand of the thread be taken elsewhere if it's to continue.

[tetsujin1979]

Ryan Manning called into squad after recovering from injury

[Supreme feet]

Game day, and it's been 25 hours since the last post on the dedicated match thread. For shame.

I'm going for a rousing 2-0 win today over a disinterested Belgium, evoking memories of Stan's win over Sweden eighteen years ago; Ferguson silencing the doubters with a good, scrappy poacher's goal, and Finn Azaz announcing himself with a Liam Miller-esque thunderbolt.

[Olé Olé]

Game day, and it's been 25 hours since the last post on the dedicated match thread. For shame.

I'm going for a rousing 2-0 win today over a disinterested Belgium, evoking memories of Stan's win over Sweden eighteen years ago; Ferguson silencing the doubters with a good, scrappy poacher's goal, and Finn Azaz announcing himself with a Liam Miller-esque thunderbolt.

But what are your views on Will Keane?

[Kingdom]

Haven't posted properly for a long time. The Kenny affair was awful in how it played out in the end.
Neither players, manager, coaches nor fans came out of it with any credit. I'll put my hand up and say that I probably went too far in debating the merits of SK at times. I'd imagine/hope that other posters would agree they went too far in the opposite direction, perhaps not.

It would be incorrect to say that nobody would have done better. We don't know, we couldn't know, but I think it is probably fair to say that this is the weakest period for Irish football in our lifetime (or in Stuttgart's case, two lifetimes) and by some distance.

Happy to let bygones be bygones, but I'm not going to engage with the exhausting nonsense most posters on the Ireland forum engaged in over the past 3 years).