Stephen Kenny

[BOOMSHAKALAKA]

It wasn't a misjudgment. It is not a misjudgment to believe in a vision and give time and grace for the person to get it right. I think I am changing course on Kenny at the right time. At a fair time. To have been calling for his head from early on, as you were, was over the top unreasonable.

For what its worth, supporting Kenny has been a bit of a rollercoaster. As someone who was around Dalymount Park when he was managing the team, I was well aware of some of the flaws of the man as a manager, including how personally he took success and defeat and emotional he could get. He seemed to have come a long way in the years since and he did well with the U21's. That said, when he was named as the "next man up" i was really skeptical. I remember saying it to others on here at the time and i wasnt the only one in that group. Then he started talking about what he saw as the future of the Irish playing style, which included his perspective on the past Irish style and some of our managers, and i started buying in. I was worried that he stepped into the job when he did - and couldn't understand why that decision was made at that time. I was all in though. We all (I think) want all our managers to do well and to take us forward. I was disappointed when i saw his first squad as there were only a handful of new names in there, youngsters. But, you know, its a transition, it will take time, you cant replace a full squad etc. There was the disappointment of Slovakia on penalties. There was the stupidity of a game away to England. There was the unrest and daggers out in the backroom. There was the chaos of squad instability due to covid (which i still believe would be more difficult for any new manager, especially one trying to build a new style and squad). But there were some positive signs too - we were playing a new way, a better way and sometimes it clicked. There was a good dash of youth and inexperience in there but there were signs. But that first chapter was really hard. By the time you get to Luxembourg home, i was ready for him to go. There are posts on here to back that up. At the very least he had to start turning it around. And he did. To the point where i started to really believe that he could take us forward. So i dug my heels in on here during that time especially. More goals, more points, more wins. Still some shakiness (as Pineapple often points out related to Serbia home, for example) but generally we were going in the right direction. I was definitely optimistic, but i think there was fair reason to be. The harshness of the criticism seemed unfair during that time. The skepticism i could understand but the criticism after positive results and wins was hard to comprehend. And then we had this week. The rollercoaster ride was on a big dip again!

I backed Kenny until it was clear he was out of his depth. It took the Chelsea assistant coach to come on board to sort out the formation and tactics for Kenny. And it seems to get ignored because we pass the ball around a bit more but some of the most depressing, boring and painful to watch performances we've ever had has come under Kenny.

[BOOMSHAKALAKA]

There are plenty of LOI fans with no time for Kenny, if anything i think a lot of Kenny supporters just want to avoid going back to the Trap style football of the past and are happy to keep playing football and hope things get better.
I got to the point with Ireland that i stopped even watching the matches as i didn't care if we won or lost as the game we played was so limited that even if we lucked our way into a Euros or WC it would be an embarrassment and only good for the ole ole ole crowd who could get media coverage for helping old ladies across the road and being "the best fans in the world"

The ironic thing is, Kenny is probably ensuring we go back to a long ball manager after he's gone! He's proving previous managers right in their thinking that we don't have the players to play another style.

I believe we can play a more attractive style but unfortunately the manager currently in charge isnt capable of implementing it and is going to leave the next manager in a far worse position than when he took over.

[Eirambler]

We won't be going back to long ball football because we haven't actually moved away from it. We do the slow, ineffective passing thing now for an hour until we go behind and then we just go back to long ball for the last half hour anyway!

[Diggs246]

We won't be going back to long ball football because we haven't actually moved away from it. We do the slow, ineffective passing thing now for an hour until we go behind and then we just go back to long ball for the last half hour anyway!

Yep. Its fantasy that we are playing entertaining football

[sbgawa]

it doesnt help Kenny that his media performances are such stuttering incoherent ramblings when we lose.
He looks like a guy who thinks he is about to be fired...he is coming near to being right.

[seanfhear]

it doesnt help Kenny that his media performances are such stuttering incoherent ramblings when we lose.
He looks like a guy who thinks he is about to be fired...he is coming near to being right.

What were the FAI thinking when they thought that Stephen Kenny would be able to handle the Media side of the job. Whether we like it or not it is part of the job. Kenny is absolutely awful with the media and ya probably will get away with that, when things are going well but when they aren’t, then ~~ Aaarrgghh ~ ~ And there will always be some times when things aren’t going well with the Irish team ! !

Is it after closing time in the last chance saloon ?

[Trequartista20]

it doesnt help Kenny that his media performances are such stuttering incoherent ramblings when we lose.
He looks like a guy who thinks he is about to be fired...he is coming near to being right.

That's one of the reasons why I find it so difficult to comprehend the media love-in we've witnessed until recently.

For example, Brian Kerr also had a LoI background, had a far longer and more successful spell coaching underage Ireland teams, bringing them unprecedented success in the process, and of course is far more engaging and charismatic than Kenny has ever been (can you imaging Kenny having the successful media career Kerr now enjoys?). And yet the Irish media never afforded Kerr anything like the easy ride they do Kenny, whom they refuse to hold properly to account.

[BOOMSHAKALAKA]

we were hopeless against denmark apart from the final 10 mins. the re-writing of that game has been something else. they had no interest in winning that game came for a draw and left with one

We were not. We battered them that night. We had 15 shots, they had 3. And that was a really good Danish team who got to the Euro semi finals getting knocked out in extra time. That's the level we were at directly before Kenny took over. The narrative is that Kenny took over no hopers that didn't come close to qualifying for tournaments, the reality is far different.

[Eirambler]

Kerr didn't make too many friends in the media - he kept them at a distance. Kenny has totally played them, bringing them out to Abbotstown for a complementary tour and video sessions etc.

He has lured them into supporting him and now, like a lot of supporters, they are reluctant to turn on him because it makes them look like they don't have the first clue about what they're writing about every day.

Which, it much be said, is almost certainly true in a few cases.

[BOOMSHAKALAKA]

Bring back Stan!

[tetsujin1979]

That's one of the reasons why I find it so difficult to comprehend the media love-in we've witnessed until recently.

For example, Brian Kerr also had a LoI background, had a far longer and more successful spell coaching underage Ireland teams, bringing them unprecedented success in the process, and of course is far more engaging and charismatic than Kenny has ever been (can you imaging Kenny having the successful media career Kerr now enjoys?). And yet the Irish media never afforded Kerr anything like the easy ride they do Kenny, whom they refuse to hold properly to account.

Not a bit of that! Kerr was given a welcome like no other manager ever got. The performances on his first campaign were dismissed at the time because Mick was in charge for the first two games, and it wasn't really until the 2-2 game against Israel that the coverage he got started to turn against him. By the time of the Cyprus-Switzerland double header at the end of the 2006 qualifiers, the support he had was all but gone, and there was little, if any, complaints from the press when his contract wasn't renewed

[Trequartista20]

Two defeats in eleven?

I don't know what what all the fuss was about...

[Bielsa´s irish]

when you watch the game for the 2nd time , you might learn that we got very lucky today, very lucky,. They missed two sitters, Sometimes you get lucky, wanna the Ukrania game tomorrow in Poland, didnt like after Obafemi left the pitch the game not a little bit, only McClean was still an attacking threat, ditto this Collins is some baller,

[sbgawa]

Watched the game back, its hard to say whether we were good or scotland bad. Like any game of ball the goals change everything (and misses I scotlands case). Kenny would be slammed if we'd hit the post 3 times instead of going in a d scotland had scored so only fair to give credit when we win. Still can't see him turning it around in the long run though. I can only assume he is a different with the players than he is on TV. Hard to imagine him rousing a dressing room. His record with clubs though imply he can.

[Stuttgart88]

It’s always about goals though, isn’t it? As daft as that sounds. Had Duffy not hit the bar against Ukraine we’d be joint top of the group. Had Ogbene not missed a routine header in Armenia we’d never have lost and probably won. Had Lux not had a goal harshly disallowed Kenny would be gone by now. Instead we went on to score some of the best goals we’d ever scored to win 3-0. Had Hourihane not missed a tap in very late in Slovakia we might have gone to the Euros. Had the ref not waved play on in Sofia when Gary Mackay scored…

I’m only citing the above as they’re examples of goals that could so easily have happened / not happened.

I’d rationalise the Scotland misses by saying yes, we were blessed but they were directly attributable to Duffy rather than Scotland earning the chances (ok, they pressed…) whereas I think we constantly put Scotland under pressure from good work.

[sadloserkid]

Can't believe you didn't add that if the ref had spotted the Henry handball we'd have won the WC Stutts! For shame!

[tetsujin1979]

Scotland shot just wide, then we went up the other end and scored the second.

[Eirambler]

It was a telling couple of minutes of play leading up to that goal. We tried to play out from the back, got ourselves in awful trouble and should have conceded a goal. Then we went long straight after that, won possession in midfield and scored.

For me that's a perfect example of what has been going wrong for the last two years and how we can fix it. We need to stop trying to get our players to do the fashionable play out from the back thing, unless there's an obvious and easy pass into midfield clearly on. Instead just get it into midfield, let Cullen, Knight and Molumby compete for it there and we'll create chances we can score from.

We're never going to outpass the likes of Ukraine so let's stop trying to.

[Stuttgart88]

Can't believe you didn't add that if the ref had spotted the Henry handball we'd have won the WC Stutts! For shame!

well we’d have got to the final at least

[Stuttgart88]

It was a telling couple of minutes of play leading up to that goal. We tried to play out from the back, got ourselves in awful trouble and should have conceded a goal. Then we went long straight after that, won possession in midfield and scored.

For me that's a perfect example of what has been going wrong for the last two years and how we can fix it. We need to stop trying to get our players to do the fashionable play out from the back thing, unless there's an obvious and easy pass into midfield clearly on. Instead just get it into midfield, let Cullen, Knight and Molumby compete for it there and we'll create chances we can score from.

We're never going to outpass the likes of Ukraine so let's stop trying to.

There was another in the second half when Molumby only just kept the ball under pressure but having eluded the press he had the whole pitch to attack and we had options either side. We made a ****** of it (of course) but it shows the logic of taking risks like that, it draws the opposition forward, opens up the pitch and opens up the game. I like that we have the balls to do it, I just don’t always enjoy watching us do it!