I don't disagree with your first point but who exactly has feared playing us in the past ten years?Originally Posted by Trequartista20
Kenny appears to have a lot of friends in the media who are coming out to defend him. The excuses being used would not have washed with previous managers. It was all about our negative managers not giving our players a chance to play attacking football and criticising our players before this, now the line is that the players aren't good enough.
Our players aren't of the highest quality but from the team that started on Saturday, the 3 central defenders are all premier league players, our wing backs are premier league players, central midfield consisted of 2 championship regulars and a regular in a decent Belgium club team. Robbinson is a sub at a premier league team and Collins and Bazunu are lower English league players for now. Compare that with what Luxembourg have! The excuses don't wash.
Luxembourg won because they are better coached and better organised. They have worse players than us. Kenny is in the job a year now. We've barely scored any goals, we haven't won a game, he failed to qualify us for the European championships despite playing a weakened Slovakia, failed to beat an awful Bulgarian team, had a miserable nations league overall, our world ranking points are dwindling which will make it harder to qualify for future tournaments and now he has overseen the worst start to a world cup qualifying campaign in 60 years for Ireland.
I really wanted Kenny to succeed but I'm sorry, his record cannot be defended and he has to go before he does more damage. We don't have great players but we have some with potential coming through. We need a competent manager to integrate them into the squad and build for the future. This world cup campaign is already over. We need to get someone new in over the summer and let them build for the next campaign. It won't be easy to find a top level manager with our finances but 500,000 will get you a better manager than Kenny.
Or as I saw elsewhere the game was decided when a Dynamo Kiev striker beat a Rochdale goalkeeper.
In reality, we are paying the price for decades of neglect at underage level, and that's not something that can be fixed quickly. Expectations of what the national team will have achieve have to be lowered, but there is still a bottom limit and losing to Luxembourg is well below what's acceptable.
I can see the argument for switching to a better style of play and that these things take time, but I don't see any evidence of progress whatsoever under Kenny.
I can see the argument for giving up on a campaign or two and just focusing on bringing through as many young players as possible...but I'm not sure why Kenny is the man for that job though.
No matter what direction we want to go in for the next few years, I'd guess there are better options than Kenny available for the same money.
It was decided when a team of mostly European lower league players outplayed a team of mostly higher level players.
The key creative players in the game were the Thillo brothers and Rodriguez. All of them looked like they'd happily walk into our team. I think the level some of our guys play at flatters them. I think Coleman is top notch. Clark more or less holds his own. Stevens did very well last season and can look comfortable at PL level. Doherty has looked excellent at PL level and Lord knows why he looks so laboured in green.
It's long time since Brady has looked like a PL player. Robinson is hardly a standout at PL level. Connolly frustrates whenever he's picked for BHA. You can't argue that these guys are more than decent Championship standard right now.
I think watching these games across the international week gives a good insight into how the rest of the continent is leaving us behind. England U21s are getting tonked yet more than half of their starting XI would get into our senior team!
Luxembourg got 10 points from Nations League section 3. Do you think we'd get that?
Last edited by Stuttgart88; 29/03/2021 at 10:16 AM.
These are the excuses rolled out all across the media. Talking up Luxembourg as if they're not a low ranking team. It reminds me of when Staunton claimed that Cyprus would cause a lot of teams trouble after that embarrassing defeat. These excuses weren't rolled out for previous managers, why not? McCarthy got huge criticism and I believe rightfully so but his results were far better than Kenny's with basically the same standard of players.
And I don't think we'd get 10 points from section 3 with Kenny in charge. We can't say he's new to the job now. Hes had a year, a nation's league campaign, a European championship play off and the start of this world cup campaign. There are no signs that we are improving. I thought there were some v serbia but when you look back, we scored 2 from 3 shots we had and Serbia were resting a few players for their Portugal game! How much worse than losing to Luxembourg at home do we have to go before we stop making excuses for Kenny?
It was San Marino after an embarrassing win actually.
This loss was a long time coming, we truly have reaped what we have sown from a coaching point of view over the past 20 years. Look at the small number of a-license and pro license holders in Ireland relative to similar sized nations.
Too many people who were underperforming in coaching roles at underage international level were allowed to continue even though results were abysmal.
Of course the buck stops with the former CEO and his utter mismanagement of all levels of the game here but he was aided and abetted by a number of henchmen over the years.
Also, if you can get a look at the article by Miguel Delaney some years back on the attitude at Schoolboy level to some badly needed common sense reforms, it is jaw dropping stuff.
The scary thing is how quickly the level of player available to us is dropping down the leagues across the water. We now are relying on League 1 and Championship players in the main.
Getting rid of SK and appointing someone new is like performing cosmetic surgery on a critically ill patient!
''and I for one welcome our new insect overlords''
At no point have I said Luxembourg aren't a low ranking team. I'm saying we aren't a high ranking team and if the results / performances since Euro 2016 are anything to go by we are struggling to be considered a mid ranking team! Two NL campaigns show we have no right to be considered a league B team anymore.
Were Serbia really resting a few players? I could be wrong but I think 9 of 11 also started v Portugal (need to check that!).
Last edited by Stuttgart88; 29/03/2021 at 10:21 AM.
They left Jovic and Mitrovic out of the starting line-up against us anyway. They were two of their higher-profile players, so maybe they just stand out more. Mitrovic came on as a sub and scored twice of course.
Curiosity based question? is there anyone who currently wants Kenny to stay, but would change their mind is Qatar beat us tomorrow?
It was San Marino after an embarrassing win actually.
Beaten by a team in the middle of their project on the up. We're at the very start of our journey as far as I'm concerned.
As Irishmen we dilute our sense of nation by depending on the English to bring us our balls
Yes, I have to agree that Serbia beat us in second gear.
Yeah we played OK, but they easily deserved their three points.
What annoys me more than losing to Luxembourg is hearing the management go on about our "brilliant performance in Serbia". We lost.
I wasnt referring to yourself sorry. The media defence of Kenny was what I was talking about. No doubt that we aren't in a healthy place but we have far better players than Luxembourg. Serbia kept some of their best players on the bench against us, they changed the match when they came on.
We nearly qualified for the euros. We have mostly premier league players available to us. It's been painted as if we're a minnow. Why weren't these excuses rolled out for previous managers?
Michael O’Neill managed to turn it around with Northern Ireland but he did go to Knock and say some very good prayers.
Well, it was an expanded Euros, and we won only three matches: Gibraltar home and away, and Georgia at home. That we nearly qualified tells you how farcical the expanded format is.
I would say the last time Ireland had a decent win was Wales away in 2017.
That said, we should be beating Luxembourg at home handily.
Kenny the king or as our man Bielsa would say el rey... going nowhere. The Boss stays.
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