FAI...New Manager Hunt continues

[dublin7]

The manager has to take a lot of the blame for a result like this. In terms of players we are not that bad and shouldn't be losing at home against Luxembourg. It is the managers job to pick the team and motivate the players.

This performance brings back memories of Staunton and the 5-2 defeat to Cyprus.

With the players available tell us who you would have picked tonight and the tactics you would have employed.

I am not an international class football manager so I decline to answer that but the team badly needs an internstional class manager and Kenny it seems is not one.

That's a cop out. You haven't the balls to tell us what players should be on the pitch and in what positions but you can tell us the manager got it wrong?

Unfortunately Capt Pat is typical of your average Irish fan. He'll say we should do better, but can't come up with any specifics as to why and would struggle to name most of the Irish team. You can be sure he/she would have no problem naming the Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea etc teams though as he/she is no doubt a die hard fan who maybe goes to see them play live in the UK once a season(pre Covid)

[Milltown Row2]

The manager has to take a lot of the blame for a result like this. In terms of players we are not that bad and shouldn't be losing at home against Luxembourg. It is the managers job to pick the team and motivate the players.

This performance brings back memories of Staunton and the 5-2 defeat to Cyprus.

With the players available tell us who you would have picked tonight and the tactics you would have employed.

I am not an international class football manager so I decline to answer that but the team badly needs an internstional class manager and Kenny it seems is not one.

That's a cop out. You haven't the balls to tell us what players should be on the pitch and in what positions but you can tell us the manager got it wrong?

Unfortunately Capt Pat is typical of your average Irish fan. He'll say we should do better, but can't come up with any specifics as to why and would struggle to name most of the Irish team. You can be sure he/she would have no problem naming the Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea etc teams though as he/she is no doubt a die hard fan who maybe goes to see them play live in the UK once a season(pre Covid)

Did the manager get it right and his players just not follow his instructions?

[dublin7]

The manager has to take a lot of the blame for a result like this. In terms of players we are not that bad and shouldn't be losing at home against Luxembourg. It is the managers job to pick the team and motivate the players.

This performance brings back memories of Staunton and the 5-2 defeat to Cyprus.

With the players available tell us who you would have picked tonight and the tactics you would have employed.

I am not an international class football manager so I decline to answer that but the team badly needs an internstional class manager and Kenny it seems is not one.

That's a cop out. You haven't the balls to tell us what players should be on the pitch and in what positions but you can tell us the manager got it wrong?

Unfortunately Capt Pat is typical of your average Irish fan. He'll say we should do better, but can't come up with any specifics as to why and would struggle to name most of the Irish team. You can be sure he/she would have no problem naming the Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea etc teams though as he/she is no doubt a die hard fan who maybe goes to see them play live in the UK once a season(pre Covid)

Did the manager get it right and his players just not follow his instructions?

If a player can't play a simple pass or score a header from 6 yards you can't blame the manager. That's just poor play. The simple fact is this Ireland side is the worst team (ability wise) since Jack Charlton was appointed in the 1980s. The team has  no attacking players playing at any sort of decent level except Shane Long who's goal scoring record in the premier league is shocking for a striker.

The problems go back to the FAI/John Delaney and the complete lack of any system to bring through footballers in this country. Players are shipped over to the UK at 15/16 like cattle by clubs only interested in the money. With the global spread of footballers coming to the EPL the numbers of young Irish lads coming through has fallen dramatically and the level/teams Irish players are playing at is now lower as well. 

For people skating Kenny who wasn't playing tonight that he should have selected?

[sid waddell]

Kenny when speaking reminds me of Paul Curran on The Sunday Game

Ye know

Actually felt sorry for him during that interview, it was a painful watch.

Im sure he is a good football man but he hasn't carried any air of authority since he came into the job and is a poor communicator in front of the cameras. There are plenty of good football men but that shouldn't qualify you to manage at international level.

Unfortunately it was entirely predictable back in November 2018 that Kenny would struggle with his media appearances and that's a big no no in professional football these days

He did an interview with Marian Finucane back then and it was painful, he hasn't improved at all since

The first real hint that David Moyes would struggle at Manchester United was his performances in interviews

As regards the football side of things, Kenny is trying to do something that might work with a decent club team but it's very hard to see it work at international level with a team of stiffs who rarely meet up with each other

In football, you make your tactics to suit your team

Ireland have been shite for a good while but the way we were competitive was by being hard to beat, dogs

Confidence follows from results, under O'Neill we were pretty turgid for the first two years but some decent football, often winning football, actually started to flow in the 13 months after we jammed that win over Germany

We played some nice football the other night but we're too nice, too easy to beat now, and that kills confidence totally

And we have no good creative/attacking players

The Serbia game was mildly encouraging but tonight knocks the whole Kenny project back in a massive way and it's difficult to see how he recovers, there would have to be an admission that the next three years are a team building exercise, and Irish supporters of my age were raised on the glory days and even post-2002 are used to us always being competitive and hard to beat at minimum, so it's hard to see how he gets that space to build a team from scratch

Also the youngsters who were thought to be the future 18 months ago have all stalled in a big way at club level

[JPGJOHNNYG]

The nonsense being talked about trying to defend Kenny. It's as if the McCarthy regime was 10 years ago. McCarthy was one result from qualifying. Apart from England Kenny has played no-one yet his results are scandalous.

[general_lee]

That was abysmal tonight. I get the standard of player we have at the minute isn't great but international football is about getting results for a country like ours. I don't care how we do it, I was more than happy with O'Neill/Keane, Trapp, McCarthy x2 playing simple direct football if it got results.

We don't have the calibre of player at our disposable to play attractive football. All our best players are at middling Premiership/championship clubs. They're coached accordingly. Trying to get a load of players at that standard to come and play together in a style they clearly struggle with, without any individual even close to resembling world class is not going to cut it.

That's not to say there isn't the makings of a team that is stubborn and hard to beat. Not pretty to watch but then I was never one of these spoilt "purist" ballbags with unrealistic expectations of how an Irish team should play. I think this campaign is over before it has even started.

[sid waddell]

The manager has to take a lot of the blame for a result like this. In terms of players we are not that bad and shouldn't be losing at home against Luxembourg. It is the managers job to pick the team and motivate the players.

This performance brings back memories of Staunton and the 5-2 defeat to Cyprus.

With the players available tell us who you would have picked tonight and the tactics you would have employed.

I am not an international class football manager so I decline to answer that but the team badly needs an internstional class manager and Kenny it seems is not one.

That's a cop out. You haven't the balls to tell us what players should be on the pitch and in what positions but you can tell us the manager got it wrong?

Unfortunately Capt Pat is typical of your average Irish fan. He'll say we should do better, but can't come up with any specifics as to why and would struggle to name most of the Irish team. You can be sure he/she would have no problem naming the Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea etc teams though as he/she is no doubt a die hard fan who maybe goes to see them play live in the UK once a season(pre Covid)

Did the manager get it right and his players just not follow his instructions?

If a player can't play a simple pass or score a header from 6 yards you can't blame the manager. That's just poor play. The simple fact is this Ireland side is the worst team (ability wise) since Jack Charlton was appointed in the 1980s. The team has  no attacking players playing at any sort of decent level except Shane Long who's goal scoring record in the premier league is shocking for a striker.

The problems go back to the FAI/John Delaney and the complete lack of any system to bring through footballers in this country. Players are shipped over to the UK at 15/16 like cattle by clubs only interested in the money. With the global spread of footballers coming to the EPL the numbers of young Irish lads coming through has fallen dramatically and the level/teams Irish players are playing at is now lower as well. 

For people skating Kenny who wasn't playing tonight that he should have selected?

The players are shite but even with good players, when they don't have clear instructions they tend to make basic mistakes, the confidence goes

You saw that with Lampard at Chelsea, now they look like a different team with a manager who is giving them clear instructions

I imagine Kenny probably knows more technically than Lampard does but personality wise he doesn't convince, I think the players have formed the view that he is out of his depth

When you have a lack of a playing background I think you have to have a very strong personality to overcome that, eg. Mourinho

Our last three managers have commanded instant respect due to who they were, it counts for a lot, Kenny is coming from the LOI with none of that respect built up

[SHEEDY]

For the people saying who else should he pick, for a decent manager it's not just about picking the team, it's about motivating a team, giving them right game plan, giving them individual instructions. Does Stephen Kenny give that aura that he knows what he's doing or can turn it around? We just got beat easily by Luxembourg by the way.
Chris Houghton is free, I know who I would rather have.

[ONeill]

Front three, if you can call them that, was Preston, Luton, and a sub for West Brom.

[dublin7]

Who are these players who don't respect Kenny? Outside of Coleman and Doherty what have any of them achieved to think they know more than the manager.

The team did have a plan tonight, starting by playing it out from the back, but it seems the players aren't able to implement the game plan as they're the one not good enough. There's a reason our main striker plays for Luton who are in the bottom half of the championship.

If Kenny goes back to the caveman tactics of O'Neill and McCarthy then what will that achieve? It's not like Ireland had beaten any of the top sides under the previous managers in recent years.  We scored 3 goals over 2 games in the last qualifying campaign against Gibraltar who are one of the worst teams in International football and one of those goals was in injury time at the end of the game so it's not like the previous manager was getting a whole lot more out of the squad.

At least this Irish side is attempting to play football

[Milltown Row2]

So don't blame the manager, blame his previous manager, Delaney?

[thewobbler]

Twitter full to the beams tonight with people trying to make this one John Delaney's fault.

Seriously people, have a good long word with yourselves. The CEO of the FAI has no more input into player development than the Easter Bunny.

You might as well blame the Taoiseach.

—-

Right now the manager's role isn't about today. Ireland couldn't qualify for the finals unless there was mass murder in each of their opponents' training camps.

This doesn't mean Kenny is the right person for the job. But if he's brave enough to cull some of the absolute shite (like McClean) from the set up and instead raise the profile of young players to the point that EPL teams might take notice, that's enough. For now.

[Baile Brigín 2]

The manager has to take a lot of the blame for a result like this. In terms of players we are not that bad and shouldn't be losing at home against Luxembourg. It is the managers job to pick the team and motivate the players.

This performance brings back memories of Staunton and the 5-2 defeat to Cyprus.

With the players available tell us who you would have picked tonight and the tactics you would have employed.

I am not an international class football manager so I decline to answer that but the team badly needs an internstional class manager and Kenny it seems is not one.

That's a cop out. You haven't the balls to tell us what players should be on the pitch and in what positions but you can tell us the manager got it wrong?

Unfortunately Capt Pat is typical of your average Irish fan. He'll say we should do better, but can't come up with any specifics as to why and would struggle to name most of the Irish team. You can be sure he/she would have no problem naming the Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea etc teams though as he/she is no doubt a die hard fan who maybe goes to see them play live in the UK once a season(pre Covid)

Did the manager get it right and his players just not follow his instructions?

I think the problem is the instructions are beyond the players. Kenny  needs to be more pragmatic. We are shite and expecting possession football from that group is too big an ask

[Baile Brigín 2]

Twitter full to the beams tonight with people trying to make this one John Delaney's fault.

Seriously people, have a good long word with yourselves. The CEO of the FAI has no more input into player development than the Easter Bunny.

You might as well blame the Taoiseach.

—-

Right now the manager's role isn't about today. Ireland couldn't qualify for the finals unless there was mass murder in each of their opponents' training camps.

This doesn't mean Kenny is the right person for the job. But if he's brave enough to cull some of the absolute shite (like McClean) from the set up and instead raise the profile of young players to the point that EPL teams might take notice, that's enough. For now.

This. The new FAI are smart enough to realise we are poor. There is a serious group of players coming through - look at Bazunu tonight, many of whom are LoI produced despite the FAI and that takes time.  However Kenny got the gig on the basis he proved with Dundalk he could get blood from a stone, limited players over achieving. We aren't seeing anything like that

[seafoid]

Ireland have been underwhelming for a long time. They qualified for the Euros in 2012. Last in group. In 2016 they got to the last 16. The Euros have been diluted to include about half of the countries. No World Cup.since 2002.

Looking at Serbia during the week, most of their journeymen don't play in England. Maybe they get better experience.
But they probably don't earn as much money as the Irish players.