The New Official Republic of Ireland Football Thread

The gameplan was miles off for the first half. Playing 3 centre halfs to watch Kane drop deep and effectively make it a 10 v 7 game out the pitch was never going to work and Gordon made hay with the gap between Coleman and Doherty. As others have said, Coleman Doherty and Brady are sadly not up to this level any more. We missed obvious things too - we should have had Idah sit on Rice and Sammy sit on Kobbie so that they would be looking at Maguire and Guehi to create - I would have thought that was clear as day. There seemed to be no press or plan at all.

Better second half - who would have thought that inserting a bit of energy in Knight might be a good thing in a game where we don't have the ball. Still miles off England but that had to be expected.

Need to score a couple of goals on Tuesday, doesn't matter how we do it.
 
Gee Male said:
The gameplan was miles off for the first half. Playing 3 centre halfs to watch Kane drop deep and effectively make it a 10 v 7 game out the pitch was never going to work and Gordon made hay with the gap between Coleman and Doherty. As others have said, Coleman Doherty and Brady are sadly not up to this level any more. We missed obvious things too - we should have had Idah sit on Rice and Sammy sit on Kobbie so that they would be looking at Maguire and Guehi to create - I would have thought that was clear as day. There seemed to be no press or plan at all.

Better second half - who would have thought that inserting a bit of energy in Knight might be a good thing in a game where we don't have the ball. Still miles off England but that had to be expected.

Need to score a couple of goals on Tuesday, doesn't matter how we do it.
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Great post
 
I think we definitely need as much energy in the team as possible - Coleman's injured, which should take care of that issue, but Doherty and Brady shouldn't be starting games for us.
 
It seems like the older pros want the old fashioned football again and here it was with 27% possession or whatever it was. But the thing people don't realise is that Big Jack's football wasn't old fashioned, it was cutting edge for the time. He saw that football was over-reliant on slow build up from sweepers and luxury number 10s at the 1986 World Cup and devised a plan to beat it. That involved 'put em under pressure' which was a serious pressing game before its time. Watch those old games and the pressure the Irish players put on the opposition in attacking areas is immense. Yes they hoofed it a lot, but they chased it down.

Now it's hoof the ball and stand back in your position 30 yards in front of your own goal. If Jack had done that, we wouldn't have made the World Cup or the Euros. Obviously we had better players back then, but it was noticeable how against England, there was no pressure whatsoever while Trent had time to look up, take a breath and pick whatever pass. That tactic will never work against a top-level side, or much worse ones either.
 
Gee Male said:
The gameplan was miles off for the first half. Playing 3 centre halfs to watch Kane drop deep and effectively make it a 10 v 7 game out the pitch was never going to work and Gordon made hay with the gap between Coleman and Doherty. As others have said, Coleman Doherty and Brady are sadly not up to this level any more. We missed obvious things too - we should have had Idah sit on Rice and Sammy sit on Kobbie so that they would be looking at Maguire and Guehi to create - I would have thought that was clear as day. There seemed to be no press or plan at all.

Better second half - who would have thought that inserting a bit of energy in Knight might be a good thing in a game where we don't have the ball. Still miles off England but that had to be expected.

Need to score a couple of goals on Tuesday, doesn't matter how we do it.
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I think a high pressing system would suit us as we've lots of legs all over the pitch and pace in defense, excluding Coleman and Brady, but they can be replaced with Festy and Manning.

We're not good at build up play and defending deep is just death by a 1000 cuts.

But with a high pressing system at least we'll win the ball closer to goal.

Kelliher in goal also is used to this system.

I'm not sure if HH can coach this though.

I'd scrap the 3-5-2 also.
I don't see it's benefits. No top coach uses it.
 
next_number_seven said:
I think a high pressing system would suit us as we've lots of legs all over the pitch and pace in defense, excluding Coleman and Brady, but they can be replaced with Festy and Manning.

We're not good at build up play and defending deep is just death by a 1000 cuts.

But with a high pressing system at least we'll win the ball closer to goal.

Kelliher in goal also is used to this system.

I'm not sure if HH can coach this though.

I'd scrap the 3-5-2 also.
I don't see it's benefits. No top coach uses it.
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The way we played against Netherlands at home I'd prefer to see and was more like this. Really high pressing and we got an early goal like that and then completely messed up another chance due to lack of quality. The Dutch were rattled in the first 20 minutes, could have been 2 up.

Then Koeman changed formation at they picked us off. But that Netherlands team got to the semi-finals of the Euros, good side, and we could have beaten them with 1) more composure 2) better in-game management by Kenny after a good start.

That's the frustrating thing about Kenny's era, there was a lot of good stuff, but then we'd concede a goal from 30 yards out of nowhere or there would be a defensive lapse leading to another defeat. At least we tried something, I hope it's not going to be as rudimentary as it was against England in future games.
 
KeanoMagicHat said:
But the thing people don't realise is that Big Jack's football wasn't old fashioned, it was cutting edge for the time. He saw that football was over-reliant on slow build up from sweepers and luxury number 10s at the 1986 World Cup and devised a plan to beat it.
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It was common fare to play this way back then. Think of Wimbledon in Division One. Jack merely applied it to Ireland.

Big Jack completely bypassed midfield in order to drop Brady. It scraped by (Ireland qualified for Euro 88 because Scotland beat Bulgaria) in qualification and sucked at major tournaments.

We were completely outplayed by both England and the Netherlands at Euro 88, the latter match saw us defend for dear life by the start of the second half.

There's a strong argument 'Jackball' stymied Irish football as the mania of major tournament qualification inspired the FAI to fill their pockets.

Adaptation is only a problem when the good times dry up and we cannot rely on the English pyramid to cultivate our talent.
 
KeanoMagicHat said:
The way we played against Netherlands at home I'd prefer to see and was more like this. Really high pressing and we got an early goal like that and then completely messed up another chance due to lack of quality. The Dutch were rattled in the first 20 minutes, could have been 2 up.

Then Koeman changed formation at they picked us off. But that Netherlands team got to the semi-finals of the Euros, good side, and we could have beaten them with 1) more composure 2) better in-game management by Kenny after a good start.

That's the frustrating thing about Kenny's era, there was a lot of good stuff, but then we'd concede a goal from 30 yards out of nowhere or there would be a defensive lapse leading to another defeat. At least we tried something, I hope it's not going to be as rudimentary as it was against England in future games.
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It won't be remembered but we played good football in patches under Kenny but then conceded wonder goals out of nowhere.

I think Kenny would've been better off with a 4-3-3 as that's what's he's always coached.
 
next_number_seven said:
It won't be remembered but we played good football in patches under Kenny but then conceded wonder goals out of nowhere.

I think Kenny would've been better off with a 4-3-3 as that's what's he's always coached.
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The problem with Kenny was mostly amongst the fans, LOI fans hated him because he dominated them for years with Dundalk. Non LOI fans didn't like him, he wasn't good enough to them because he's only a LOI manager. Kenny was moving the team in the right direction in terms of playing style. The results just weren't there (because the players just aren't good enough to play that game) and now we're circling back to the old winning is more important than playing good football argument.

The quality of the players available has been and is going to be the biggest stumbling block for any Ireland manager. We just can't expect to get over the line easily against 3rd/4th seeds anymore because they have improved significantly, while Ireland have regressed. They same level of quality now. And we're always going to be struggling to beat 1st and 2nd seeds.
 
Oranges038 said:
The problem with Kenny was mostly amongst the fans, LOI fans hated him because he dominated them for years with Dundalk. Non LOI fans didn't like him, he wasn't good enough to them because he's only a LOI manager. Kenny was moving the team in the right direction in terms of playing style. The results just weren't there (because the players just aren't good enough to play that game) and now we're circling back to the old winning is more important than playing good football argument.

The quality of the players available has been and is going to be the biggest stumbling block for any Ireland manager. We just can't expect to get over the line easily against 3rd/4th seeds anymore because they have improved significantly, while Ireland have regressed. They same level of quality now. And we're always going to be struggling to beat 1st and 2nd seeds.
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The results were the problem.
Also lack of progress.
But we definitely played well in moments.
I don't think we'd the midfield players to play a progressive style anyway, but I think we could do a high pressing style. Our defenders can play a high line, plenty of pace (excluding Coleman and Brady).

It's pointless saying it now but imagine if we'd got Kieren McKenna. He was available back then.
 
Oranges038 said:
The problem with Kenny was mostly amongst the fans, LOI fans hated him because he dominated them for years with Dundalk. Non LOI fans didn't like him, he wasn't good enough to them because he's only a LOI manager. Kenny was moving the team in the right direction in terms of playing style. The results just weren't there (because the players just aren't good enough to play that game) and now we're circling back to the old winning is more important than playing good football argument.

The quality of the players available has been and is going to be the biggest stumbling block for any Ireland manager. We just can't expect to get over the line easily against 3rd/4th seeds anymore because they have improved significantly, while Ireland have regressed. They same level of quality now. And we're always going to be struggling to beat 1st and 2nd seeds.
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Ah, will you stop. The team was regressing at the rate of knots, from an already low base. He was arguably the worst Irish manager in living memory. His problem wasn’t the fans, it was the fact he showed himself to be woefully out of his depth at this level. What he was trying to do was admirable and the right thing in my opinion but even that was starting to be lost by the end.

I agree. The players we have aren’t very good and the squad is terrible lopsided. But he’d had years to show even the slightest sign of progress and he couldn’t manage it. Getting rid of him wasn’t the issue, it was that we abandoned the plan instead of trying to get in someone who could execute it better.

It’s perfectly fair to want more, to want us to try play football. But Stephen Kenny didn’t have a monopoly on that and in fact he’d shown himself to be singularly incapable of delivering it. He wasn’t getting a tune out of the players, even if they all seemed to like him. There was no reason to believe that anything would change.
 
I really like Kenny but he was not going anywhere. We've nothing to lose trying to find the right manager. In theory anyway. The shitshow the FAI orchestrated to find the replacement doesn't inspire any confidence.
 
So I suppose we will get a better look at the team tonight. Hard to judge them with the gulf in class between us and England.
 
What is actually going on with Evan Ferguson now. In bench both games and don’t think he has featured yet for Brighton
 
Nice wee bit of football from Ireland very pleasant to see, should be a goal up
 
I bet Greece sympathise with us over Grealish and Rice. They had to watch Socrates play for Brazil.

Hope we play well and our dentist ensures we don't open wide at the back. Really need to clamp down, stay well drilled and grind results out. Can't stay toothless in attack, though.
 
Reditus said:
What is actually going on with Evan Ferguson now. In bench both games and don’t think he has featured yet for Brighton
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He’s had no preseason and is still making his back to match fitness.
 
doubleohseven said:
I bet Greece sympathise with us over Grealish and Rice. They had to watch Socrates play for Brazil.

Hope we play well and our dentist ensures we don't open wide at the back. Really need to clamp down, stay well drilled and grind results out. Can't stay toothless in attack, though.
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Did you… type that before or after reading my post?

So annoyed that I used the word “toothless” without making any reference to our manager :mad:
 
doubleohseven said:
I bet Greece sympathise with us over Grealish and Rice. They had to watch Socrates play for Brazil.
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Always the way the one time we produce a good finish we are offside
 
Not terrible, but starting to get tired of us being so limp going forward. Would prefer worse football with goals to neat football with boredom. Progress is difficult to stand over if we can't score.
 
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