Ireland v Greece - UEFA EURO 2024 Qualifying

Havenā€™t we suffered enough

The first thing that should happen after they sack Stephen Kenny is apologise to trap, Mon and big mick.

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Wrong. It should be to hang that traitorous Cunt Doherty from the Spire

Room for Donoghue?

Always

Tide them up quickā€¦

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McCarthy didnt know Spain were down to 10 men in a world cup knock out match in extra time and oversaw a farce where his captain and best player was sent home. Oā€™Neill fell out with everyone and was in charge for a 5-1 defeat at home, at home now to Denmark.

Trapattoni got the most out of them results wise but soured things towards the end by refusing to change the team or the tactics. He oversaw a 6-1 defeat to Germany.

They all did good jobs but they donā€™t deserve an apology

Jesus thereā€™s something we wonā€™t be seeing for a long time

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Yes, the dark old days of out playing Spain in the knock out stages of the world cup

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McCarthys teams played good football. He shouldnā€™t be categorised with Trap and ONeill

Playing them off the park. Drawing with a team that fielded (inhales):
Luis Enrique
Hierro
Raul
Mendieta
Morientes
Carles Puyol
Iker Casillas.

Hopefully we never go back to that caveman stuff

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Thatā€™s the thing. It wasnā€™t caveman stuff. That ireland version was a breath of fresh air compared to what finished up in Charltons time. The fact he didnā€™t know Spain were down to 10 men still exists. The farce of the preparation still exists.

This line of response is a little bit mental.

That ireland team was stuffed full of winners and real quality too the majority of the 11 were main men in premier league teams

Ah yeah he had them playing great stuff.

Iā€™d give him a bit of a pass on the Spain being down thing too. The whole set-up was amateurish as fuck back then. A pity because we had a legitimate good team.

The wider point that Ireland should somehow expect to play open, expansive football is complete nonsense though. Greece won (won!!!) the euros in 2004 playing direct. Uruguay, who have 1,000,000 times the footballing pedigree that we do, play a direct style.

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Too much is made of the style. The question is are you better than the sum of your parts, which is what decent Irish teams of the last 30 odd years were.

The answer under Kenny is an emphatic no.

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We donā€™t play open expansive football under Kenny. It isnt cohesive and he has to go. The question is would a fella who had them organised and compact and depending on Duffy to bag a header or get a spotter have qualified them out of this group? Probably not. Weā€™re shit. Playing kick and chase to idah or ferguson? I donā€™t know.

Iā€™m not apologising for Kenny. He isnout of his depth. It needs something new. When yer man Barry was in with him we looked promising. We actually did cut teams open. But it reverted to a clueless cycle of passing around the back and then hoofing and not chasing.

Itā€™s really bad now

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I think under a great manager we would have had a chance, given how ordinary the Dutch are playing.

I agree though. Heā€™s totally out of his depth.

Thereā€™s too many ingredients missing for even a great manager to bake anything decent out of it. We donā€™t have a top class keeper. Weā€™ve fuck all pace at the back. We donā€™t have a man who can get turned in midfield. We have a few lively lads up front alright. The next man after Kenny wonā€™t be working miracles either, unfortunately. Weā€™ve no lads playing at the top level. Ferguson maybe, goalie will still be a problem. You canā€™t magic pace. Hopefully Moran and Ferguson fulfill their potential. We need something to build around. 9 other average footballers will sacrifice their own game if they had a couple of game winners to work for

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Weā€™re techncially substandard too, even conpared to relative nations in terms of ranking and professional league ranking. It always annoys me when say the like of Armenia come to Dublin and most of the team are capable of controlling a ball with boot feet, passing under pressure, putting their foot on the ball.
I think itā€™s a lot to do with grassroots and playing soccer in the winter. Its not a winter sport. Most lads never receive proper coaching at the basic skills. The games at non elite level youā€™ve generally one or two lads that can run through everyone and score which benefits nobody, not them or the other team, they should be told pass 2 out of every 3 possessions. All they learn from that is bad habits that need to be fixed when its too late by the time they get to a level where lads are able for them

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It would top everything off if Greece beat Netherlands next week and sneak into 2nd place ahead of them. In the process ensuring we definitely have no outside chance of a play-off next spring.

What hope would we even have in a playoff anyway?