Leaving aside whether youāre right or wrong, what would it take for you to change your view at this stage?
Youāve taken a fairly strong position on Kenny from early on but there seems to have been a very positive shift in the teamās performances suggesting his approach is beginning to come good and with a lot of young players coming through. Surely he should left at it. Youāre not buying it?
Michael Obafemi has got some class goals lately and apparently will be in Juneās squad. With Ogbene and Obafemi involved it is the first time i can ever remember an Irish squad with genuine pace.
I would think he met Mick McCarthy at some function. Mick is actually a nice man but his days as a good manager are wrll over.
Even forgiving him his horrendous first 15 games or so I donāt see the positive shift that people rave about. We were completely outplayed at home to Serbia yet they conspired to blow it with a freak own goal and even the win away to Luxembourg they cut us open at times and somehow failed to capitalise on it and looked the better side before we scored.
While I have no doubt he is an honest sort and trying his best I just donāt think Kenny is a particularly good manager or will be successful in the gig. He is getting an unbelievably soft ride. I have no issue with him getting longer in the job but I just donāt see him being capable of getting results consistently. He gets an awful soft ride compared to the last half a dozen or so managers.
And what will it take for you to change your view on him?
as far as i can see, he has taken the team from being beaten by teams we are expected to beat to drawing/beating teams we are expected to beat
Winning games of consequence/getting results when qualification is on the line
Itās true that Kenny is at a point now where we need to see improvement in terms of beating reasonable quality opposition. Thatās to be expected and heād concede that himself.
But for me there has undoubtedly been improvement over his reign. In fact even in the dark days of the Luxembourg defeat I still thought that at least we have tried to play football. Irish fans, remember that? Building from the back, patterns of play developing, creating chances, letting players express themselves. Because we havenāt had that in a while. In fact some of the most recent stuff had been dire.
I think Kenny was bedding that down at the start and it took longer than it probably should against the weaker sides. But there have been improvements. You mention times when you think we were lucky, how about getting wallopied by two sucker punches by a freak of nature in the Portugal away match?
Another thing that needs to be mentioned are the players heās had to work with, or more so werenāt available to him. It needs to be emphasised how much MxCarthyās second term relied on David McGoldrick. He left, Darren Randolph pricked about, Glen Whelan had been a staple in the team. Heās had to blood new players, the best of which is Ogbene who has been a revelation and probably testament to Kennyās abilities as a man manager.
Ah here, Portugal missed a glut of chances against us in the away match. Jota missed three great chances in the first half alone along with the penalty miss. We spent the majority of the match camped on our 18 yard line
The harmony between the manager, the squad and the fans is at itās most in years, yes there was some rocky patches along the way but the outlook and feeling of positivity now is miles away from what it was after Kennys first dozen games.
Lads want to dwell in the past. Quit dwelling in the past lads.
You can knock a manager in any sport, ive always called Pep out as an overrated fraud and he continues to prove me right.
Anyone would think they were a top team or something.
We all just need to pull on the jersey and join the singing section now.
I wouldnāt consider conceding two late goals to a team who had close to 80% possession and 30 shots in a match as sucker punches.
The goal Serbia kicked into their net to gift is a result at home to them was a sucker punch.
Denying the positive shift in the teamās performances seems a bit of an odd stance to me.
Relative to what though?
I donāt think we should revert to the previous manager but he got ten games in charge and it was far from perfect but the performances home to Georgia, Bulgaria and New Zealand and the second half performances against very solid teams in Switzerland and Denmark were every bit as āpositiveā anything Kenny has produced thus far. The form of Denmark and Switzerland since has shown just how good both sides are.
This was in spite of no prep or build up to the qualifying campaign and a very narrow remit of qualifying for Euro2020 above all else - yet in spite of that the likes of Cullen, Connolly, Parrott, Jack Byrne, Travers etc were brought into the squad and handed debuts while the likes of Robinson and Browne getting extended opportunities.
What about home and away to Gibraltar? Away to Georgia?
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