The Football Thread

[astfgyl]

It's the striker issue for sure. Dunno what we have up and coming but something is needed

[Trev]

There's a young lad at Arsenal, Jordan McEneff, who's well thought of. Think he's about 20 so hopefully he'll kick on in the next couple of years

[astfgyl]

I do hope so because I'd hate to see the idea of transitioning to a different style of play shelved due to a few bad results. It isn't as if the lads that are there can't pass the ball it's just they have been strongly discouraged from it forever.

[Ollkiller]

If we go back to muck football I'm out. Since Euro 88 I've watched some fucking awful shyte masquerading as football. McCarthy 2002 world cup played a bit of ball. Kerr to a degree too. But spineless fucks like Trappatoni and and O'Neill  can go and shyte. Charlton without the ball. Fucking amazing. In your face. No nonsense. If he only realised we had ball players too that team would have actually done better. First half in Euro 88 against one one the best Russia teams ever we played them off the park. This manager actually believes we can play. He unfortunately doesn't have the players. But hopefully he turns it around and even if he goes, the philosophy, and more importantly the belief to pass a fucking ball will stay.

[Emphyrio]

Well said.

[astfgyl]

I agree with all that except for the part where if we go back to the other shit I'm out. I'll doubtless continue to torture myself no matter how it goes but I hope something comes of this even if it takes 10 years to come together

[Trev]

I agree with all that except for the part where if we go back to the other shit I'm out. I'll doubtless continue to torture myself no matter how it goes but I hope something comes of this even if it takes 10 years to come together

Yeah thats the problem, I've invested 30 odd years into following what has, for the most part, been mind numbing shite. Its like Stockholm syndrome at this point

At least the few high points have been glorious

[Paul keohane]

If we go back to muck football I'm out. Since Euro 88 I've watched some fucking awful shyte masquerading as football. McCarthy 2002 world cup played a bit of ball. Kerr to a degree too. But spineless fucks like Trappatoni and and O'Neill  can go and shyte. Charlton without the ball. Fucking amazing. In your face. No nonsense. If he only realised we had ball players too that team would have actually done better. First half in Euro 88 against one one the best Russia teams ever we played them off the park. This manager actually believes we can play. He unfortunately doesn't have the players. But hopefully he turns it around and even if he goes, the philosophy, and more importantly the belief to pass a fucking ball will stay.

spot on.
It fuckin amazes me the reaction this current situation is getting,youd swear we were dismantling teams for the last 15 years and now thats come to a grinding hault under Stephen Kenny.This is going to take a campaign to get right.For all the shit this goalless streak has brought,ive actually seen positives.
Id rather see this through for a few years than be stuck with another dinosaur of a manager that has us scared shitless going into games.
This is all stemming from the shit show that is the fai,irish football is broken,its going to take years to fix.

[Pedrito]

Ireland back in the day were a great watch. The 1990 qualifiers. The world cup itself. There was great intensity and a masive desire to win. Yes there were some shite games but nowhere near as shite as these bunch we're watching now. The idea that we never played good football is total nonsense. We were brilliant at the 2002 world cup. 2012 was a low point and things needed changing but they did really well for the lack of any real outstanding talent at 2016.  I won't be holding my breath tbh. I think we should have stuck with McCarthy. How anyone can think a run of goalless losses is a good thing is beyond me. If any other manager had the same streak he would have been hung and quartered.

[Hick]

Were not exactly overflowing with top league players at the moment, this is going to be a long term plan and its going to take a while for all the players to fully buy into this style of play. Its not like he can just go out and buy a few quick fixes in the transfer window.   

[Paul keohane]

Ireland back in the day were a great watch. The 1990 qualifiers. The world cup itself. There was great intensity and a masive desire to win. Yes there were some shite games but nowhere near as shite as these bunch we're watching now. The idea that we never played good football is total nonsense. We were brilliant at the 2002 world cup. 2012 was a low point and things needed changing but they did really well for the lack of any real outstanding talent at 2016.  I won't be holding my breath tbh. I think we should have stuck with McCarthy. How anyone can think a run of goalless losses is a good thing is beyond me. If any other manager had the same streak he would have been hung and quartered.

if McCarthy was any good we would have qualified out of the group,it was in our own hands,we literally beat Gibraltar,Georgia over the last two years.
If people can't see that the squad is absolutely decimated atm i dont know,we need our strongest players available for us to have any chance.
No ones happy with the situation,but the bulk of genuine irish football fans have had enough of the cave man football under various managers.I dont get the outcry tbh,are we in a rush to appoint another Sam Allardyce type manager and hope we armwrestle our way out of a group?.Im done with that shite,no one is looking for Pep Guardiola type football,we just want to see basic football,some bit of possession and build.
McCarthy and his ilk are done,yeah 2002 was amazing,but we had a good squad full of premier league players that could hold onto the ball.Right now we're down to the bare bones,Jack Byrne from Shamrock rovers looked our best ball player in the games he was involved on,no disrespect to him (i am a league of ireland fan)but that says it all about our strength and depth right now.
Let kenny develop/work with young players over the next two years and see where we're at.

[Emphyrio]

At no point in the next 3 or 4 years, at least, should people be asking for a return to drab football, in the hopes of a 1 in  a 100 all star performance where we beat a big team. Let's get the basics right of a proper philosophy, where what the youth squads are doing feeds into the senior squad. Kenny has experience with the youngflas, this can only bode well for the future. But after 20 years of muck, where fairly solid lads were told they were basically too shite to actually play ball, it's gonna take a while for a bit of confidence to return. Slow and steady, but we can't go back to the Trap O'Neill shitshow, ever.  Fuck Allardyce and Pulis and all those settle for scraping-by cunts.

[Pedrito]

Lads it's all beautiful idealism but if you don't have good players you can't play good football. They need an approach, a system, something different. If everyone and their granny is now playing posession, pressing football AND they have better players, well I'm sorry to say you're screwed. It's all very honourable, die on your katana stuff, but it'll go nowhere. If a boxer keeps fighting and losing against better boxers then he's a journeyman. That's why they build them up slow and let them get some easy wins under their belt. You don't throw an underskilled and untested boxer into world championship fights. We're expecting some sort of miracle here and it ain't going to happen.

[Emphyrio]

Most international teams are fairly ordinary. Granted some might have one world class gem, like Bale with Wales etc but by and large, apart from maybe the top 10-15 teams, there's not a whole lot doing. We also have more players currently in top flight football than we've had in years. With the right philosophy, and having a full squad we should be able to have a right go.

[Kurt Cocaine]

Diego M 

https://youtu.be/N8yPN-KEppE