Brian Kerr

TheNumber6 wrote: He was from OTT last week. This is a witch-hunt against a national treasure.

counterlock wrote: He was on with second captains if anyone has a subscription

KING-CON wrote: counterlock wrote: He was on with second captains if anyone has a subscription My taking from that interview is that he wants Kenny to do well but he thinks he's getting an easy ride form the media so he's calling him out on certain things. Kerr reckons he's overly positive and needs to be more realistic (and blunt) when things are going wrong, eg Luxembourg at home. I'm a big fan of Kenny and Kerr. Kerr has every right to call him out in his media role if he thinks he's right which he does.

I'm happy with the progress recently both in terms of results and style, but there seem to be a lot of SK Fan Boys on here either ignorant or wilfully blind to objective realities and Ireland's history.

Edited by Luis Amor Rodriguez - 03 Apr 2022 at 2:53pm

LAR, I think that’s an excellent summation. But, I think what needs to be acknowledged is that Kerr just needed one win from six games to qualify, and that wasn’t achieved. Context here was that we had our three big ticket home games after we played the way games, and we performed worse at home. I struggle to accept a lack of luck against Israel, as those wins were in our hands. But managerial decisions saw us withdraw and gradually offer them greater freedom and opportunity, which they took. There was also the famous decision against the Swiss in Dublin to play JOS in midfield instead of an alternative midfield. Also taking of Robbie Keane in the 65 minute. The margin between going to Germany and staying behind was tight, but those tight margins could be attributable to decisions made in terms of players and tactics at important times.

Kerr was hardly unlucky against Israel, he blew that home game due to poor managerial decisions. An injured Robbie Keane was replaced by Graham Kavanagh when we were sailing at 2-0 and by half time it was 2-2. The Swiss home game was a disgrace, we didn't even have a go! Don't forget, we had peak Keane, Duff, Finnan, O'Shea, Dunne, Given, Kilbane & a returning Roy Keane and we couldn't get over the line. We should have won in Paris and blew leads away to Israel & Switzerland, not good enough 

Edited by Mr. Snrub - 03 Apr 2022 at 3:41pm

Luis Amor Rodriguez wrote: I'm happy with the progress recently both in terms of results and style, but there seem to be a lot of SK Fan Boys on here either ignorant or wilfully blind to objective realities and Ireland's history. I think Brian Kerr's point would be: - SK failed to have us qualify for the Euros, after a play-off being served on a plate for him by Mick, and was unable to beat a below mediocre Slovakia team that was missing its two best players on the night; - SK then oversaw a pathetic NL run, the worst on record - got us relegated; - SK then went out of WC qualification at the earliest stage I can certainly remember - maybe since the 70s;   - SK oversaw what must be our most embarrassing home result in living memory v Luxembourg; - I've not checked, but results-wise, SK might be the least successful Irish manager in history; - All of this with the same players who Mick had been able to go unbeaten bar one in Euro qualifying and three competitive draws out of Denmark and Switzerland, semi-finalists and quarter-finalists at the subsequent Euros;  - to cap it off, not mentioned, but the SK's departure in the middle of up-until-then unprecedently good U21 qualification campaign which looked like we would qualify for the first time in history, saw the U21s fall apart and results fall off a cliff;  - somehow, we managed to achieve getting knocked out of the Euros, relegated from the Nations League, knocked out of the world cup and a fantastic position in the U21s all go up in a puff of smoke in maybe 12 months. I think Kerr's point would be that no other manager would survive that - and he'd be right.  Kerr might also be bitter because of how it ended for him.  Arguably should have beat France - then the world champions in Paris, and was unlucky to lose to the same team in Dublin from a Thierry Henry wonder-goal on the day the best player in the world Zidane, and two others Thuram and Makelele came out of retirement.  He had two unlucky draws by Israel. My feeling with Kerr at the time was that he did a good job - the team was always set up well -  but was very unlucky with late goals in two games against Israel, and just did not get the bounce of the ball against an outrageous France team. Kerr is correct to think he (and Mick and Trap) was being judged by an entirely different standard to SK.  I appreciate that SK is doing a re-building job, but that can be said to an extent for every new manager.  And when Mick did the same in 1996 building a team of teenagers from scratch, ok he lost once away to Macedonia, but other than that, he did not have any results on a par with what has been standard fare for SK for the first two years of his tenure.

Het-field wrote: LAR, I think that’s an excellent summation. But, I think what needs to be acknowledged is that Kerr just needed one win from six games to qualify, and that wasn’t achieved. Context here was that we had our three big ticket home games after we played the way games, and we performed worse at home.  Kenny has probably enjoyed certain prerogatives, which might even include an indulgence for the abominable defeat to Luxembourg. But Irish senior football was so run down that it may have just been the turning point. And, Kenny has learned from it, has solidified his team selection, and has us playing decent football.

notpropaganda73 wrote: KING-CON wrote: counterlock wrote: He was on with second captains if anyone has a subscription My taking from that interview is that he wants Kenny to do well but he thinks he's getting an easy ride form the media so he's calling him out on certain things. Kerr reckons he's overly positive and needs to be more realistic (and blunt) when things are going wrong, eg Luxembourg at home. I'm a big fan of Kenny and Kerr. Kerr has every right to call him out in his media role if he thinks he's right which he does.  Think you're being generous there. There seemed to be a bit of a tone from him about Kenny to be honest, though he barely mentioned him directly. "Everything is excellent" he kept saying, as if this was some horrible thing from Stephen Kenny in his positivity. To be honest after 15 years of Trap, MON and then Mick bemoaning the lack of quality players and playing the poor mouth, I'm fine with Kenny being positive and bigging his players up. Kerr seemed to really take issue with that in particular which seemed just petty to me.  I don't think Kerr is obliged to support Kenny at all but he didn't seem willing to acknowledge that Kenny has done anything to get the fans onside in the SC interview. There was a question put to him and David Sneyd about why the fans are on board and where the positivity has come from and Kerr seemed to focus more on the young players coming through without crediting Kenny for starting them. He then focussed on the black lads and how it's more reflective of Irish society which is a fair point but I just found it weird that he said something along the lines of "people are excited to see these young players they maybe wouldn't have heard of or know as well" without also saying "credit to Stephen for that".  He also said we've been knocked out of 3 competitions under SK and I just think throwing that Slovakia playoff as a negative against him is laziness and revisionist in the extreme. Hourihane missed from 4 yards out in ET ffs (one of quite a few really good chances we missed). He was criticised for us not scoring and being tepid going forward relentlessly and rightly so for some of the performances, but his critics quote that Slovakia game as if it wasn't easily one of the best performances under SK in the early days.  I like Kerr in general, think he's done unbelievable work for Irish football and he seems like a sound fella as well but everything I hear from him on the current set up makes me think it's a bit more personal than objective tbh.