It's the Stephen Kenny Thread

Of course it is, we had more players getting game time at higher levels in the past, while struggling to beat Georgia & Gibraltar gone and away. As you say all relative 

Obsessed? What are you on about

Every time someone mentions an alternative you immediately start with the hoof ball. That of course implieds just launching the ball aimlessly upfield akin to MON's Nations league campaign which was hoof ball- utterly rudderless. Direct football can be effective with the right tactics and when played with organisation.

In Micks last game we had Duffy, Egan, Stevens, Doherty, McClean, Hendrick and Robinson who came on as a sub. All of these will probably start tonight Bar Stevens and McClean who are vying for one spot. He also had Alan Browne and Conor Hourihane in the team who will be subs later. The replacements for the others have been: Bazunu for Randolph. Cullen for Whelan and Idah for McGoldrick. Added to that Browne and Hourihane out for O'Shea/Coleman and McGrath/Knight with the change of shape. A lot of the stalwarts remain 

The nations league was dismal. We had numerous poor games in this group too and only have 1 win. People at that time were also spewing the 'if you cant see where we are going then you dont know about football guff'. What we were seeing then was a team completely lacking in organisation, with huge tactical issues and a team which sacrificed defensive solidity for pretty much nothing going forward. There was nothing there.

There have been improvements in recent games, nobody is denying that. The Serbia game was a relatively poor performance but decent result and  showed some other good qualities such as character. Good result and performance away to Azerbaijan. Good performance and result in a friendly and now to Portugal too. 

Some of our play out from the back v Portugal was very good. We played very well against a team with some of the best players in the world, that cant be denied.

So you've got 3.5 good performances/results in a row. A win against Luxembourg tonight would be huge in terms of showing that we definitely can win games.

It still has to be an issue if he cannot win tonight, going into the next campaign where people are surely expecting qualification at that point - and there's no evidence that we would be able to get the 5 or so wins that would have us in contention. If he does win tonight then I think it is really big for him in terms of proving that he will be capable of getting those wins.

He is still prone to a tactical or substitution brain fart - our game v Azerbaijan at home was like something you would have seen under the worst of the last 3 managers. Even the other night when he took off Jamie McGrath for Idah and went with the 5-2-3 instead of the 5-3-2 (although McGrath did roam into the wide left position occasionally) it was very alarming and we were quite lucky that Portugal got the red card as he effectively surrendered the midfield area and it would have been a very difficult final 15 vs 11 men.

So yes, finally in the last couple of games there is real signs of progress. Still some question marks but getting the win tonight would shut down a lot of those question marks.

It is a factor. However lots of teams have been understrength when we have played them due to covid particularly. Your post makes it sound like we are the only ones to have suffered this.

Personally I would give him a 10 year contract.

The transformation that Irish soccer needs isn't going to be achieved in 2 or 4 years. A complete shift in the mindset of style and development of players is going to take much longer. I think Kenny has done an incredible job in 2 years and while a lot has been done a lot more remains to do. Kenny's nurturing and development of the likes of Bazunu, Omobamidele, Molumby, Parrott, Idah, Knight, Connolly has given us the spine of the future team. Much more time is going to be needed to find more players to supplement these lads.

Euro 2024 might come a little early for his project and this is why I think a 10 year contract is preferable.

OK , I think it's time for class A drugs