It's the Stephen Kenny Thread

We haven't a hope of qualifying. The same people saying he was brought in to help us qualify are the same lads that accuse England fans of being delusional.

I watched all of them.

We lost a second seed out of those games and a playoff the second seed was there until the last day so there was always something to play for.

Regardless of the competition or lack there of in your opinion.

We still didn’t come out the right side of any result.

And all bar England were teams at our level 1 goal 1 bloody goal if that’s not a cause for concern I don’t know what is.

Tonight can help erase those games but if it doesn’t go our way it will add more pressure.

100% but a result tonight is key if we are to harbour any real interest of getting out of the group we need it to be in the balance when the Serbs come to Dublin in September.

Kenny can’t afford for it to be over before it really has begun.

Anyone who writes off the NL games as anything but a farce is conveniently forgetting the facts and just looking at the bottom line.  We had lads starting games who were not even in the initial squads...massive player turnover and disruption at every match.
A shambles end to end and the fact we still managed to get some OK performances was a miracle in its own right.

Hourihane and others missing sitters is not the manager's fault.

We started off defensively unsettled and ended with our defense looking a lot better.
We held onto the ball and controlled periods of matches against half-decent teams whereas before we'd have kicked and hoped and looked for something to drop.  That's not a viable strategy, even if it sometimes worked.

Whomever said Kenny was hired to qualify us for this World Cup needs to take a break and consider that.  3rd seeds where only the top seed qualifies.
Adds up.

The low-ebb we are experiencing now was seeded a generation and more ago and will take years to recover from.

In what regard?

I think there are a few things I want to see from Kenny, and the first one is ingenuity with his team selection on the back of the gutting that has happened through injury and retirement. I also hope that there are not going to be too many obvious blindspots when it comes to individual team selection (Duffy, Doherty, Horgan all spring to mind). I also hope that a system can be created which maximises the potentials, even in situation where we appear blunt in attack (i.e. don't stick with orthodox football if its not making headway).

For his benefit, expectations around tonight are low. A gallant defeat where we matched the Serbs, a draw or a win will all have their positives (obviously some with infinitely greater positives than others). A heavy defeat will create significant discussion about the future potential, and it will create a greater pressure for Saturday.

Yeah called out that “so called” journo big time. I hope he says it to his face directly too. 

Steve Kenny is the unluckiest Ireland manager to date. His luck will change tonight - 2 1 to Ireland