It's the Stephen Kenny Thread

Not picking Obafemi is the thing I find most encouraging! For too long Irish managers have used the English league tables to pick their squads with no interest in styles or systems. It genuinely seems like there's some semblance of a plan!

Yeah it seemed to be the problem for the past 10+ years, players being shoe horned into positions they were unsuitable for. Now a manager does something that goes against that and its still not right. Kenny will never win with these fans, they are literally waiting for anything to jump on him, and say I told you so.

I won’t lie I was disappointed not to see Obafemi in the squad but it was still so refreshing to here a manager flat out say exactly why he didn’t pick him and give a clear concise reason (Id like to see him play with the 21s first out wide and he can be a huge asset there in the upcoming games). 

Couldn’t really argue with it.

Probably easy to fall into that mindset if that's the only footnall you watch.

The issue with the Kerr era started with his major efforts to bring Keane back on board which annoyed plenty in the squad who'd been loyal to McCarthy. When this fell on its arse despite all the efforts that put him on the back foot. It wasn't just the likes of McAteer that had an issue (his was being asked to do a presser with Keane if he came back), some of Kerr's own ex players were unhappy with how he was operating. Richard Dunne for example iirc. 

Despite the Keane issue which was very media driven as well, Kerr started well and got us into a positon where wins at home to Russia and away to Switzerland would qualify us for Euro 04. We started well and went one up against Russia through Duff but went into our shell and they equalised. That left us needing a draw away for a play off but we put in one of the most inept performances I've seen and lost 2-0.

Second campaign started well and Keane finally returned but the usual issues remained. We should have beaten France in Paris but drew 0-0. We were 1-0 in the home straight away to Israel and sat further and further back before the inevitable equaliser. The substitutions after Robbie Keane's injury at two up in the home game (Graham Kavanagh for Keane) were a bit of a brain fart and the resultant loss of shape in a game we were coasting cost us dearly and they were level before we properly adjusted. Had we one both those Israel games we'd have qualified despite losing at home to France (a win there would have qualified us) and another insipid performance to Switzerland, rgysa time at home, where the nil all draw cost us a play off.

I was a huge supporter of Kerr and was delighted when he got the job. But the facts are that while he had a great record in friendlies (deliberately targeted to improve our ranking for seeding purposes), every time the chips were down, we went negative and blew it.

There's been a bit of revisionism in the media since, they went hard enough on him when things went wrong. And the difference with Kenny is that the football under Kerr was still quite conservative, especially in those two Israel games. It wasn't this expansive passing style that it's sometimes painted as. 

After two campaigns where we finished 3rd and 4th, a change was possibly warranted. But clearly leaving him in place rather than JD doing a special and appointing Staunton would have been by far the better option. He was unfortunate that he came into such a fractured situation post Saipan.

We could have played that game for another hour and we wouldn't have scored. His substitutions on that night baffled me. What was the point in keeping four defenders on the pitch against a team who had no interest in crossing the halfway line? Why did he take off Robbie Keane when we needed a goal?

Whatever about having to be replaced, Kerr did precious little to convince anyone he had to stay.

Molumby, idah, connolly etc are all just starting to play club football 

Brady, ,duffy, randolph and Long have played little football last season 

Mccarty and arter have been away from the international set up for a long time.

I would say that Egan, Stevens, doherty and mcclean are the few players that have played regular football AND done well in the respective team.

I genuinely believe we'll get better with the players coming through but its very very early say we have a winning team yet.

I expect we'll get a draw tomorrow and that might be where we are at the moment

Needed to win both Israel games to qualify rather than just one. 

100% Kerr should have been kept on in some capacity but whether he'd have done that after not having his senior manager contract renewed is debatable. Regardless, he was treated absolutely shamefully by the FAI afterwards and I'd have seen no reason for him not to have been given a role even a year or two later when the dust had settled. Was a horrendous black balling.