He needs to stop playing McClean for a start, he is so one dimensional now, waste of a shirt.
The tactics of throwing crosses into the box and hoping Duffy gets on the end of one is just so shit, all the good work against Portugal undone.
We stood off Azerbaijan FFS and let them score from 24 yards. I dont remember it being this bad under Staunton
It was far worse under Staunton as at that time we had decent international players, player for player ability wide there is a chasm.
Since we beat Wales in Cardiff in the final group game in 2017 (under O'Neill,Mick & Kenny) we have won 3 out of 24 competitive games, Gibraltar twice 2-0 & 1-0 & Georgia 1-0 and to be frank the two 1-0 nils could have ended up draws. Only time we have scored more then once in those games was the Gibralter one, simply we have no one to stick it in the net, Robbie used to get stick from gobshites for only scoring against shit teams, fuck now we see his worth.
We are now seeing the ramifications of the Delaney years coming to fruit.
25 years ago (now weather they should play for Ireland is an argument for a different day) between 2 & 4 of Rice, Greasy, Kane & Philiips (all eligible & not a bad backbone) would have been identified at an early age and (as Houghton, Townsend,Aldridge etc) willing to play for a relatively successful
international team, adored by fans and media, but not a hope nowadays.
Added to that I heard a stat along the lines off between O'Neill giving Doherty his first cap and Kenny giving Bazuna his debut 6 years later (I am open to correction on the
players but you get the gist) not one new player from Dublin a city with a population of a third of the country was considered good enough to play for Ireland.
They sat on their complacent arses sucking off Delaney whilst in fighting for their own slice of the cake and in the meantime took their eye of their own structures and stood back as between them Leinster Rugby and Dublin GAA went into literally all the schools & community and picked the most athletic and committed and channelled them to their own ends (and fair fucks to them it worked) but as a country with our size and who want to compete internationally we can't afford that.
For reference of all the players in Irelands 3 squads to reach the World cup finals only Bonner, Staunton, angry Roy, Irwin, Gary Kelly, Harte, Finnan & Given were not from the UK or Dublin football.
The old reliable structures are gone (mind you the FAI used to rely on sending children as in 14 year old boys to a foreign country to produce players, so not all bad).
Kenny is trying to do it the right way and he cares for the long term aims. I do though have an awful feeling in the words of Napoleon it doesn't matter if he is a good general is he lucky? I don't think Kenny is (I have a feeling in my water that the same could be said for Lage at the end of his time for Wolves).
But to be honest what is the alternative? We are broke, we are not going to get an International manager with pedigree, might get likes of Fat Sam etc short term but even their style of football doesn't suit players we have. They are putting in the structures now for player development but we are 20 years behind the rest of our peers.
Basically if we reach the finals of a competion in the next 10 years it will be a welcome bonus.
