Re: Rep of ireland

I think the problem is partly that they brought Kenny in and tasked him with overhauling the way the national side plays. As has been mentioned on here, Ireland used to play some truly turgid stuff and it meant crowds were pathetic and nobody really cared about the team. Kenny did a marvellous job at Dundalk and then with the U21s - so it made sense to give him the gig and see if he could blood the players he'd had success with whilst trying to change the style of pay. Admittedly, it's not quite worked so far and they've been embarrassing. I've watched quite a bit of them though and there's plenty of games where they control it and have the better chances but get sucker punched - like they did at the weekend from 30 yards out - and then they're playing catch-up.

They should have won comfortably with the chances they had in the end, but their best threat attacking-wise still seems to be Shane Duffy from crosses into the box, and that's where they need to improve. Their front three at the weekend were all aged between 19-21 and it's going to take time for those guys to develop into the players their potential suggests they could.

There's reason to be hopeful generally though, their U21s are again performing well, their domestic game is improving and they've got players to come back from injury (Nathan Collins just went to Burnely for £12m for example), but they just need to ensure that they are getting playing time as that always tends to be the barrier. Players like Jeff Hendrick should be a mainstay for them but can't get a kick at Newcastle these days.

Kenny deserves to see out the campaign and see if there are any positive results or progress to cling on to and everybody who has ever worked with / under him says he's excellent - but they need patience. Luckily, the Irish FA aren't flush with cash to go get a foreign manager on big bucks, so he might just get the time required.