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Replying To Doylerwex:  "I didn't expect that to be honest... Last night was incredibly poor.

Thought we were better than hungry overall to be honest but that was shocking.

The only bit of optimism I can find now is in the 2016 campaign we got only a point out of Scotland and thought it was over, then went and beat Germany.

Hope springs eternal"
Personally, I just couldn't believe what I was looking at. The whole team, apart from Ferguson and Kelliher, looked as if they just didn't know how to play the game. The defending for the second goal was nonexistent. Would we even be Jun B level at the minute ?

Freethinker (Wicklow) - Posts: 1854 - 10/09/2025 09:30:40    2635531

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Replying To GreenandRed:  "We had more possession than Hungary when they went down to 10 men and wasted nearly all of it. Hungary defence delighted to see. predictably. one high ball after the next launched on top of them. We look bereft of confidence."
We had started to take over before the red card in that game and crosses did cause them a lot of problems so I don't think there's anything wrong with that really. Their keeper made a few good saves so we had chances to win it and in my opinion should have.

Last night was totally different. After we scored instead of going after them most of our lads looked like they couldn't wait for the whistle to blow.

Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 3916 - 10/09/2025 10:29:56    2635541

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Replying To Doylerwex:  "The best players we've produced have always been our own.

Giles, Brady, McGrath, Keanes, duff, o shea, Coleman etc."
Not the case, no. O'Shea wasn't better than Mark Lawrenson, nor as good either imo. Coleman no better a fullback than a host of Ireland caps that were England eligible, including Chris Hughton for example. You didn't list Irwin, who should be on your list, well ahead of Coleman imo.

Pope_Benedict (Galway) - Posts: 4404 - 10/09/2025 10:33:34    2635546

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Replying To Pope_Benedict:  "Not the case, no. O'Shea wasn't better than Mark Lawrenson, nor as good either imo. Coleman no better a fullback than a host of Ireland caps that were England eligible, including Chris Hughton for example. You didn't list Irwin, who should be on your list, well ahead of Coleman imo."
Very difficult to compare players of previous eras. The older generations were only competing for places against players from Britain mainly. In recent decades, our players are up against players from all over the world. It's a lot harder to make an English top-flight team now than it was back then. They have a global pick now.
Another point in general is that a lot of European nations have improved massively in the last 20 to 30 years. What used to be footballing backwaters and minnows now have much better structures in place and are much more competitive.
While we had a big advantage of players moving to England to play at a good level, many countries had little to no football infrastructure. Countries like Armenia, Georgia, even the likes of Luxembourg are far better at developing players now.
That coupled with very poor management from the FAI over decades means we have very little advantage over these teams anymore.

WanPintWin (Galway) - Posts: 2514 - 10/09/2025 11:41:02    2635558

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Replying To Pope_Benedict:  "The big change I see is that England is locking up it's talent these days. 40 or 50years ago, the likes of Grealish and Rice would have wound up in the Ireland side. In the 70s and 80s and 90s, you had the farcical scenario that England eligible players were playing for Ireland, even though some of them were superior to the players winning England caps at the time. The likes of Lawrenson, Sheedy, Townsend and many more.

Whatever about a goalie, a backline and front line, this current Ireland international squad has NO international class midfielders, which imo is why we struggle in almost every game these days."
There are no top class players of any description in the Ireland squad. Kellegher a very solid goalie. But no top clubs were banging the door down to sign him. All you have to do is look at the clubs the Irish squad play for. Barely any with experience of Champions league. Similar again for the second tier European competitions. A handful play for mid table to bottom half Premier leagure. The vast majority playing down the divisions. We aren't even getting the odd very talented individual anymore. Hungary have two lads playing for Liverpool and another few playing for RB Leipzig and Galatasary, clubs operating at a much higher level than those the Irish lads are at.

FullOfPorter (Roscommon) - Posts: 343 - 10/09/2025 11:46:41    2635559

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