"Tonight isn't just about Stephen's faults, or the team's faults. This has been coming for a good while.
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) March 27, 2021
"This is the fault of a lack of a proper player development structure and coaching structure in Ireland."
Brian Kerr on Irish football.#COYBIG #IRLLUX #WCQ pic.twitter.com/plFwZRugR2
FORMER IRELAND BOSS Brian Kerr was heavily critical of the way Irish football has been run in recent times, following the national team’s shock loss against Luxembourg in tonight’s World Cup qualifier at the Aviva Stadium.
Speaking on Virgin Media in the aftermath of the match, the Dubliner claimed the embarrassing defeat for Stephen Kenny’s side had been “coming” for a long time.
“Tonight isn’t just down to Stephen’s faults or the team’s faults,” he said. “This has been coming for a good while.
“This is the fault of a lack of proper player development structure and coaching structure in Ireland for many years. There has been a dearth of talent coming through from the teams.
“Suddenly, Stephen is pouring players through to the senior team from the U21s that were successful for him for about a year who aren’t ready. But there was no real quality or depth to that, that has been proven.
“And the people who are in charge of that development should seriously be looking at themselves tonight, rather than just criticising the manager.
“We know how the FAI has been run for years and years, but there’s also been other people in charge of player development and the structures in charge of those players. It’s been sticking out for a long time. It’s been sticking out tonight.
“These lads were thrown into the team. The three centre-backs, I don’t like that system. It’s kind of an acceptance that you’re probably not going to be dominant in the games. You’re giving the opposition the impetus to come at you a bit. And tonight, there was no area of the team that functioned well. The core of any team, your defensive work has to be good and your midfield has to dominate a game, whether that’s in a defensive way, letting the opposition come at you, taking the ball from them, structuring your passing and getting players up the pitch. We were way off tonight.”
"We're playing Luxembourg! We have enough good players to put on a better showing than that! I'm not saying if we were playing Portugal we should out play them, but my god, we should compete better against Luxembourg!"
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) March 27, 2021
- Damien Delaney.#COYBIG #IRLLUX #WCQ pic.twitter.com/qi1x6X4kOm
Former Ireland and Crystal Palace defender Damien Delaney was similarly critical of the performance, criticising the 3-5-2 system and adding:
“We’re playing Luxembourg. We have enough good players to put on a better showing than that. I’m not saying if we were playing Portugal we should outplay them, but my god, we should compete better against Luxembourg.
“Tonight, their tactics were better than us. They were hungrier than us. They looked more in tune. They looked like they wanted it more than us, just in the way they applied their system.”
Coach underage club football and you’ll see all the clubs care about is winning u13s or 15s trophies. More emphasis on skills, 4 or 5 aside training, 1st touch drills, defensive drills on set pieces and 1 or 2 touch sessions. FAI not nurturing like the Dutch or Belgians. Why are teams like Ajax seen as talent nurseries? Because their youth systems are working.
@Yhael Ronoc: couldnt agree more….like the GAA and Rugby do…he has a poor standard squad…but we stick with him…he is changing the philosophy and that takes time. Agree with other posters…FAI mismanagement over years to blame for no proper structures..true that there is this mentality in underage soccer clubs of winning is everything at very young age…plays can play fornt different clubs in 5 different seasons…no continuity in proper coaching…etc
@Yhael Ronoc: the problem with the irish structure is to much politics. As some one who coached for over twenty years I have seen Good players walk away from soccer because of the way Kennedy Cup, ETP and under age league of Ireland teams are picked. Not always the best players are picked. How do you solve this ?????
@Austin Shields: most clubs rely on parents taking training sessions as volunteers with little or no formal training. The kick start courses should be mandatory and managed annually within the club system. Clubs should encourage coaches to cooperate locally to complete courses. Too busy trying to outdo each other.
Kenny is the fall guy.
@Seosamh: why couldn’t he play he’s strongest team?
@Pauly Kels: whats his strongest team so?
@Sean Dalton: play long, Brady, Jim mc for starters?
@Pauly Kels: @Pauly Kels: What exactly did McClean, Brady or Long do when they came on? We regressed as a team in the 2nd half when they came on. You’re talking about a 34, 31 and 29 year old here who add nothing to the team and who are passed it. We are in transition, we have no choice but to bring through the young lads, give them experience and they will be the better for it. Bazunu, O’Shea, Knight all did well. The simple fact of the matter is we don’t have top prem players anymore so we need to build for the future.
@Steve: so you think getting beat by Luxembourg is OK as “we are building for the future”great to see the young lads doing well, but play your strongest team mix it up for example if you going tell me Collins is more likely to score in a international than long your deluded he can’t even get on a Luton Town team these days.
@Pauly Kels: so go back to players past their best who all came on tonight and offered nothing more than the players they replaced.
@Pauly Kels: Are you talking about the same Shane Long who is on loan at Bournemouth who can’t get a start for them who is 34 years of age and has scored 2 goals in the last 2 years at club and International level versus Collins who has 2 international goals in his last 8 games and was extremely unlucky not to score 2 goals tonight. You’re deluded If you think Shane Long should be starting for Ireland at 34 years of age.
FAI dropped Kerr many year’s ago. He was the best for finding talent in this country. Since then i haven’t seen one coach that has convinced me that things are getting better. Yesterday’s result was going to happen long time ago. Now it has. So why are people serprised over.
The excuses on the message board are absurd. Sure we don’t have the players to qualify for the World Cup, but we certainly have the players to beat a group of semi-professional footballers from Luxembourg. Those players didn’t show up and play for Kenny, and if you can’t get a group of footballers from the Premier League and Championship to play proper football against Luxembourg than you don’t deserve to be the manager.
@Conor HF: No semi-profesional players in the Luxembourg team. Luxembourg had the only player on the pitch that plays at Championleague level.
@Conor HF: Luxembourg players are far from semi professional. They play professional now all of them.
@Conor HF: They are full time pro’s, don’t know where you got that from, technically they were better than us, if those players don’t want to show up and play for their country its not Kennys fault, should be playing for themselves and their country, not the manager,fair play to Kenny for trying to play football, some of those players don’t deserve to play for Ireland. Too easy to kick Kenny when the team don’t perform.
@Conor HF: An article in yesterday’s Irish Times by one Robert O Connor “Luxembourg’s rise has created an unforseen problem” might bring you up to speed as to where Luxembourg football is at !!
Doesn’t seem semi professional to me.
If anything the President of its Footbal Federation has overseen a very “professional” approach which the FAI might do well to examine.
Then again we are talking about the FAI here Enough said.
Soccer is low hanging fruit, the first ball every kid plays with is a soccer ball every kids first hero is Messi or Ronaldo.That’s the only advantage they have over GAA and Rugby ,after that the soccer fraternity are so incompetent, the amount of talent wasted.The only time we were competitive was because our talent was nurtured and trained in England. The League of Ireland and FAI are laughable .Just imagine if the GAA ran the FAI ,jts just so depressing
@rugbyanbeer: a good portion of that squad played league Ireland
@rugbyanbeer: and it’s going to get worse due to Brexit! To me the FAI Premier league says it all – it’s disjointed with little clubs going no where. They could learn from Rugby to give kids playing here something meaningful to aspire to here – maybe not 4 provincial clubs but something close to it – and what about a Celtic league with Scotland & welsh clubs: could Dublin or Leinster United compete with Celtic and Rangers – see no reason why they couldn’t in time if the ambition and money was there! The lack of vision & ambition for our national league is a major issue
The IRFU should run the FAI..
@Asid: The IRFU have pitiful playing numbers. The oft made point is that there are more GAA clubs in Cork than there are rugby clubs in all of Ireland. The IRFU wouldn’t know what do with a organisation the size of the FAI.
@Asid: Yeah if you want grassroots football to die and it’s all about the national team, some franchises and commerce. No thanks!
@mar: grassroots football? The state of soccer in Ireland indicates an extremely weak and dysfunctional grassroots system. The elite leagues are shocking, our top foreign exports have regressed drastically, and the international team is the worst it’s ever been. The existence of many soccer youth clubs and junior teams has absolutely no bearing on the life or death of grassroots. There doesn’t exist any development pathway in Irish soccer. The IRFU on the other hand have won the rugby equivalent of the European Championship consistently of late, been to almost every World Cup quarterfinal, developed very strong club teams that have won many Champions League equivalents, and Leinster are renowned as having the best youth academy in global sport, producing a higher percentage of pro players.
@SomeGuy: You basically just confirmed what I was saying. It’s all about the national team and the provinces in rugby. How are the rugby clubs doing these days? “Been to almost every World Cup quarterfinal…”. You do understand that in football you get same calibre of opponent that you get in RWC quarterfinal already in qualification. Portugal who are the current European Champions are in our group. There’s absolutely no point comparing football to any other sport as it’s unique in its size and competitiveness.
@SomeGuy: I agree with everything you said but no offence it’s not that hard to get to a World Cup Quarter Final in rugby… Ireland automatically qualify for the group stage
All the talented kids play GAA
Latest cluster Balls up by the FAI, sacking Mick in mid flight. I know contracts had been signed etc but looking back it’s yet another Own goal by this inept incompetent and fast becoming embarrassing organisation.
Irish Football is Failing from the Top Down and former players don’t want anything to do with it currently like duffer the latest rat to leave the sinking ship.
All goes back to John Delaney Era when all he was concerned about was lining his pockets like his father before him.
In a club I was involved in a few years ago, if you were fouled in a training match, you were only allowed take the free/penalty if you were on the starting team……cos the good lads need the practise. Players outside the first team were not told about matches…….cos they didn’t have room for everyone on the bus. That’s a relatively big club too. That’s underage soccer for ya in this country. You reap what you sow.
I constantly hear the statement, “we don’t have enough players plying their trade in the premiership”. Why does it have to be the premiership? Look at Josh Cullen, taking a chance and going to Anderlecht and by all accounts he’s thriving. I know he on loan from an English Team but he’s getting game time. We need to be a little more adventurous on our player destination and not just hop over to England for more money and time on the bench.
IMO
@Allen Durkin: Josh Cullen isn’t on loan.
@Ross McBride: I’m sure you get my point all the same Ross.
Was that not his job back when was over all the youths.
@Jack Fitzpatrick: yea 25 years ago, who d’ya think brought through Keane Duff ect you mug
@Jack Fitzpatrick: ya and he brought through some brilliant players then the Fai decided he got too big for his boots and put Noel King in charge, the biggest spoofer of all time.
@Sean Dalton: King can walk round dublin with his head held high though that’s the main thing
@Sean Dalton: how did they think he got too big for hes boots when they gave him the num1 job after??? Stan came after Kerr then…
@Pauly Kels: and they cut all ties with him after it should have got him back into underage grass roots but fai wanted nothing to do with him
Is there a possibilty that these young players who are good footballers are just part of a generation. Everything they have learned about the game is quite different to the players we saw in the 80s and 90s. . Is it a generation of young players that have grown up with everything that has been done for them. Do they understand they have to earn respect and that started with this campaign. It is quite obvious from last night, they just are not equipped to deal with the pressure of playing for the jersey. England probably is not the right place to earned their trade but is the right place to earn the MONEY!!. These boys need to decide!
This isn’nt about player development with the fai, are’nt most of the team being coached in England?
Latest cluster Fkuc by the FAI, sacking Mick in mid flight. I know contracts had been signed etc but looking back it’s yet another Own goal by this inept incompetent and fast becoming embarrassing organisation.
Irish Football is Failing from the Top Down and former players don’t want anything to do with it currently like duffer the latest rat to leave the sinking ship.
All goes back to John Delaney Era when all he was concerned about was lining his pockets like his father before him.
Kenny out