Who should replace Brian Kerr

Kerr averaged 1.75 per game in his time in charge.
McCarthy averaged 1.88 points in his first 2 campaigns.

Over a 10 game campaign that would be 1 point in the difference. In the World Cup '98 qualifying group we had Romania as the only team that should have been challenging us for top spot. They finished 10 points ahead of us. Lithuania finished a point below us as the 3rd best team in the group with Macedonia, Iceland and Liechtenstein making up the rest of the group. Mick had 8 friendlies to get things sorted before his first game, Kerr had 1. Factors like that surely make up for McCarthy's 1 extra point.

Its all well and good saying we dropped way down the seedings but Kerr did as well as Mick in his time in charge (with the exception of Mick's 3rd campaign which Kerr didn't get a chance at). I'm not saying Kerr deserved a 3rd campaign but the critisism he's getting is way over the top.

 

There's no doubt but that Kerr had a poor run, but my biggest problem with him was that Ireland never beat a team ranked any higher than Albania or Georgia under him, because they never seemed to play with any passion or belief in themselves. His teams played dull, boring football, designed not to lose rather than win. And going back to the days of Liam Touhy, Ireland never played like that.

When he came up against bigger teams, he didn't seem to have a coherent plan as to how to play these teams. While a team like France can give you fits, Ireland should not have been struggling against Switzerland and Russia at home in particular. But if ever there was an indictment of him, it was the piss poor displays against Israel which did him in in the end. His tactics in both games were atrocious, bordering on the naive. And there's no place for naiveté in the modern game.

As bad as McCarthy's early results were, they were down more to getting/blooding new players. Kerr had the backbone of a team that had just about made the Quarters of the WC and he couldn't motivate them sufficiently and plan appropriately to take on the likes of Israel. And on two occassions when the chips were down, and a result was needed against an workmanlike, but far from outstanding, Swiss side, the team played without the passion and will to win, which for all his faults, rarely if ever happened under McCarthy.

Running McCarthy out of his job over a jumped up muppet from Cork was as bad a mistake as has been made in Irish football in many a long year.

 

I actually thought we played well at home to Israel. We deserved to beat them about 4-0. It was the most bizarre match I've seen Ireland play in in a long time, if ever. Matt Holland fouls someone in the middle of the pitch. At the time I didn't think it was a foul but you can't argue with tight decisions like that. Anyway, they hit that freekick in and an Israeli gets his head to it outside the box. He scored from it and I then thought, who the hell scores headers from outside the box? For the 2nd goal the ball came rolling to Given who miskicked the ball and lands at an Israeli. He hit the ball in towards Benayoun who O'Shea is tugging at and gives away the peno.

Before Keane went off that bald left winger walked his way down the wing and into our box. He hit the ball into the box but they failed to score. That was their 3 chances in the match. We had so many chances to get the ball into the net but it just wouldn't go in.

Stephen Elliott had started 1 match in the last 2 months for Sunderland. He was in poor form and Kerr said he also had a virus while with Sunderland. Duff had scored and got MOTM in his previous 2 games up front for Ireland. It was not a ludicrous decision to bring on a box to box midfielder to partner Holland in the centre while pushing Duff up front. It was though the wrong decision. Did it cost us the match? Nobody knows but a lot of people seem to think they know it did. Israel got into the match about 7 minutes before Keane went off. They didn't just get into the game as soon as Keane went off. Giles said in commentary in the 30th minute that he didn't like the way Israel have got back into the game in the last 10 or so minutes.

What I find weird is people slag Kerr off for making excuses in that match about Elliott as Elliott was somehow fit to play against the Faroes. The same people also say he doesn't learn from his mistakes. Its either one or the other. McCarthy made mistakes, some a lot worse than Kerr's. Not bringing on Elliott was a mistake but every manager makes them. If we got what we deserved in that match most people would have forgotten about the substitution.
Chelsea were beating Fulham 2-1, they brought Tiago on for Drogba. If they drew that match Mourinho would probably be getting stick for the substitution but they won.
Chelsea were beating Barca 1-0. They took Cole off and went 5 at the back, they lost 2-1.
Chelsea were beating Bayern Munich 2-1, they put Nuno Marais on for Cole, Tiago on for Duff and Geremi on for Gudjohnson. They lost the match 3-2. They won 6-5 on aggregate so they went through. If they failed to go through would Mourinho be getting slated? I don't know, but managers replace midfielders with strikers all the time even when its needed. The thing about Mourinho's substitutions was they were defensive. Kerr's wasn't. Kerr still played a 4-4-2.

I agree with you about not being able to beat top teams but I'm only arguing that Kerr is being treated unfairly. Whether he was good enough is another matter.

 

Fair enough. In my opinion, he was not up to the job.

 

Raymond Domenech gets my vote.

With Tony Cascarino running a close second.

 

Kerr has applied for the South African job. He's one of 45 applicants, but 11 coaches in 13 years doesn't bode well for him if he gets it.

 

Has there been any indication when a new manager for the Irish will be named?

 

I dunno but I don't think they would need to have a manager in for the draw but they definitely would for the fixtures meetings. As for Staunton, being a first time manager didnt stop Beckenbauer from getting Germany to the World Cup final in 1986. Who the heck knows at this stage? Maybe we should rehire Mick McCarthy back as he might be on the way out with the Black Cats. Having the worst record the in the Premiership not just once but twice will not be a plus mark on his resume.

 

Dear God, this is the second forum I've seen these rumours today alone.

Please, please, please God, no!

 

And indeed winning the thing in 1990.

 

Speaking of Kerr....he may be off to South Africa...not a bad number as they are World Cup hosts in 2010:

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=94&si=1536790&issue_id=13503

 

if Mick doesn't quit Sunderland, he'll get the sack soon enough anyway. It's not even his fault, he puts out the best team, but Sunderland are just crap. I'd love to see him back, he brought a great spirit to the camp.

 

I've heard that it looks very much like Aldo is going to be our man.

 

Also, what do you lads think of the rumours of Keegan and Venables? how do you think they'd do?.

I think I'd prefer Keegan of the two.

 

Likewise, Keegan over Venables.

Aldridge would be OK too I suppose.

 

Troussier confirmed in October that the FAI were in contact with him but he didn't want to have to wait 6 months. he could well be back in the running now since he was sacked by Morocco. I stuck a small bet on him at 25/1 today on Betfair.

 

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=354671&cc=5901

Staunton in line for Republic of Ireland job

 

Who the hell knows? Maybe they would be great. But the underlying problems with Irish footie wont be fixed right away no matter who is appointed.

 

I heard a rumour about this today.

Stan's the man.

 

Yeah, appointing Staunton on his own seems like a strange choice. The last time they tried something like this it took Mick a few years to get a cohesive team together, and at least he'd had some experience prior. I'd hate to see Staunton getting the kind of abuse that he's setting himself up for as things stand. If they are going to give him the job, pairing him with a mentor like Robson would be perfect (assuming they can work together).

How about Hiddink and Staunton post-World Cup?

 

Kerr wasn't fired because of his inexperience. He wasn't fired for being crap. Furthermore, Staunton has oodles more credibility than Kerr ever had, given that he played the games at all levels in England and played in 3 World Cups. These things matter to professionals. When things started to go wrong for Kerr, he didn't have any reputation to fall back upon, or at least none that senior professional players would respect. Staunton, if appointed, would not have those problems.

The aspect of this deal that does confuse me somewhat is the Robson angle. Staunton is either the boss or he's not. And I'm not sure that Robson would willingly take a back seat. If they come as a tandem, that may be a cause for concern, but let's get to that first.