DON’T TELL CONOR Hourihane that we just don’t have the players.
“The quality in the squad probably isn’t appreciated enough. If you look at that team [against Bulgaria] everyone bar Callum O’Dowda has played in the Premier League, the best league in the world, so there is quality in the squad without a doubt.
“And I think this manager believes there is quality in the squad, so yeah, I think he probably feels the best way forward is to pass the ball because a lot of us do it at club level. It’s been brilliant so far and hopefully we can take it into the games coming up.
“It is refreshing to hear that, he definitely believes in us and believes that there is quality in this squad. Like I said if you go through the team, bar Callum, we’re all pretty much playing in the Premier League. You look at the bench and you’ve Seamus Coleman, Shane Long, Callum Robinson, Robbie Brady – all Premier League players. So there is quality in the squad.
“Yes, we may be missing that Gareth-Bale-for-Wales at the top, top, level but there are very good footballers here throughout the squad. That quality is being recognised by this manager and it’s why we are going about it in the style we are, because he believes we can pass the football and that is always great to hear.”
Hourihane has zealously embraced Kenny’s new style, and says the demand to pass the ball more often suits both he and most of his team-mates.
Allowing for the fact the squad have yet to spend a full week together under their new manager, he says the 1-1 draw in Bulgaria offers positives and negatives for Sunday’s game with Finland.
“We tried to pass the ball a little better than we probably did under previous regimes, and were a lot more patient than usual. There were times we gave it away a little bit cheaply and the goal probably wasn’t great, but had that spirit and never-say-die attitude to keep going. We stuck to the principles that this manager wants – to keep passing the ball – even though we were 1-0 down.”
Shane Duffy accepted the better part of the blame for the goal Ireland conceded, though Hourihane admits he should have done better too, having given the ball away in the build-up.
“Afterwards in the dressing room I was disappointed with myself because I felt like it was a sloppy pass, a needless pass from myself I suppose. We have spoken about it and I had my hand up in the dressing room after it, so did a couple of the defenders.”
Hourihane played all 90 minutes in Sofia, most of it to the left of the midfield three, although he spent the last quarter of the game as the deepest of Ireland’s midfielders after James McCarthy was replaced by Robbie Brady.
Hourihane naturally says he is happy to play in whatever position he’s picked, and heaped praise on McCarthy as a “top player”, with whom he played for the first time on Thursday. An even more unfamiliar prospect awaits Hourihane on Sunday, however, at an empty Aviva Stadium.
“It’s obviously going to be a great shame that it’s going to be empty for the manager. He would have loved a full house and the atmosphere would have given us that extra step, that kind of twelfth man to hopefully get that good result.
“But listen, it is what it is at the minute, so we have to create our own atmosphere n Sunday, create our own energy. We know everyone at home is going to be behind us pushing us forward.
“Like I said, it’s the new normal at the moment, so we have to just get over that.”
Ireland have no fresh injury concerns ahead of that game, with David McGoldrick joining the squad in Dublin on Friday afternoon.
