FORMER IRELAND INTERNATIONAL Damien Delaney didn’t hold back with his assessment of Stephen Kenny following the 2-1 defeat to Greece in Athens.
Speaking on Virgin Media Sport after Ireland suffered another damaging loss in the Dubliner’s reign, Delaney highlighted Gus Poyet’s tactical superiority as they dominated the visitors in all departments.
“Look, ultimately, he’s out of his depth. Four competitive wins in 23 [games] is nowhere near good enouh. The manager, over the last three years, has framed statistics, cherrypicked times and results to have in his favour but he’s been found out now,” Delaney said.
🗨️ "Kenny has been found out."
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) June 16, 2023
🗨️ "It's a far, far stretch of the imagination that'd we'd even get third."
🗨️ "He's out of his depth. Four competitive wins in 23 is nowhere near good enough."
Keith and Damien pull no punches on where this Ireland team are.#EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/76j4TTuCgs
“He’s had enough time in the job and unfortunately we need to have a look at other options. It was a poor night on all fronts. We were pretty much beaten in every department. Greece played some really good football. We got a lifeline but Greece were totally in control and absolutely dominant.
“We said that the bare minimum for Stephen was third in this group. People said he’s had a lot of progress, blooding young fellas, a lot of excuses, mixing performances and results. Tonight is when it should have come together and put in a performance but we didn’t. There was nothing there.
“Tactically we were taken apart and Gus Poyet knew what was coming. Greece were absolutely dominant in all areas of the pitch and there needs to be some soul searching.”
ON RTÉ, meanwhile, Liam Brady pointed to the calibre of players but stressed the need for Kenny to do more.
“I know that we haven’t got the players, this is the worst group of players that any manager has had in my lifetime. They have all had better players than Stephen’s got, but somehow you have got to mould them into a team that gets a result here and there. We haven’t done that.
“There was one good pass from a mifield player. I didn’t ignore other good passes. They passed sideways, backwards, whereas the Greek players knew what they were doing. They were passing through us. There was a positivity about their play.”
