NOT FOR THE first time, Ireland will come away from this international window with decidedly mixed feelings.
Judged alone, the Gibraltar performance was encouraging.
Matt Doherty, Jason Knight, Ryan Manning and Jamie McGrath delivered their best performances in a green jersey in recent memory.
Gibraltar are undoubtedly one of the worst sides in Europe, as their Fifa ranking of 198th suggests — only two European teams, San Marino and Liechtenstein, are below them.
But Ireland can only beat what’s in front of them and the 4-0 result meant they scored more goals than both Greece and France managed during their respective trips to Faro, while the Dutch could only put three past the minnows in Eindhoven.
On the other hand, games against Gibraltar are close as any team is likely to come to a guaranteed win in international football.
Really, the 2-0 defeat to Greece in Dublin is a better barometer of where Ireland are as a team currently.
The defeat of Gibraltar was just the sixth competitive win under Stephen Kenny and the joint-biggest winning margin (along with the friendly victory against Qatar in 2021).
As inept as the opposition were, it should not detract from the occasional moments of brilliance that Ireland managed to produce, which have been all too rare in recent months.
In what is likely to be his penultimate competitive game in charge, there was a sense of poignancy in at last seeing what a fully functioning Ireland team under Kenny should look like.
Even previous games against minnows during the manager’s reign have rarely been straightforward. In their last qualifying campaign, Ireland infamously lost to Luxembourg and drew with Azerbaijan. The home game with Gibraltar was 0-0 at half-time. In what was ultimately a comfortable 4-1 win, Andorra took a shock lead during a 2021 end-of-season friendly, while the Boys in Green needed a last-gasp Troy Parrott wonder goal to beat Lithuania.
On this occasion, however, it was more or less plain sailing after Ireland took an eighth-minute lead through Evan Ferguson — Gibraltar had just 26% possession and failed to register a single shot on target over the 90 minutes.
In general, one of the glaring issues of Kenny’s reign has been a lack of depth in certain areas of the pitch.
On Monday night, Mikey Johnston epitomised some of the best aspects of Ireland’s play.
The Scottish-born winger scored the second goal and was named man of the match following an accomplished display.
Doherty and Ogbene involved again as Mikey Johnston makes it 2-0 to Ireland!
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) October 16, 2023
IRL 2-0 GIB
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During his best days at Dundalk, Kenny often played with two fast, skilful, attacking wingers on either side of a physically imposing striker.
For Ireland, however, the manager in recent times has tended to favour three at the back, rendering his preferred League of Ireland-era style impossible.
You might recall Ireland did regularly try to play with four at the back in the early parts of his reign and rely on attacking wingers.
Before this window, one of the last games when Ireland started with this formation was the demoralising 3-0 defeat to England in November 2020, which in retrospect feels like a watershed moment for Kenny.
That game saw Ireland start with Adam Idah up front alongside Daryl Horgan and Callum O’Dowda on the wings.
After the hour mark, Robbie Brady and James McClean replaced Horgan and O’Dowda.
However, once the 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign began, Ireland switched to three at the back and have largely stuck to that system ever since with occasional exceptions.
It’s easy to see why the change was made. At the time, many of Ireland’s best players were full-backs/wing-backs — Matt Doherty, Seamus Coleman and Enda Stevens were all playing better and more regularly than is the case now, while McClean coming closer to the end of his career meant he was also being utilised in this position more rather than as an out-and-out winger.
Meanwhile, Brady and O’Dowda were simply injured or off form too often to be relied on, and Daryl Horgan — a key player for Kenny previously at Dundalk — clearly had seen better days and was no longer quite good enough for international level.
Beyond that, Kenny’s options on the wing were limited, while the emergence of a series of extremely promising centre-backs such as Nathan Collins, Dara O’Shea and Andrew Omobamidele meant the switch to three at the back seemed like even more of a no-brainer.
And for a while, it appeared to work, as Ireland’s results improved to an extent and Kenny did enough to convince the FAI to award him with a contract extension.
However, it has become clear in recent months that the three-at-the-back formula is no longer a winning one.
The likes of Doherty and Stevens have had a torrid time at club level, while Coleman has suffered extensive injury problems and James McClean is now 34 and playing his football in League Two.
Similarly, some of the hugely talented young centre-backs have encountered significant setbacks — Collins, O’Shea and Omobamidele have all had spells out of their respective clubs’ starting XIs over the past 12 months. Since the last international window, O’Shea and Omobamidele have had just 45 minutes of football between them.
Suddenly, it no longer seems like Ireland have such an embarrassment of riches in defence.
Footballers’ fates can change so quickly, and particularly as an international manager where options are limited, to begin with, adapting to these developments can be extremely challenging.
Mikey Johnston picks out Jason Knight who is agonisingly close to adding a third for Ireland.
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) October 16, 2023
🇬🇮 0-2 🇮🇪
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Against Greece last week, Kenny finally decided to ditch three at the back for the four-man defence he invariably favoured in his days as a club manager.
It was a surprise to some but makes sense when you consider the context outlined above.
Nevertheless, one of the many problems against Gus Poyet’s side was how lopsided the Irish team often looked.
Chiedozie Ogbene provided plenty of threat down the right, but Jason Knight — primarily considered a midfielder — was awkwardly shoehorned wide left, with the result being that there was very little attacking threat on that side of the field, particularly with another defensive-minded player — Liam Scales — behind the Bristol City star at full-back.
However, in the second half against Greece and versus Gibraltar last night, the combination on the left of Ryan Manning at full-back and Johnston on the wing looked far more effective.
Ogbene has been named Ireland’s Player of the Match on multiple occasions during this campaign, even though he has often been required to play more as a second striker rather than a right winger because of Ireland’s three-at-the-back formation.
Yet it has too often felt like the Luton star is Ireland’s primary attacking threat — if opponents can stop the former Cork City player, they stop the team.
There was a much better balance to Ireland last night with the dual threat of Ogbene and Johnston — two of the only players in the squad capable of running with the ball and taking defenders on.
And tellingly, all four of Ireland’s goals came from crosses into the box, with Manning and Doherty also chipping in with significantly improved performances from full-back.
Jamie McGrath — another player used all too infrequently by Kenny for justifiable reasons relating to form and fitness — also had a great game, producing the kind of creative and intelligent attacking performance with two assists that has sadly been seldom seen for much of the last three years.
With his tenure seemingly nearing its end, Kenny would be forgiven for wondering what might have been on the basis of the glimpses of potential witnessed last night.
What if he had stuck with four at the back longer? What if he had some depth on the wings sooner? What if Johnston had been available to make his full debut long before last night and had not come into this window without having played a single minute of action for Celtic this season? What if the unnamed Championship winger he referenced in his post-match comments last night had declared for Ireland sooner? What if Jamie McGrath had not moved to Wigan and seen his career stall as a result?
Of course, all international managers have comparable dilemmas and it is all about getting the best out of players at your disposal, but Kenny has certainly not been a lucky general during his time with Ireland.
As he reflects on his ill-fated stint in charge over the coming months, the dearth of top-quality wingers available for much of it will surely be earmarked as one of the key reasons why it all ultimately went awry.
