THAT THE GREECE defeat is followed by a home game with Gibraltar is a regrettable quirk of schedule for Stephen Kenny, as this is the kind of game that can’t make anything better. It can only make things worse.
A comfortable Irish win will be accepted as a basic requirement, a nervy, narrow victory will be held as further proof of a fitful, unimproving team. Asked if anything less than a win would be unthinkable, Kenny replied, “In terms of qualification for the European Championships, yeah, it is.”
Kenny narrowed the context of his answer in a bid to avoid talk about his own future but he did so in vain. James McClean sat beside Kenny before the pre-game press conference as ahead of what will be his 100th cap, but celebrations of his remarkable milestone were overshadowed by another fraught cross-examination of Kenny’s own job prospects.
There is no suggestion Kenny has lost his players, in whom he has traditionally inspired loyalty. McClean, for instance, ripped up a deal with Lincoln in 2008 after Derry City’s relegation when he heard Kenny was going to stick around for a season in the First Division.
But the caucus Kenny has to worry about is that which sits in the freshly-painted boardroom at Abbotstown. Defeat in Greece has left him in the weakest position he has experienced since stepping up to take the senior job in 2020. He said Friday’s defeat was “narrow” but that case can only be credibly made by looking at the scoreboard. Ireland were lethargic and sloppy and passive and then dissected by a Greek approach they had spent 10 days preparing for in Antalya.
Given the expensive, lengthy lead-in, the game was a failure both total and entirely on Kenny’s own terms. For those reasons it has weakened the resolve of his allies at the FAI, and his future will remain the back-page topic regardless of the result against Gibraltar: board member Packie Bonner is slated to do a media event in Donegal on Tuesday, where Kenny’s future will be a natural line of questioning.
Watching Kenny face down these questions at yesterday’s press conference was occasionally uncomfortable, ending an exchange with Philip Quinn of the Irish Daily Mail by calling for more respect.
Q: How do you think you doing as Ireland manager?
A: “I’m not going to sit here and do a full press conference on an assessment of my period in charge or anything like that, I’m here really to prepare for tomorrow, the game against Gibraltar. It’s a big game for us, and I said to you, obviously I’m disappointed that we lost against Greece but we got to bounce back against Gibraltar and I’m fairly sure we can do that and we’ll take that into September.”
Q: You said you believe in the players. We’re three years down the road, do you still believe in them?
A: “It’s not…players have come in in that period. A lot of players have come in the last year.”
Q: When do we get to the point where you say, this is the team I want, and they’re going to play the way I want? We’re hearing a lot of stuff about this the last three years and none if it has come true. Results have been shambolic. We’ve been out of every campaign we’ve started, this one is hanging by a thread.
A: “We were in the World Cup campaign and now we’re in the Euro campaign.”
Q: When are we going to see the end product?
A: “It’s about time we had a bit of respect from you to be honest. The lack of respect at times at press conferences shouldn’t be tolerated, do you know what I mean, to be honest? It’s absolutely terrible at times.”
At that point McClean jumped in to ask the journalist what he thought of the Irish players, and whether they are good enough to take Ireland to the Euros. (That reply, for the record, was a ‘Yes’ and a congratulations on McClean’s 100th cap.)
Kenny and McClean both made the point that there is a lot of football left to be played in the group, and Kenny says he believes Ireland can still finish in the group’s top two, accepting they would need some “exceptional results.” Given Ireland have won four competitive games under Kenny since 2020, those who believe Ireland are capable of pulling off those upsets are a winnowing band of believers. Ireland’s likeliest route to the Euros is a Nations League play-off that is contingent on results elsewhere, but that Ireland’s real prospects in their group are already so diminished might breed a dangerous apathy: in the context of a potential play-off, Ireland’s own results are pretty much the only ones that don’t matter.
Tickets for tonight’s game was bundled with those for September’s game against the Netherlands, and so is only 3,000 premium tickets away from a sell-out. That the seats are actually filled will be an important barometer.
Matt Doherty is suspended after his late red card against Greece, but Stephen Kenny is promising further changes. McClean will replace Callum O’Dowda, with Alan Browne likely to come in for Doherty. Kenny insists Evan Ferguson and Adam Idah can play together, but Michael Obafemi’s goal record makes him a more compelling option to play alongside Ferguson if Kenny decides to go with a 3-5-2, as he has recently done against Latvia, Malta, and Armenia.
A 3-4-2-1 is a way of getting Mikey Johnston into the team, however, whose dribbling ability gives Ireland another dimension against a Gibraltar side that will squat in their own penalty area. Will Smallbone struggled at times in Athens but he remains Ireland’s most creative midfield outlet, and this system is a way of getting him in the team.
Kenny hasn’t given any indication he will go to a back four – playing a back three at home to Gibraltar seems needlessly cautious – but perhaps the Greece defeat might prompt a ripping up of plans.
Whichever way Kenny goes, he must find a way of better involving Evan Ferguson, who had just one touch in the Greece penalty area across all of Friday night’s game. That was the header which set up Nathan Collins’ goal, which meant Ireland’s best goalscorer didn’t get a single penalty-box touch from open play. This is plainly untenable.
The only downside of being gifted a talent like Ferguson is the fact everybody notices if you can’t construct a team to make him effective.
This Gibraltar game is the first Kenny has openly described as a must-win, but in many ways it is a no-win.
Republic of Ireland (Possible): Gavin Bazunu; Nathan Collins, John Egan, Dara O’Shea; Alan Browne; Josh Cullen, Will Smallbone; James McClean; Mikey Johnston, Michael Obafemi; Evan Ferguson
