PROBABLY NOT since the days of Jack Charlton has Ireland’s footballing identity been debated as vigorously as it has been under Stephen Kenny.
The reason for that state of affairs is that, for a long time anyway, Charlton essentially ended the argument, despite predecessors like Eoin Hand and John Giles putting a greater emphasis on attractive, attacking football, which was ideologically antithetical to the Ashbourne native’s favoured brand.
Such was the level of success under the England World Cup winner that even soccer purists who were very much in the minority had to begrudgingly accept that Ireland were doing what they were good at, which was essentially direct football and putting people under pressure, ideas at the time were both effective and relatively uncommon in international football at the time compared to the rest of Europe.
Perhaps with an eye on the public mood as well as the previous success generated, every subsequent Ireland manager until Kenny played essentially a variation of the Charlton blueprint, even if some managers were not quite so dogmatic and actually encouraged good football in certain situations — the first Mick McCarthy reign being a prime example where flair players like Robbie Keane and Damien Duff were accommodated alongside Charlton stalwarts such as Niall Quinn and Tony Cascarino among others.
Kenny has been the first manager to stray considerably from Charlton’s ideals, which was always going to rub certain traditionalists who associate Irish football with a particular style the wrong way, just as Charlton at times incensed the Eamon Dunphys of the football world.
The difference, of course, between Kenny and Charlton is that the former’s radical about-turn has not been anywhere near as successful so far.
It has sparked another identity crisis in Irish football.
This time, however, the naysayers might just win.
And even Dunphy, who has backed Kenny as passionately as he criticised Charlton all those years ago, is beginning to have doubts.
“The result here was poor but the performance was worse than that,” he wrote for Buzz.ie after the Greece loss.
“Much worse.
“Can we fix that with this coach?
“I am unsure.”
Last night’s 3-0 win over Gibraltar is unlikely to change anyone’s mind, nor should it.
Ireland’s opponents are ranked 201st in the world for a reason and their limitations were obvious as they barely attempted a shot on goal over the course of the 90 minutes.
Those in the pro and anti-Kenny camp before the game will almost certainly have retained the same opinion after.
There is a legitimate case to be made that the current Irish manager has simply overseen too many bad results to warrant loyalty until the end of the current campaign, despite Kenny in recent days suggesting he expects, at the very least, to see out his contract, which is due to take him up to the Euros in 2024.
But perhaps a more pertinent question than who should or shouldn’t be manager is what do people want Irish football’s identity to be.
Is the result all that matters? Do we want to evolve from our old style, which almost no one else in international football relies on anymore? Do we want to try something different than before?
Even Kenny’s fiercest detractors will find it hard to argue against the notion that he is Ireland’s most innovative and imaginative coach since Charlton.
Yet in many ways, this sense of originality has counted against him.
His selection against Greece was Guardiola-esque in the worst sense. It could perhaps be best described as his playing-the-2021-Champions-League-final-without-Rodri moment.
In other words, Ireland got their tactics completely wrong in Athens on Friday.
By playing two up front in the form of Evan Ferguson and Adam Idah, the three-man midfield were left badly exposed, with the wing-backs pinned back into what essentially became a five-man defence.
It was as if the notion of it being seen as a ‘must-win’ game had forced Kenny into a prematurely ultra-attack-minded strategy.
He essentially admitted his mistake, by replacing Adam Idah with Mikey Johnston at half-time and switching to a 5-4-1, but so much of the damage had already been done, with Ireland run ragged for much of the opening 45 minutes and left exhausted as a consequence.
Last night in Dublin was similar in the sense that his tactics at the outset were questionable at best, only this time the half-time alteration reaped dividends — Johnston replaced Nathan Collins, they switched to four at the back, and offered a greater threat going forward, ultimately securing a 3-0 win.
Moreover, for all the mistakes he’s made over the course of the job and all the talk of his supposed unwillingness to compromise on his principles, Kenny has been one of the most tactically flexible Ireland managers in recent times.
He has alternated between a back four and a back three while he often switches or at least tweaks his formations during games.
Compare it to, for instance, Giovanni Trapattoni insisting on 4-4-2 for nearly every situation, even against the best team in the world at the time (Spain).
Of course, these positive attributes may not be enough to keep Kenny in the job, with the FAI board expected to meet in the coming weeks and assess his performance.
However, even if they ultimately decide to part company, the failure of Kenny as Ireland manager should not be perceived as the simultaneous inefficacy of his ethos.
Some of the names linked with the Boys in Green job in recent days have included Sam Allardyce and Chris Hughton, both of whom play a style of football radically different to Kenny’s and much closer to the approach that was being dismissed as redundant at international level towards the latter end of the Martin O’Neill era in 2018.
If it does not work out with Kenny, Irish football’s authorities must ensure they find someone with a similar level of ambition, a willingness to promote young players and an insistence on employing a modern brand of football akin to what most top Irish coaches are currently preaching across all ages at youth level.
Going back to the dreaded pragmatism of previous years may yield slightly more success in the short term, but it would be a betrayal of everything the new FAI have been striving towards as the organisation bids to replenish its deeply tarnished image.
A reversion to an old-school, results-at-the-expense-of-everything-else manager with no real relationship to grassroots football in this country would feel like an unwanted return to the past, a stark statement that the previous three years have been a misguided diversion rather than the beginning of something exciting and new.
