IRELAND CAN LEGITIMATELY claim to have done a good a job as anyone in world football at shackling Kylian Mbappe this year – Mbappe didn’t manage a shot on target in the March clash at the Aviva Stadium, which is only the third time that’s happened in his 26 games for club and country across 2023.
Seamus Coleman was truly outstanding in that game, man-marking Mbappe at right wing-back with Chiedozie Ogbene providing support in front of him. But Coleman is injured, while his natural replacement, Matt Doherty, is suspended.
Stephen Kenny has said he will have to “get creative” in addressing Mbappe, so what are his options?
Reposition Alan Browne or Jason Knight
Browne and Knight have previous experience of playing at right wing-back for Ireland, and Kenny has said both are contenders to play there against France, in what would be the biggest challenges of their careers so far. The Irish manager also added they are not the only contenders for the gig, hinting the solution may come elsewhere. Both Browne and Knight are primarily centre-midfielders, but Ireland’s reality is that regardless of who they pick in that role, that player will be picked out of position.
Hand a debut to Festy Ebosele
Ebosele would have been included in the June squad but for injury, and while he has played at right wing-back for Udinese, Kenny says he sees Ebosele as an attacking player. That said, if you’re looking for clues as to what will happen on Thursday, Ebosele has been grouped among the defenders in the squad list. He certainly has the pace to at least keep up with Mbappe, but it would be an enormous ask for Ebosele on what would be his senior debut. Plus, Coleman’s man-marking job on Mbappe rested on the fact he knew he couldn’t match him for pace, and so prioritised his positioning at all times.
Selecting this role on pace alone is risky, as we saw how speedy players can still be fooled by Mbappe’s pace when Kyle Walker lost him for the opening goal of England’s World Cup quarter-final defeat. There are a handful of players in the world who would beat Mbappe in a race across 50 metres, but nobody can match him across the first 10 metres.
Turn to Chiedozie Ogbene
Ogbene was outstanding as Ireland’s right-sided attacker against France in March, dropping back to support Coleman while springing forward to offer a threat behind France left-back Theo Hernandez.
“Their strong side is [Ireland's] right side as well as the weakness, you have to compensate and if we can overload the full back, that gives us a chance”, said Ogbene yesterday on Ireland’s approach in March. “As one of the best players in the world is playing on the left side, the full back has to do double running for him, so I saw that as an effective way.”
There is no guarantee that Theo will play on Thursday, as his more defensively-minded brother Lucas is fit again and may return to lock down that side. Nonetheless, Ogbene has played at right wing-back for Rotherham in the past, so perhaps he will be asked to perform a more defensive role on Thursday night.
Give the job to one of the centre-halves
On Monday, when Nathan Collins was asked about the prospect of being shuffled to right wing-back, he gave the standard answer that he is happy to play in any role once he’s on the pitch.
But given the defensive emphasis that will be on the right wing-back role in Paris, Kenny will perhaps be tempted to shunt one of his centre-halves out to the right hand-side. Given their pace, Collins or Andrew Omobamidele would probably be best suited to the job.
Again we are digging around for clues here, but Kenny named an additional centre-half in the squad for this double-header (five, as opposed to the four who were picked against Greece and Gibraltar), and Omobamidele’s late call-up means there are now six in the squad.
But for all the focus on the right wing-back position, Collins is right in saying it’s going to take a collective effort.
“Every game he plays he causes everyone problems”, said Collins on Monday when asked the Mbappe question. “There’s no way you can do it on your own, one v one he beats anyone. We have to defend as a unit, we have to defend as a team and back each other. If he does beat us, then there have to be more people waiting to come up against him. But we saw that they have more quality on the other wing and more quality in the middle. It’s about balancing it all. He is a massive threat, we were able to deal with him once and we have to draw confidence from that.”
Time to draw breath.
