BEFORE ANY MANAGER can look ahead, they have to look back.
And so before Stephen Kenny began preparation for this month’s daunting double-header of Euro 2024 qualifiers – away to the French and at home to the Dutch in the space of four days – he had to look back at what may have been the most damaging result of his reign, June’s 2-1 defeat in Greece.
Ireland’s preparations had been, by all accounts, ideal. Sure, Seamus Coleman and Chiedozie Ogbene were out, but there had been no other injuries across a nine-day warm weather training camp in Antalya.
But Ireland’s performance in Athens bore no hallmark of excellent preparation, and Ireland were outwitted and overwhelmed in a loss to the side seeded beneath them. While the result hasn’t mathematically wrecked the campaign – Ireland have three points from three games, with five games to go – it has undeniably let the air out of the whole enterprise.
Speaking to a huddle of journalists at yesterday’s squad announcement, Kenny reflected on that game in Athens. While he has a habit of over-burnishing performances, there was no sheen to be applied to Greece.
“To be honest with you, say our last seven matches, have they been all perfect?”, Kenny asked rhetorically. “No. Scotland, Ukraine, Scotland away, Armenia at home, and these three games [in the qualifying campaign]. All of the games, I think, have been a reflection of how we wanted the team to play. Have they all been perfect? No, but all of those performances I felt were a reflection of what we desire to do, in a lot of the games.
“But Greece is an outlier from that. I’m not happy with Greece at all. I was disappointed. When I looked at it, I didn’t see myself as a coach in the team. I’m responsible for that as manager. Having said that, although we didn’t play well, we could still have easily drawn the game.
“Do you know what I mean? We still could easily have drawn the game having not played well. The goals we conceded, another handball for a penalty, and the second goal is disappointing.
“In that game we wanted to exploit the fact that their full-backs get forward all the time and maximise that. We played 3-5-2, we wanted to exploit the space that they leave with our front two but it didn’t materialise. We were too keen to try and exploit it too early. The players’ passing, defenders, midfielders and forwards, weren’t in synch, their runs weren’t in sync with the passing.
“Their defenders are very good, the two centre-backs, defended really well and read the situations and we were a bit predictable. That was not like how we played in other matches. So I was disappointed with that. But, at the same time, we’ve seen it down the years when teams don’t play well away from home but you defend right and you don’t concede. The frustrating thing is that not every game is going to go according to plan but we should have dug out at least a draw in the game and had the capacity to do that but didn’t. So that was disappointing.”
It’s not possible to entirely move on from that night against France, however, as Matt Doherty has yet to serve the second of a two-match suspension for his straight red card in the game’s final moments. With Coleman still sidelined, Kenny admitted his side “have to be creative” in finding a solution at right wing-back and a means to shackle Kylian Mbappe.
As daunting a challenge as the next week poses, Kenny insists it is one to be embraced.
“It’s a brilliant week to be involved in football”, he said, “that’s a very special week, to play France in Paris and play Holland here in front of a full house.”
Kenny also believes Ireland can catapult themselves right back into contention to qualify from the group with “one big win.” You get the sense Kenny has a deep longing to experience at least one great night as Ireland manager, as everything to now has slid along a scale from under-performance up to agonising near-miss.
“I just mean in terms of the group itself, one big win puts us right back in it with the October window, Greece at home and Gibraltar away, it puts us right back in it”, said Kenny.
“We have to try and do all we can to get that. Alright, the odds might be stacked against us, people might think that’s a challenge too far but we have got to absolutely…. the games against the top seeds have been really strong games, not trying to get moral victories but we can take comfort from the fact that all of the games have been narrowly decided.”
