Kevin Kilbane: Stephen Kenny’s defence of his coaching record is not based on reality

For numerous reasons, I held fire on the Greece performance until after Gibraltar. Mainly, I wanted to take the emotion out of my commentary and create some distance before assessing Stephen Kenny’s tactical failings in Athens.

I hoped my anger would have subsided, but my blood is still boiling over Kenny’s speech last Monday.

Nobody needs to take his record at Longford Town into account. Nor do we need to recall far-flung European nights when he was Dundalk and Derry City manager. Or his decision to pick the best teenagers as Ireland under-21 manager.

As for blaming Covid for the loss to Luxembourg in an empty Aviva Stadium, let’s give everyone a pass for that weird time. And let’s move on.

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But Stephen used up all his excuses after Gibraltar. He said it was out of character to be highlighting his record. Yet he did it nonetheless.

I, me, I, me. That’s all he said. It does neither Kenny nor the players any favours in the long run ... The FAI have done him no favours either with their social media output

Come on now, we heard this line already. We heard the reasoning why he is the man for the job when last year’s World Cup campaign ran aground after two matches. Then, when the worm turned ever so slightly, he proclaimed the Nations League B group winnable, only to finish third with one decent victory over Scotland in between galling defeats to Armenia and Ukraine before the Scots had our number at Hampden Park.

Kenny’s soliloquy on Monday amounts to nothing more than gimmickry. It got right under my skin and I’ve been a supporter of his management team. Okay, fine, he feels the need to defend himself as almost everyone is talking about Lee Carsley as his successor.

But Kenny’s speech is straight from a Uefa coaching course. It is not based in reality. How to handle media 101: tell the public what you’re about. Self-promotion is self-protection.

I, me, I, me. That’s all he said. It does neither Kenny nor the players any favours in the long run.

Far too many glaring mistakes have been made. Kenny wildly contradicts what we can all see. Ireland have lost their identity on his watch yet he states that “we’ve completely transformed the way the team plays”. He is only kidding himself, having abandoned his established system at half-time against both Greece and Gibraltar.

He went all-in on Adam Idah in Athens only to have to change his mind after 45 minutes. Gus Poyet said he was ready for everything Ireland threw at Greece. Kenny needed to switch to a back four after 20 minutes. It was obvious. The back five was hemming Ireland into their own box, which meant Josh Cullen and Jayson Molumby were devoured in midfield.

Presumably, the hesitancy to match up with Greece by going to a 4-3-3 stemmed from the 10-day camp in Turkey, where the coaches worked on everything but a back four and three in midfield. The irony of this is Kenny’s club sides used to play 4-3-3.

The FAI have done him no favours either with their social media output. In my view, they have widened the gap between Kenny loyalists and non-believers by posting clips that suggest Irish football is embroiled in a possession-based revolution. Kenny leant into this idea when talking up the first two goals against Latvia last March, a worrying 3-2 win, as if they meant something. Who came up with that idea? Where was this wonderful, attack-minded ball retention at the Opap Arena?

Wake up lads.

Fans will stick with Kenny, and I love them for doing so, but they can see what is happening.

I also hear what Liam Brady is saying. There is a valid argument that this is the worst collection of Irish players since forever. I am not fully sold. Not after Jason Knight’s performance against France. Or watching Evan Ferguson’s cleverly timed runs into the six-yard box. Or Gavin Bazunu’s heroics against Serbia a while back, and in Greece.

We have the players up top and in defence but midfielders are in short supply. Burnley manager Vincent Kompany says Cullen can do it all and that he will hold his own in the Premier League as much as he dominated in the EFL Championship.

If that is true, and it might be, Cullen’s confidence has nosedived since he was named Irish player of the year for 2022. I fail to see the basic requirements that an Irish number six must possess. Never mind Brady, Johnny Giles or Roy Keane. They are legendary figures. Cullen aspires to what Mark Kinsella, Matty Holland and his current coach Keith Andrews delivered in a green shirt.

Nobody has reached the standards they set a generation ago. I feel sorry for Jeff Hendrick. He has been moved from pillar to post, never allowed to settle into his natural position. It has not worked out.

That said, the lack of movement when Nathan Collins lifts his head or Cullen endeavours to control, turn and distribute at pace brings into question whether several current players can handle the pressure that comes with international football. Besides James McClean, whose energetic performance at 34 saved Ireland from humiliation against Gibraltar, too many of the team were exposed, looking like they wanted to be anywhere but Athens or the Aviva. Too much heat.

The Greek boys sensed as much and went for the jugular. The Irish midfield was completely bypassed. Out-matched, outmanned. Molumby has a role to play for Ireland going forward and there is credit in the bank from the French game but he does struggle at this level.

There is no legitimate excuse for not qualifying for a 24-team European Championships

We are so used to seeing Man City pair Rodri and Ilkay Gündoğan taking the ball and moving it swiftly up the pitch. That was Andrews’s first instinct as a player so I know he is coaching the same fundamentals.

Molumby is not alone and if Kenny had copped on in time and matched up his West Brom, Burnley and Derby County (Knight) midfield trio, they could have broken even with counterparts from AEK Athens, Panathinaikos and Trabzonspor, the club of Anastasios Bakasetas. Instead, the Greece captain was made to look like a Ballon d’Or contender.

Andrews is a brilliant thinker on the game. He challenges people to be better technically. As a player he was always demanding the ball, so much so that you’d miss him when he was not there.

I presume Will Smallbone’s set-piece expertise made his selection a calculated risk. Unfortunately, it did not pay off. The Irish middle was swamped.

I know a little about playing left wing back. I’d go so far to suggest that it was my best position, rather than winger, centre mid or fullback. Steve Staunton even put me into centre half when Ian Harte replaced Gary Breen against Chile at Lansdowne Road in 2006 and, thanks to Richard Dunne, it went well. I knew if I stayed connected to Dunney the house wouldn’t be burgled.

Dunne rarely spoke on the pitch but if you followed his lead you would do just fine. Beside Richard, the wing back or fullback had a simple task. Stay a yard ahead and to his left. And keep your head on swivel.

Callum O’Dowda is no fullback. Never has been. And he lacked a Dunne-type figure to cover him in Athens.

It cost Ireland so, so much. I blame the manager for deeming it sensible to allow O’Dowda play left wing back beside Darragh Lenihan. Now, I’ve seen Lenihan perform well for Middlesbrough this season and with Seámus Coleman, Andrew Omobamidele and Dara O’Shea unfit to start, he earned his fifth cap at 29 years old, but the left side of Ireland’s back five was exposed by Bakasetas and Giorgos Masouras for Greece’s killer second goal.

I remember how deep the cut goes after a night like Athens. It leaves a psychological scar that never fully heals. As should that first half against Gibraltar. Well, it does if you truly care about representing your country.

Carsley’s name has been doing the rounds. I’ve no inside information but I can say he is ready to become a senior manager after 10 years learning his trade.

Carsley can coach for the rest of his days because of the foundations he laid before taking a big job. Starting at Coventry City as player coach, he honed his craft at Brentford, Birmingham City and the FA underage ranks before a stint under Pep Guardiola at the Man City academy led him back into England’s underage structures.

To my mind his coaching path is the opposite of those of Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard. Perhaps he knows the modern game will expose a coach who has not done the work.

The FAI could do a lot worse, especially if Greece has proved one defeat too many for the board to stomach. I’m sure the passion and organisation Ireland showed in the 1-0 defeat to France can be replicated against the Dutch in September but who honestly believes we can secure results at home to Greece and in Amsterdam? We need seven points from those three games. Minimum.

There is no legitimate excuse for not qualifying for a 24-team European Championships. Carsley is the ideal candidate to become Ireland manager but the same problems encountered by Kenny and Andrews will land at his door. I think he is equipped to solve them. It starts in midfield.