Soccer

Stephen Kenny sees brighter road ahead as Irish prepare for Qatar friendly

Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny hopes to break the side's winless duck against Qatar this evening
Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny hopes to break the side's winless duck against Qatar this evening Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny hopes to break the side's winless duck against Qatar this evening

International friendly: Qatar v Republic of Ireland (tonight, Nagyerdei Stadium, Hungary, 7.45)

CLEAR-HEADED, engaged and displaying the cut of a man who still has two hands firmly on the wheel. If you didn’t know any better, you’d have thought the Republic of Ireland had a couple of morale-boosting World Cup qualification points in the bank during yesterday’s press briefing with Stephen Kenny.

Speaking from Debrecen in Hungary ahead of tonight’s friendly international against Qatar, the Ireland manager’s glass wasn't feeling as half-empty as it did on Saturday night.

Over the weekend, the affable Dubliner received the firm backing of FAI officials Roy Barrett and Gerry McAnaney where talk of a contract renewal for the manager was probable, despite the Luxembourg loss.

There has been plenty of turbulence since Kenny stepped up from the U21 job, climaxing with Saturday night’s disastrous 1-0 home defeat – a result, coupled with their gutsy defeat to Serbia three nights earlier, that indicates this World Cup qualification campaign is one of a purely transitional nature.

Read More: I want to build a team that exhilarates Irish football people: Stephen Kenny

However, Kenny gently reminded reporters yesterday that there were still 18 points to play for - but with only one automatic qualification spot, it’s hard to imagine the Irish, Azerbaijan or Luxembourg finishing ahead of Group A heavyweights Serbia or Portugal.

Youth, with all its erratic tendencies, will be given its head under Kenny.

Gavin Bazunu, Dara O’Shea, Jason Knight, Josh Cullen, Jayson Molomby, Adam Idah and Troy Parrott are international rookies – but they can expect heavy investment from the senior manager over the course of this faltering qualification campaign.

“Having that exposure is going to give them great opportunity,” Kenny said of the younger members of his senior squad.

“I have made this point already: a lot of Ireland’s players are really talented, whether they become top class international players, only time will tell. You can’t be certain of all of that.

“They are going to have very, very good careers and a lot of them, I would really think, have the potential to be very good and what’s more important is that they have exceptional attitudes and are really hungry to do well.

“And they have a great leader in Seamus Coleman. He is an immense captain. They can learn a lot from him and other senior players.”

Even though Kenny would dearly love to record his first win in 11 attempts in Hungary tonight, greater emphasis will probably be on sharing out game-time among those who didn’t see a lot, if any, in Belgrade and Dublin over the last week.

That means Shane Duffy, Jeff Hendrick, Troy Parrott, Cyrus Christie, Daryl Horgan and possibly goalkeeper Keith O’Hara will see some action against 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar, who recorded friendly wins over Ireland’s Group A opponents Luxembourg (1-0) and Azerbaijan (2-1) during this international window.

The fact that no reporter mentioned the manager’s winless record yesterday might be a good omen and that the Irish players could let loose and grab a victory before meeting up for their Spanish summer camp where they’ll face Hungary and Andorra in friendly games.

But the real business resumes in September where the they face Portugal (a), Azerbaijan (h) and Serbia (h).

“[The summer camp] is an opportunity to train together, improve what we do, incorporate all our ideas in the different changes and just to have players bond and be around each other and in the proper, less chaotic environment which can be three games in six days...

"It’s not so much time on the training ground, and I think an opportunity to do that as a team and grow as a team and integrate all of the players together that we have selected with a greater idea of having a strong September.”

Kenny didn’t comment at any great length on the two top FAI officials backing him at Sunday’s EGM, and dismissed criticism from former Irish international Tony Cascarino who described the Dubliner as “tactically ignorant”.

“He’s certainly entitled to his opinion,” Kenny diplomatically said of Cascarino.

“He was a great striker for Ireland, scored lots of goals as a centre-forward for Ireland. You can judge each game differently, with different sets of circumstances.

“I thought against Serbia we were very dynamic, our front three were very dynamic in that system. Alan Browne had probably his best game, one of his best games, for Ireland.

“I think Callum Robinson’s two best games for Ireland, and I viewed the whole Euro campaign, were against Slovakia and Serbia by a distance.

“Aaron Connolly probably would have given us what we didn’t have against Luxembourg because of his different characteristics and his ability to stretch a defence, as he did against Serbia.”

The manager will be hoping some good can come out of Debrecen tonight.