UEFA Nations League Group B1: Republic of Ireland v Scotland (Aviva Stadium, Dublin, 5pm)
THE dreaded cliff edge always seems to be near. Towards the end of his reign, Martin O’Neill teetered on the brink for a bit too long before the inevitable occurred.
Stop-gap boss Mick McCarthy wasn’t around long enough but, to varying degrees, the cliff edge has been in full view ever since Stephen Kenny took charge during the global pandemic.
How near to the cliff edge he’s actually been is up for debate, given that COVID effectively wrecked his first season in charge.
Before the two 1-0 losses to Armenia and Ukraine over the last week, the Republic were unbeaten in eight games.
Things looked decidedly brighter then. But, with international football, the mood can change in an instant.
There has always been staunch buy-in from Irish fans, evidenced by the overwhelming support in the Aviva Stadium on match-days, and during that unbeaten run the manager’s critics in the media had also quietened.
Until, of course, the events of Yerevan and to a lesser degree Dublin on Wednesday night.
So, here we are again, not exactly on the cusp of the perilous cliff edge, but inching towards it.
It is how an international manager's existence is.
Under slightly overcast skies in the capital this evening, the affable Dubliner will take charge of his 25th senior game against Scotland – Ireland’s third Nations League group game.
They’re still winless in the relatively new competition across two campaigns – one under O’Neill and one-and-a-bit under Kenny.
In 11 home games during Kenny's reign, the Republic have mustered just nine goals, four of which came against minnows Qatar and they’ve drawn a blank on six other occasions at the Aviva.
Another scoreless performance tonight would do the manager no favours.
Asked if he was tempted to tweak Ireland’s style to try and create more chances, Kenny replied: “No. We had a situation where we had one defeat in 12 up to last weekend and I spoke about all the goals we scored and the progress that we made.
“This has been a setback in the last week but we must press on again. Look to improve and certainly that is what we must look to do.”
Kenny did acknowledge that his side needed to be more “ruthless” and that the “level of creativity in front of goal” must be better.
To engineer more chances against the Scots, who banked the three points with a home win over Armenia on Wednesday night, Kenny is putting his trust in fresh legs to give the Republic more impetus as they go in search of that first elusive win.
“I think that both teams struggled to create clear cut chances the other night, we probably had more than Ukraine. We definitely had more against Armenia.
“Yes, we created quite a few chances in the first half in Armenia, and didn't take them. We were disappointed in the last half hour in Armenia with the amount of possession that we had regarding goal-scoring opportunities.
“Listen, we're not far wrong. We conceded [against Ukraine] from right on the touchline that took a horrific bounce and went into the far corner… [But] there will be freshness and fresh impetus in our forward line going into the game tomorrow for sure.”
Callum Robinson’s position could be under threat after two disappointing displays in the last week with Michael Obafemi looking favourite to win a starting berth after impressing from the bench against Ukraine in mid-week.
James McClean, Alan Browne and Conor Hourihane must be close to starts too as Kenny plans to shuffle his midfield options for tonight’s tie - but the manager keenly rejected the charge that his central midfielders had been over-run in the last two games.
“To be honest with you, our midfield overall has been performing very well. It is not so much three against two; sometimes we can create four against three, depending on the game itself...
“It’s not so much just the system in place, it is how we utilise the players and sometimes our wing backs can invert and overload the midfield, sometimes our number 10 can drop into midfield and overload.
“It is not just simple mathematics… Josh Cullen and Jeff Hendrick have performed well for us over the last number of windows but that’s not to say we won't freshen things up tomorrow, because we do need fresh legs after those games.”
