Context is key when measuring Kenny progress
Before last nights game, motives of fans in attendance were questioned, perhaps unfairly. I was fairly vocal towards those who were honest about wanting to see Ronaldo in the flesh. I must admit, I was a bit starstruck momentarily. It was the 5th time I had seen him live and 2nd in Dublin. being half Portuguese, I have always felt an affiliation with Ronaldo and the Portuguese team. However I felt my mindset in the buildup to the game more orientated towards how Ireland would fare.
The Green Machine team assembled in the Irishtown House before the game for a few sherbets. 0–0 was the general consensus amongst us, a 0–0 victory. Dead rubbers say a lot about teams, especially when they are facing a side who needs a win. You could tell that the Irish lads were playing for Stephen Kenny and most importantly, the first sellout crowd in many years. In a generally sloppy affair, Portugal who really needed a victory to clear Serbia never got out of first gear.
We have always stifled the ‘big’ teams. The difference last night was that there was more purpose and confidence. We tried to knock the ball around rather than hoofing it and when we did hoof it, it was with intent and structure rather than a means of solely relieving pressure. If I was to make one observation on Stephen Kenny’s selection, it would be that Jamie McGrath probably should have played more centrally forming a trio with Jeff Hendrick and Josh Cullen. I feel we may have had more time on the ball in midfield and that a striking duo of Robinson and Ogbene would have been less isolated with their mutual support.
I watch Portugal regularly and they were poor by normal standards. There was evidence Fernando Santos wanted to avoid suspensions but Portugal’s second choice players are still the envy of most European nations. What impressed me the most about last nights performance was the confidence of players who probably shouldn’t be confident in such a scenario, and that is down to Kenny’s man management. For example, Gavin Bazunu and Chiedoze Ogbene are both playing in League 1 yet were two of the best performers on the entire pitch. Jeff Hendrick and Matt Doherty hardly play but were prepared to take chances and take it to Ronaldo and co. Callum Robinson who has hit a really poor streak for West Brom was man of the match and Jamie McGrath of St.Mirren who lie 8th in the SPL looked like a seasoned pro at international level.
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It is this ability to get the best out of limited resources that has impressed me greatly about Stephen Kenny. This is exactly what every Irish team has needed for the past decade or so. What has also impressed me is Kenny’s ruthlessness in selection, the achilles heal of the three Irish managers. Kenny was big enough to drop his ‘favourites’ James McClean, Alan Browne and Adam Idah. There is an unpredictability about Ireland which has made us harder to plan against. I firmly believe that the ease many teams played against us in recent years has been down to consistent selections and tactics from past regimes with very little plan B. Kenny and to his credit Anthony Barry seem to be fluid in their game plans and understand the importance of selecting the correct individuals rather than their or the fans favourites.
The most important aspect of last nights game was the clear evidence of progress from March for both Kenny and his team. The style of play has been evident for a long time but the end product was certainly lacking. I feel that this was also partly a hangover of the O’Neill and McCarthy eras where even a shot on target was an achievement, now we don’t even bat an eyelid. We had the same amount of shots as Portugal last night which seemed a far cry in March. Things are starting to tick more and in every game something else seems to click into place. Some of these things are subtle but even the fact we kept Portugal and more specifically Ronaldo out in stoppage shows progress.
Context is key, especially for some lazy opinionated fans who think we should be beyond our current scenario. For the first time in decades, we have several third tier players representing us and yet we have managed to draw with Serbia and Portugal. The last set of games also signalled a thumping of a side who don’t concede many in Azerbaijan (the floodgates have opened a bit for them I must admit!) and the Asian Champions Qatar. Only a few months ago we lost to a Luxembourg side who it is worth mentioning have three champions league representatives compared to our one so two convincing victories and two clean sheets is again, progress.
Kenny has steadied his own ship that many feel another manager should have been tasked with doing. He is a philosophical and most importantly reflective manager which is bound to rub off on his players. Like the best managers, mistakes will happen, for example bringing on James McClean last night sucked momentum out of the left hand side but it was nothing detrimental. Kenny will note this and build. He is doing an extraordinary job with a squad some players lacking any major domestic gamete, some players only fresh to senior football at any level and some players operating at a level where international footballers are few and far between. I often wonder what manager would do a better job in trying to upturn fortunes under immense pressure while introducing youth in tandem with this.
Sport is momentum and Stephen Kenny has created momentum out of what seemed like the point of no return. His overall contributions to this Irish team is nothing short of invaluable and we need to take a step back, look at what we have and look at sides stronger than us struggling just to see how much worse off we could and probably should be.
Nick of The Green Machine Podcast
