Time for Kerr to take a little blame
.................................................. ...............................
Never slow in coming forward when there’s praise to be dished his way, Brian Kerr is something of a shrinking violet when the blame game starts – especially when the fingers rightly point in his direction.
Unsurprisingly, Kerr was quick to deflect any criticism laid at his door in his post match comments following the unholy surrender in the Holy Land. After taking an early lead, Ireland’s collective decision to sit on that slender and tenuous lead had nothing to do with him he claimed. In fact, at half time, he even told the players to go out and get number two – kill the game.
Clearly, reading between the lines, the team were unable to execute his orders – and so, the concession of a late goal was their fault – and not his. Surprise, surprise! So much for the buck stopping with him – so much for collective responsibility.
OK, once the game is afoot, the opportunities for a manager to affect the course of a game are limited. But that doesn’t mean he can abdicate all responsibility. If Kerr did indeed tell his players to go for it – then questions must be raised about the fact that his team did more or less the opposite, getting their just reward.
Kerr is ostensibly a defensive coach. His team selection for the game bore this theory out. Dropping the increasingly influential Reid for Finnan is proof positive. Failure to bring on Reid in the second half – a clear statement of intent. Kerr may claim that he sent out a positive message at the break – but actions speak louder than words. And it’s Kerr’s deeds rather than his words that seem to influence this team.
You may think this a little harsh – but this isn’t the first time this has happened in this campaign. Saturday’s debacle was almost a carbon copy of the Swiss game in Basel at the start of the qualifying tournament. In that instance, we again failed to capitalise on an early Morrison goal – withdrawing into our shell, and escaping luckily with another draw.
On the surface, points garnered in Tel Aviv and Switzerland are valuable. But having been in winning positions in both instances has devalued our haul. Automatic qualification would almost be guaranteed had we prevailed in both instances. Instead, we left our rivals off the hook – and have left ourselves embroiled in a dog fight.
Failure to capitalise once might be seen as unfortunate, failing to do it twice is downright Kerrless. If the manager goes on burying his head in the sand and continues his Houllier style conservatism, then qualification could slip through our fingers. But if he learns from his mistakes – and he must be allowed to do so – then he will rightly get the praise he craves by taking us to Germany.
