Originally Posted by
passinginterest
Just a few general observations. While talking about a change of style and a need to play modern football, I don't think anyone was truly looking for us to be dominating possession in games against top tier sides, it's never likely to happen. The frustration with the style of play had come from successive managers who seemed to have convinced our entire squad that it was impossible for them to complete three consecutive passes, and it wasn't just agains top teams, it was against below averge and poor teams too. That approach was never going to be sustainable or have a future. Other international teams have improved so much technically, that just giving them back the ball was making it more and more difficult to be competitive, just putting them under pressure doens't work anymore, teams won't cough up the ball easily, so then you run your team into the ground chasing shadows and have nothing left by the end of games.
In the early stages, Kenny probably tried to go too far in the other direction, with always playing out from the back and taking risks that were getting punished. There's an argument to be made that it was needed in order to show the players that they could play that way, flaws and all. We then saw a bit more adaptation and some better results as the formation was tweaked and the need to sometimes just get the ball up the field quickly was acknowledged. Unfortunately, for every step forward there seems to be a step back close behind. I highlighted some of Kenny's faults before he got the job, not great on set pieces, teams vulnerable to counter attacks, slow to change things in game and the issues with an experienced Rovers squad not respecting him. Many of those issues have followed him to the senior team and as pressure has come on they've been magnified. Kenny's ace card was always going to be his under 21 side coming up with him and in particularly his forwards. The big tragedy for Kenny and for Ireland is that Idah has been an injury nightmare, Connolly seems to have self destructed and while Parrot and Obafemi have shown flashes, both have been hampered by injury and possibly attitude at time. We've never replaced Robbie Keane, and until one of those lads, or Evan Ferguson or anyone else comes through it looks like we're going to struggle to score goals. The statistics (I know, I know), have generally pointed to Kenny's team creating plenty of chances to be winning more games, but far too often not taking chances has left us drawing or losing.
The pressure on his shoulders has certainly seen the willingness to bring through more young players wane. I think we were all disappointed with how conservative the selection was for Norway and Malta. There's the counter argument that he's already capped so many players, that he needs to have some consistency going into the qualifiers. Is Mark Sykes really the answer to any of the problems in the current squad? Is Evan Ferguson even close to being ready for international football? There's an argument that neither is more than about 6th choice in their position, so barring an injury crisis, they won't be near a start in the qualifiers. Does he learn anything for giving Hendrick more time? No, but he does keep a senior squad player happy and involved. He has to try and keep the senior players on board, if he loses the likes of McClean, Hendrick, Coleman, then he has nowhere to go. Dropping Duffy probably had to happen, but that's probably already upset the apple cart a little bit, going further and he risks losing what support he might have left. Do we really have the luxury of dropping someone playing regularly at the level Hendrick is? Not forgetting that after he initially broke back into the team for Kenny he put in some solid performances.
Overall, there's no doubt Kenny has been a disappointment. I don't think there's any chance he's being sacked before the qualifiers, so I'll continue to cling onto the glimmer of hope that everything clicks, and the results suddenly follow. Unless a new manager unearths a striker or a world class midfielder, I find it hard to see a major change happening in the next two years. We're stuck in this transition phase now, with the older generation hitting retirement and a bunch of players under 23 who are showing some promise but haven't managed to set the world alight at club level yet.
Bookmarks