Kenny confident in players' ability to adapt but radical change unlikely in Sofia

Manager Stephen Kenny speaks to his players during a Republic of Ireland training session at FAI National Training Centre in Abbotstown, Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Hope abounds as the Republic of Ireland's Nations League tie away to Bulgaria looms closer but Stephen Kenny, while embracing the pressure that comes with it, has given due notice that miracles won't be on the menu at the Vasil Levski National Stadium.

Most of the players who flew into Dublin last Sunday were meeting the new manager formally for the first time and the first training session a day later was diluted by the number of minutes banked in various Carabao Cup games and pre-season friendlies over the weekend.

Kenny has verbalised in considerable detail his determination to change the way Ireland play, and the way in which football here is viewed elsewhere, but it is a task that will go hand in hand with the need to bank results.

Progress is unlikely to be linear. There will be ups and downs, not just this week as they face Bulgaria and Finland, but further down the line when they travel to Slovakia for a Euro 2020 play-off and beyond again.

Kenny has shared his ambitions and tactical ideas with the players. The initial word is that plenty of information has been flowing from the new manager and his coaching staff but Robbie Brady was able to put all this change into a footballer's perspective.

Brady's point was that players, having played for various clubs at all sorts of levels throughout their careers, are accustomed to new managers and new ideas. Kenny is of the same view as he prepares to put out a senior Irish side for the first time tomorrow evening.

“Listen, they're all good players who are playing at a high level and they're used to changing managers and coaches at their different clubs,” the manager said from Sofia today.

“They are used to having changes within their club environment.

“This is an international environment, it's different, but they're all adaptable. Tactically, they're adaptable. They're intelligent people and they can take stuff on board.

“You're not going to radically change everything in two days, that's not realistic, but we want to play with confidence. That's important. We want to play with confidence, we want to have the balance of the team right so that we can be creative and create chances.”

Kenny hadn't picked the starting XI by the time he spoke to the Irish media remotely this morning but everyone who travelled to the Bulgarian capital yesterday is fit and available for a game that has a myriad of subplots aside from the one featuring the man in charge of the visitors.

The Nations League has yet to strike a chord with the public consciousness but win the group and Ireland would be promoted to the top tier which brings with it the chance to play some of Europe's top teams. Oh, and it is a potential avenue for a World Cup play-off spot.

“There is also the bigger picture of the Slovakia game in October with a view to that as well," Kenny added. “I can say to you that each game is in isolation and we’ll look at that when it comes.”

That includes Sunday's home tie against Finland. The need for momentum and points was reflected in his assertion that there won't necessarily be wholesale changes for that game although he is mindful that players have yet to play a competitive club game this season too.

“International football is changing and we all have to adapt. The players have to adapt because never before has there been three matches in a window and that will become the norm in the future, possibly, looking at the next two windows in October, November.

“There's speculation about that in March as well. If that is becoming more frequent, not everyone can play all of the games and that's where you definitely need your squad.

“One of the things I would say is that when we did play some 11 v 11 in training, you can see that there's not really a disparity in quality overall. We've two very competitive XIs and that's going to be important over the next year.

“Their intention is that we play a lot of games, but in order for us to do that — and when I say an amount of games, I mean a record amount of games historically — we have to be successful. We'll have to do well over the next few weeks and months, and that's what we're trying to do.”