Devastated Stephen Kenny not worried about his job

Ireland boss takes responsibility for changing the team's system

 Ireland Manager Stephen Kenny dejected at the end of the game

Stephen Kenny insists he is not concerned about his job after Luxembourg extended his winless run to 10 games by recording a 1-0 victory in Dublin.

Ireland are effectively out of contention to reach next year’s World Cup after the fourth seeds compounded Wednesday’s loss in Serbia by leaving Kenny’s side with a long wait until September’s visit to European champions Portugal.

Asked whether he would be allowed to complete his project to overhaul the perception of Irish football, Kenny demurred: “That’s not even a question, I'm not even concerned about that at the minute.

“I’m concerned that we had a really poor result.

“I take responsibility for changing the system against Serbia and I take responsibility for the whole thing.

“The players are a lot better than they showed in that match. It was chalk and cheese from the performance in Serbia.” 

As part of the succession plan hatched by John Delaney in November 2018, Mick McCarthy was due to complete the European Championship campaign but the new FAI regime made an early call, thereby giving Kenny the Euro play-off on top of the Nations League and World Cup campaigns.

After this embarrassing defeat, Ireland’s participation in all three is realistically over in the space of six months.

“Well, I think it’s too early to say that,” Kenny said about Ireland being out of the equation to challenge Serbia and Portugal for a top-two finish.

“There’s not getting away from it being a terrible result. Tonight’s result is absolutely unacceptable.

“Luxembourg had a game-plan and we didn’t underestimate them. We lacked pace in key areas and didn’t stretch them at all.

“We wanted our front players receiving the ball into feet and overall our passing was inconsistent.

“When we did get chances, the four decent ones, we lacked composure but we should be creating more than that. We have to accept the criticism that comes our way.”

Speaking over an hour later in the main press conference, Kenny reiterated the fact that there had been no question of complacency on the Republic’s part against a side that had posted improving results in recent years.

“We knew Luxembourg had pushed Ukraine tight last year, they'd done well and taken points in the Nations League. We weren't complacent in any way but it ended up being an even match, which was very disappointing.

“We had more of the play. We thought James (Collins) had scored, it would have been an outstanding team goal, but we didn't create enough in that period, to be honest. We're quite disappointed with that, very disappointed, to say the least.” 

Kenny’s match programme notes reinforced his ambition to make Ireland a “progressive football nation” so it wasn’t a surprise when he was asked if something was being lost in translation with the players.

“We played really well in Serbia, an exceptional display. We probably deserved to come out with a point. We matched them over the 90 minutes in terms of how we played. Today was certainly a step back.

“What it showed me today — I'm not making excuses at all — but a lot of players struggled with the physical capacity of trying to play two games in three days. A lot of them haven't played in a while for their clubs and that was very evident.

“It wasn't their psychological preparation or their determination. They all love playing for their country and wanted to do better than they did but some players struggled to get any where near to where they were the other night.” 

He was also asked again about his position as manager and whether he was concerned that it could be under threat after such a poor display and a tenth game without a win.

“No, I don't. No,” he said.