Stephen Kenny wins vote of confidence after positive performance

The good news for Stephen Kenny on a night of bitter disappointment fused with undeniable positives is that it should not get any more difficult

Tue, 28 Mar, 2023 - 08:00

Alan Smith

The good news for Stephen Kenny on a night of bitter disappointment fused with undeniable positives is that it should not get any more difficult. Yet for all the green shoots on display, the result was still a cruel blow against the most talented team in Europe, arguably the world.

There was a twisted irony to Benjamin Pavard’s goal coming from a mistake by Josh Cullen that would not have occurred in the previous eras of getting rid at first opportunity. But it was also a reminder that, no matter the style of play or best intentions, errant passes in the defensive third will be punished more often than not when up against the true elite.

It was a cruel lesson on a night when several of the lessons already learnt by Kenny’s youthful squad passed their examinations.

This, to introduce a significant caveat, was not France at their most fluid best. They were pedestrian for prolonged periods and you sense that if the game remained scoreless entering the final 20 minutes, Didier Deschamps' team would have moved up a couple of gears.

But equally Ireland were confident enough in their own skin to contribute to their visitors’ relative mediocrity. Mbappe spent most of his evening on the fringes, quietened by Seamus Coleman rolling back the years with a committed, tireless performance. The captain’s pace may have long evaded him but his knowhow in front of Nathan Collins kept the superstar quiet.

Olivier Giroud did not have a sniff up against John Egan, who was flanked by a pairing in Dara O’Shea and Collins that performed with a maturity that belied their experience.

In midfield, save for Cullen’s unfortunate gift of possession, a trio of Championship and League One players were not daunted by Champions League winners and La Liga title holders.

Kenny had called on his team to show “fire and ice” against the World Cup finalists. In other words, high energy combined with composure. The manager’s pre-match logic was that if Ireland were to take a defensive approach it would result in “a slow death.” They would absorb a certain amount of pressure before eventually, inevitably succumbing to their opponents’ superiority.

So he wanted Ireland to stick with his formula of playing the Right Way. To be brave and not fall into the habits of previous generations when it came to facing one of the big guns.

They did try to play and courageousness was evident throughout. That said, for long periods, especially in the first half, Ireland were also sitting back in numbers before driving forward. More often than Kenny would have liked, they went long in the opening 45 minutes but when the illustrious opposition are being kept at arm’s length there was absolutely nothing to feel ashamed about when watching a momentary shift towards directness.

After all, even Argentina, a team featuring the greatest player of all time, showed the importance of adapting their shape in an attempt to nullify France’s strengths in December’s World Cup final.

And it wasn’t all reminders of the past from Ireland. There were clear examples of bravery. Such as when Collins drove forward half an hour in and, after laying off possession, continued to charge up field. Or when Jayson Molumby sought to find a pass on the deck nearing the interval instead of sending a hopeful punt forward that so often ends up being a hopeless cause for the lone striker.

The encouraging roars that greeted those moments represented clear recognition of an era that retains a strange sort of newness even if this is the campaign that will ultimately judge whether it has been a success or not.

The greatest complaint, aside from Cullen’s single lapse, was that little was created in open play until the final ten minutes. And, without labouring on a tendency to hark back to the past, even in the conservative days of old Ireland have almost always been able to muster up spells like that.

Until that late flurry the home side's biggest threat remained from set pieces - the deliveries of Cullen causing at least a mild degree of discomfort in Les Bleus’ defence - and Evan Ferguson was a peripheral figure for his 65 minutes before being substituted for Adam Idah.

But was thin gruel going forward not inevitable considering the quality of opposition, irrespective of their own lack of attacking stardust?

As far as reaching next summer’s tournament goes, this result was never going to be the end game. Ireland were always destined to be the unfancied contestant in a fight for second and the autumn games against a Netherlands team battered by Les Bleus’ last week will be defining.

On the presumption that enough points can be accumulated versus Greece and Gibraltar, of course. That malady of suffering from inexplicable lapses in concentration that undoes so much of Ireland’s good work must be cured and the searing heat of Athens in June may not be the most forgiving climate to maintain focus.

But it would be overly pessimistic to focus too much on that right now because this performance, despite the result, was a vote of confidence for a manager who may be three years into his job but still finds every single international window is a referendum.