Brian Kerr: Stephen Kenny's record would get any Ireland manager sacked

Kerr stuck to his trend of highlighting the scarcity of results during this three-year regime.

Brian Kerr on Virgin Media 

Brian Kerr believes any previous Ireland manager apart from current supremo Stephen Kenny would be sacked by now for his abysmal record.

Friday’s 2-1 defeat to Greece left Ireland with zero points after two qualifiers of their European series, mirroring Kenny’s ignominious record of losing the first pair of matches in his previous two campaigns.

Overall, the 51-year-old has suffered defeat in the majority (12) of his 23 competitive matches in charge, raising major question marks over his job security.

While ex-Ireland defender Damien Delaney contended the FAI must immediately change manager as Kenny is ‘out of his depth’, his fellow Virgin Media pundit Kerr stopped short of seeking a cull.

Still, his critique about selection, preparation and tactical naivety in Athens must sting and he stuck to his trend of highlighting the scarcity of results during this three-year regime.

“Numerous things went wrong,” began Kerr, who won European gold and World bronze with Ireland’s youth teams before elevation to the senior post in 2003 and a stint at the Faroe Islands.

“Managers are paid to get selection right at the start and ensure the tactics are correct for the game. They must find a way to get results irrespective of what players you have available.

“I felt from the start, Stephen got the selection wrong.

“Whatever about team shape because they’ve stuck with that since Anthony Barry went in, but Callum O’Dowda at left back really struggled. He’s a right winger playing left wing back and was poor.

“I thought Darragh Lenihan was poor at cente-back, picked ahead of Dara O’Shea.

“The other options for left back were James McClean and Ryan Manning, though I think he was injured.

“Then into the middle, he went for Will Smallbone, a young player from the Under-21 and he wasn’t up to it. He didn’t seem to understand his role.

“I know he did well in the March friendly but you (presenter Tommy Martin) or I would have done well against Latvia Tommy because they were one of the poorest teams I’ve seen in Dublin.

“We shouldn’t be measuring against the likes of Malta, Andorra, Latvia and Lithuania. They’re the teams we played in friendlies.

“With due respect to Adam Idah and his potential, and has scored the occasional goal for Norwich, has not proved to be up to international standard. The ball came off him too frequently last night.

“Everything was wrong and they were outplayed.

“We didn’t seem to understand that Greece would play 4-3-3 with the full-backs advancing. It was almost a surprise that Kostas Tsimikas was getting up the left side.

“The actual performance of players looked tired and unready for the occasion.” In that respect, Kerr wondered where the value for money was within the extensive build-up which began at Bristol City last month. He doesn’t share Liam Brady’s view that the standard of player – considered the worst in his lifetime – is an excuse for the malaise.

“He’s had the worst set of results for an Ireland manager and yet it’s been non-stop support from the association,” Kerr noted about FAI backing, led by loyal Chairman Roy Barrett.

“They had four days in Bristol, nine days in Turkey to acclimatise with 25 players and 19 staff.

“It’s unprecedented for an Irish manager to receive that level of support, in terms of resources and (tolerating) the results.

“This is an association that’s crying out for money yet massive money is spent here.

“He’s not getting the job done, winning only four in 23 competitive matches and 12 defeats.

“We’ve been out of the last three tournaments after two games.

“Now we’ve another group where it’s been said that we must be in contention for the latter stage but they’ve lost the firs there.

“There was an acceptance against France, we’re unlikely to get something from it. That was a decent performance on the back foot.

“Our manager's aim of winning the Nations League group got us nowhere. The aim was to qualify for the Euros and, despite the tough draw, we would’ve expected going to Greece with all that preparation and investment to at least play well.

“The wrong players were playing and those on the pitch couldn’t do the job asked of them.

“Greece had been doing well in the lower section of the Nations League under Gus Poyet but the Faroes beat them home and away not so long ago.

“Whatever players you have, you’ve to set them up, knowing their ability. You organize them tactically. That’s the job of the managers, to gain knowledge of the players. Stephen and his numerous staff obviously go around watching players so he’s entitled to pick who he wants. But they must deliver on a regular basis – something they haven’t done.”