UEFA Nations League Group Eight: Bulgaria v Republic of Ireland (tonight, Sofia, 7.45pm Irish time)
STEPHEN Kenny has given himself and his Republic of Ireland team one hell of a drum-roll ahead of tonight’s opening Nations League clash with Bulgaria.
Approaching his managerial debut with the senior team, Kenny has certainly not shied away from his purist beliefs.
In the last couple of press briefings with the new Ireland manager, expectations have been well and truly let off the leash.
Kenny has spoken of his impatience for the team to be an immediate success and how he wants to change the worldview of Irish international teams.
In short, Kenny believes there’s another way to win football matches – a more aesthetically pleasing, effective path to victory than what has gone before.
Speaking to reporters from Sofia via a zoom call yesterday morning, Kenny didn’t feel under any extra pressure because of his stated objectives as senior manager.
“Sometimes I answer questions too honestly but it’s not a deliberate strategy,” Kenny admitted.
“Maybe it's not wise, maybe other people are wiser than me, you know. But I do believe that we have a lot of potential coming through the ranks, I think we've got a lot of good players, exciting players, exciting attacking players coming through.
“I think we have a lot of good players in the squad already before I was appointed in the existing squad and I think it's a huge honour really to manage this group, a huge privilege. We want to do the best that we can.”
After years of a staunchly held conservative belief system surrounding successive Republic of Ireland teams, Martin O’Neill, Giovanni Trapattoni and Mick McCarthy would undoubtedly wince reading Kenny’s audacious assessment of the nation's finest.
It is no surprise Kenny’s first senior international squad has a generous sprinkling of his U21 stars including Norwich City’s Adam Idah, Brighton & Hove Albion pair Aaron Connolly and Jayson Molumby while highly-rated striker Troy Parrott was forced to pull out due to injury.
All three can be hopeful of some game-time in Sofia this evening with 19-year-old striker Idah already being touted as Ireland’s answer to their goal-scoring woes.
Kenny hopes to breathe new life into Jeff Hendrick and Harry Arter’s stuttering international careers, while the Irish defence looks the more settled unit of the side, although it remains to be seen how the manager accommodates Seamus Coleman and Matt Doherty in the starting line-up.
The Republic defeated tonight’s hosts 3-1 a year ago in a friendly in Dublin and with the Nations League game being played behind closed doors in the Bulgarian capital, Kenny can expect to take something from the tie.
Bulgaria finished just above bottom-placed Montenegro in their Euro 2020 qualification campaign – conceding 10 goals in two games against group winners England - and suffered a home defeat to Belarus in a friendly just before lockdown.
Kenny has viewed footage of Bulgaria's recent displays but is concentrating on the strengths of his own squad ahead of his senior debut.
“The most impressive thing is the attitude of the players,” Kenny remarked yesterday.
“We were restricted with how we could train, because of our training loads. Some of the players played Carabao Cup on Saturday and a good few of the players played 90 minutes in friendlies.
“So you can’t do a heavy load with those players on the Monday because they’re certainly not going to be ready to train on Tuesday and peak on Thursday.
“But all the players have done well in training. The stand-out thing that all the coaching staff has commented on is the attitude of the players which has been nothing short of brilliant. The intensity of the 11 v 11 game we had yesterday was off the charts, it was really high effort from all of the players.”
With Euro 2021 semi-final play-off opponents Slovakia lurking just over the horizon next month, Kenny will want to breathe early momentum into the squad starting in Sofia tonight.
