Luck of the Irish is in short supply for boss
IF STEPHEN Kenny didn’t have bad luck he’d have no luck at all.
The Republic of Ireland manager has had a tumultuous time of it since stepping into the breach, and off-field events certainly haven’t helped him in his quest to prove the doubters wrong.
In the minds of quite a few supporters, the only positives, false or otherwise, coming from the Republic of Ireland camp appear to be from Covid-19 tests.
Some of the nay-sayers might insist he was lucky to get the job in the first place, but in my view he definitely deserved his chance, and it’s not all as bad as the doom and gloom merchants would have you believe.
For starters, at least the Irish players are managing to string passes together, probably more in his four games in charge than under the tenures of Mick McCarthy mark two, Martin O’Neill and Giovanni Trapattoni combined.
Okay, that might be stretching the truth ever so slightly, but you know what I mean, and with players like Jayson Molumby looking comfortable and confident on the ball, there’s green shoots there to be nourished.
Now you might say, what use is it having plenty of possession if you can’t put the ball in the back of the net, and justifiably so, but that’s something you’d hope will come with the most precious of commodities, time.
David McGoldrick has been excellent for Ireland since his late arrival to the party, and was impressive again versus Slovakia on Thursday, but despite his tireless workrate and quality hold up play, he’s never going to be a regular scorer for the Boys in Green.
Similarly, despite scoring one of Ireland’s most memorable goals, when we toppled then world champions Germany, Shane Long also struggles to put the ball in the net, although he always gives his all for the cause.
We’ll just have to hope that the hype surrounding Troy Parrott comes to fruition in the coming years.
It’s unlikely that we’ll ever have another finisher of the calibre of Robbie Keane in our ranks, but if we could unearth a striker that could score even half the goals the Tallaght man got, we’d be doing okay.
Having a goal-scoring department as understocked as a bread aisle with a threat of lockdown hanging over us has been a problem for Ireland long before Kenny took his place in the hot seat, even struggling to net against minnows like Gibraltar under Mick McCarthy in qualifying.
It’s not a new issue so there won’t be a quick fix, although it is painful to think that if we had that killer instinct in front of goal we would be looking forward to
a match against Northern Ireland that could earn our place at next summer’s European Championships, instead of licking our wounds after a heartbreaking penalty shoot-out defeat.
The bizarre circumstances that saw Kenny robbed of the services of Adam Idah and Aaron Connolly for the crunch play-off was a real kick in the teeth for the fledgling international boss, and in hindsight it’s easy to envisage how that duo could have made a world of difference against what was, in truth, an
average Slovakia side.
To then lose five players for the Nations League match with Wales must have been a dagger into an already hurting heart for the Ireland boss, and if he doesn’t soon see an upturn in fortunes his hair could be thinner than the squad he was forced to choose from on Sunday.
Hopefully the hours leading up to Wednesday night’s game against Finland will run more smoothly for Kenny and co., although the way things have been going it wouldn’t be surprising if
an asteroid hit the team bus on the way to the ground and they’re forced to walk to the stadium.
I’m sure there’s been a few times already in Kenny’s short and turbulent tenure that he has wished the ground would just open up and swallow him.
Simple things like switching seats on a plane have already dramatically changed fortunes for the Ireland manager, so hopefully next time fate will deal him a favourable hand.
How’s your luck, Stephen?