Cullen: We’re all striving to turn positive performances into wins

Ireland midfielder Josh Cullen insists the FAI’s long search for Stephen Kenny’s successor hasn’t affected the team and trusts the association to announce the right man for the job next month.

The FAI had hoped to have a new head coach in place by the Nations League draw at the start of February, but that failed to come to pass before director of football Marc Canham confirmed around three weeks ago that their chosen one will be announced in early April.

Ireland centurion John O’Shea has been entrusted with the interim role for this month’s window, which began with a scoreless draw against a weakened Belgium side at the Aviva Stadium.

With the announcement of the new permanent head coach just around the corner, once the friendly with Switzerland is out of the way, Cullen insists the players will give everything to the cause regardless of who assumes the hot seat.

“Listen, I don’t know who the new manager is going to be, just to clear that up. But a new manager is going to come in with fresh ideas. We have to trust the people that make the decisions,” said Cullen, after picking up the man-of-the-match award.

“I’m sure they’ll bring in a manager who wants to play in a good fashion for Ireland, who wants to win games and qualify for tournaments and that’s what we all want. Whoever comes in, we’ve got a group of players that will buy into ideas and like you saw against Belgium, will do everything in their power to fight for a result and play for the manager.”

The Burnley midfielder says he has been impressed with O’Shea’s interim backroom team, with the likes of Glenn Whelan and Paddy McCarthy assisting this month, while he also revealed that a 20-minute speech from ex-Ireland boss Brian Kerr on Friday night went down a treat with the squad.

“They were brilliant. I can’t speak highly enough of them. The way they’ve come in, the atmosphere they’ve created around the place, the detail they’ve gone into in such a short period of time to prepare us for the game, it’s been absolutely brilliant,” said the 27-year-old.

“It’s been great having someone like him (Kerr) who’s been around the game for a very long time, coached at a lot of different levels. For him to speak to us on Friday night was really good. He had the group interested. There’s a lot of things in that little talk that as a group, we can hold onto and use to our advantage.”

Ireland may have kicked 2024 off with a win had Evan Ferguson’s firsthalf penalty not been saved, while the hosts enjoyed the better chances against the world’s fourth-best side and Cullen feels there were positives to take from the Lansdowne Road draw.

“I think we can be pleased with a lot of aspects to the performance,” he added.

“First half we had the penalty miss and a couple of other good chances, I thought we were really good in the first half that led to Belgium changing shape. Second half, at times we had to suffer a bit but when you’re playing against teams the calibre of Belgium you are going to have to expect that.

“We’re always learning. Under the previous management we did a lot of good work and a lot of credit had to go to them for that period and the transition, bringing a lot of new players into the squad. A lot of the work they did has stood us in good stead for this week.

“We have been in tight matches and come out on the wrong side of results. It’s a stepping stone here. By the time the Nations League comes around that will be important. The next step is turning positive performances into winning games. We’ll keep striving to do that.”