Squad full of genuine leadership

BY

STEPHEN KENNY believes Ireland are well served for leaders – now and into the future.

Skipper Seamus Coleman (below) is not in this squad as he continues to recover from a hamstring injury.

John Egan is expected to be the stand-in captain but Kenny feels there are inspirational characters throughout the squad.

He said: “There are a lot of emerging leaders coming through in the group. Nathan Collins is one of those, Dara O’shea, Gavin Bazunu. Jayson Molumby has a different type of leadership.

“They can learn from the senior players like John Egan, Seamus Coleman and Shane Duffy.

“Seamus is a brilliant captain. They need to learn a lot from those players.

“I’m not saying that they’re all mature. They’re not, but there’s different individuals emerging who will take up the mantle in the future.

“And people talk about the three goalkeepers but we’ve three emerging centre-backs in Dara, Nathan and Andrew Omobamidele. They all have a lot of potential.”

Omobamidele was superb on his debut in Portugal when replacing O’shea after his serious ankle injury during the first-half.

And while he sat out the Azerbaijan game, the 19-year-old starred against Serbia on his first start days later.

And the Norwich City centre-back is expected to start in Baku tonight alongside Duffy and Egan in a 3-4-2-1 formation.

Kenny said: “Andrew has done very well. He played well against Arsenal at the Emirates. He came out of the international and they put him straight into the starting team.

“Obviously, they signed the Schalke defender who was at Liverpool last season (Ozan Kabak), so he lost his place.”