Ireland boss Stephen Kenny has hit back at criticism surrounding his team’s performances in the wake of Saturday’s disappointing 1-1 draw with Azerbaijan at the Aviva Stadium.
A Shane Duffy goal helped the men in green register their first point in their World Cup qualifying campaign.
The team have been on the receiving end of strong criticism since Saturday’s game, with former Ireland manager Brian Kerr lamenting: "The progress is not at the pace that we were told it might be from the beginning."
In the pre-match press conference ahead of Tuesday’s home game against Serbia, Kenny took the opportunity to respond to some of the flak levelled at his team in recent days:
“Bar the Luxembourg game, which we were very disappointed by, our performances during this campaign have been good overall,” Kenny said.
“With Portugal and Serbia in the group, and the spine being ripped out of the team, and us not having qualified for the World Cup since 2002, did anyone think that we were favourites to qualify, or that we should qualify?”
“We certainly have a plan in place. I’ve taken the decision, rightly or wrongly, that we would build this squad to be a really, really competitive team to qualify for Germany 2024.”
“We went very close to winning against Serbia and winning against Portugal away from home; we scored the first goal in both games, with brilliant football in both games.”
“Last weekend against Azerbaijan was a good occasion; the supporters were brilliant, we started brilliantly, but couldn’t get that goal.”
“They scored a goal from 25 yards, defended deep; we threw the kitchen sink at them, had so many shots on goal, and we missed the target - our finishing could’ve been a lot better, we’ve only ourselves to blame for that.”
Kenny: "We're trying to build something"
Kenny added that, while external sources have raised doubts about the feasibility of his approach, those within the Ireland setup still have confidence in the game plan:
“I think there’s real progress overall, to be honest,” Kenny said. “That’s the way I see it, and that’s the way my staff see it, and all the coaches see it, and there’s a lot of people behind it.”
“There’s a lot of people who aren’t, who say ‘that’s not your job, to develop the game here. Win the next match - that’s your job’.”
“That kind of nearsightedness doesn’t create anything - you might beat the teams you shouldn’t beat, but you’ll never beat the teams that you can strive to beat - so you’re trying to build something that can be tangible over a period of time and that can be successful, and that’s the way I see it.”
OTB will have live commentary on Tuesday night as Ireland take on Serbia in the Aviva Stadium.
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