STEPHEN KENNY’S PREVIOUS Nations League campaign was beset by interruptions but he hopes this year’s competition begins with another, with the prospect of water breaks in the Armenian heat tomorrow afternoon still in doubt.
Under Uefa’s rules, two water breaks at the midway point of each half are at the referee’s discretion but become mandatory when the temperature reaches 32 degrees. Kenny says he doesn’t yet know if breaks will be in place for the game, though temperatures are forecast to reach 35 degrees at the 5pm kick-off time.
The heat has been one of the primary talking points in the build up to Ireland’s opening Nations League game in Yerevan, with Kenny admitting it will force his side to compromise their approach.
“It has to be over a certain temperature to get water breaks and at the moment it’s below that. We’ll have to see on that. We’ll know that we’ll have to adapt aspects of our play. We don’t want to make it too much of a contentious issue. We’re capable of adapting and make sure we’re ready. The match isn’t at 7.45pm at night, which would be ideal, but isn’t 3pm either. We have to take the elements on and be positive in our approach.”
Kenny set his stall out for this competition before ever the draw was made, saying last year that his side’s ambition was to win the group. To do so they’ll have to address a truly appalling Nations League record: in 10 games across two campaigns, Ireland have won zero games and scored two goals. Only Northern Ireland, Iceland, Andorra and San Marino have also yet to win a game in the competition, while San Marino are the only one of the 55 competing sides to have managed fewer goals than Ireland thus far.
The best-laid plans for the second of those Nations League sojourns were smithereened by a succession of Covid cases, and Kenny forcefully rejected the relevance of that campaign at today’s pre-game press conference.
“In the previous camp we had a situation where after coming back from a Euro playoff we had to play Wales. We had a call late at night to say that five of the starting eleven couldn’t play because they were close contacts and two of the players on the plane couldn’t play. We were one of the few countries at the time that were adopting those rules on close contacts – two metres. So for two windows we nearly had minus 10 players. In difficult circumstances all of the games were either drawn or lost by a goal. The players acquitted themselves well at the time considering the circumstances.
“It’s not fair to assess that campaign at all. Completely unfair. Two windows with so many players minus for two of the windows, so it is not a fair assessment. I know people want to criticise that period and people really went after us in that period, but I think we have shown over the last year that the players have played brilliant. The Irish public really identify with this team now. It’s a new style of play, it’s a vibrant style of play, the players have been terrific.
“There is a lot of competition for places now which is very important. I think we are going to continue to improve as a team. But anything we get here out in Armenia – as they have shown with some of the results they have got – we will have to earn it and we don’t assume that we can get any. We are not a team that can assume anything. We have to earn anything we get.”
Kenny has a fully-fit squad for tomorrow’s game, with Gavin Bazunu overcoming a back issue and Josh Cullen available, his expected absence through suspension a result of an administrative error on Fifa’s part.