World Cup 2022 Qualifying: Serbia v Ireland Preview
The Boys In Green had a tough 2020, but a new campaign offers renewed hope.
Stephen Kenny’s reign as Republic of Ireland manager began under difficult circumstances and it’s only gotten harder ever since. His side only scored one goal in 2020 as Ireland came third in their UEFA Nations League group.
The penalty shootout defeat to Slovakia also meant the country missed out on a place at Euro 2020 2021 in what was only his third game in charge.
The build up to that play-off was extremely unfortunate with Aaron Connolly and Adam Idah both ruled out hours before kick off due to being in close contact with a positive covid test.
There was also the missed Conor Hourihane chance minutes before the match went into extra time that could’ve settled the tie for the Boys In Green.
It was a poor year for on-field issues for Ireland in 2020, but there were also problems off the field. Damien Duff and Alan Kelly both left the coaching staff under mysterious circumstances following the 3-0 friendly defeat at Wembley to England.
On top of all that, there has also been the fallout of the John Delaney scandal that rocked the Football Association of Ireland in 2019.
But Kenny has a chance now to put all that behind him as a new campaign gets underway on Wednesday evening. The opening game of the World Cup 2022 qualifiers starts with an away trip to play-off rivals Serbia.
However, the build up to tomorrow’s match has continued in much the same way that 2020 ended.
The 29 man squad that was announced last Thursday has already seen four players drop out due to injury, including Caoimhin Kelleher who has proven himself an impressive stand-in for Alisson Becker during Liverpool’s season so far.
This is compounding the absence of first choice keeper Darren Randolph, who is also out injured. Kevin Long, Callum O’Dowda and Hourihane were also ruled out of the upcoming fixtures through injury.
They join John Egan, James McCarthy, Jack Byrne and Harry Arter and Idah on the sidelines for the upcoming games.
Kenny was firm that his team will be maintaining the progressive principles he wants to bring into the Irish setup despite the poor results and the absences in the team.
“You can’t, on one hand, give instruction and then just all of a sudden rip everything up and just say ‘right, we’re going to defend in the low block and just boot it and knock it into the channel, so I think the answer to that is a clear no on both fronts,” said Kenny.
“I do respect Serbia, I’m not naïve, and realise they’ve got a lot of very, very good attacking players and a lot of talent. We will have to be cognisant of that and we’ll have to defend well.
“There’s nothing wrong with good defending. I think it’s important that we defend well. We’re not neglecting the importance of defending. The importance of defending well will be hugely important that we defend well because they have got players who can punish you.”
The Irish manager refused to give away any hints towards his starting eleven for Wednesday night’s game, but he highlighted a few names that could step in to replace the missing David McGoldrick (retired) and Idah.
“We have James Collins. He’s had a good season overall with Luton. I know he’s not been in the team in recent weeks but he’s had a good season. And Shane Long has been a bit rejuvenated having gone to Bournemouth and played some consecutive games.”
“So, we certainly have different types of players. They’re the sort of different characteristics of strikers. We have to get the balance right in our attacking play, regardless of who plays there.
“Obviously Adam [Idah] has played in a few games, we were sort of blooding him and giving him an opportunity. David McGoldrick was the number one no. 9.
“James Collins played against Bulgaria so there might be opportunities for other options there now, we have to consider that.”
Serbia themselves are under new management. Dragan Stojkovic took over the role as head coach of the national side only a number of weeks ago and he, like Kenny, wants to bring in young players to play a progressive and attacking style of football.
Their squad contains plenty of high profile names such as Dusan Tadic (Ajax), Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (Lazio), Luka Jovic (Eintracht Frankfurt) and Alexander Mitrovic (Fulham).
Serbian journalist Nebojsa Markovic described the team to RTÉ as “like a box of chocolates,” saying that the recent performances against Norway and Scotland show that “sometimes Serbia are brilliant and sometimes appalling.”
The new coach has had little time to implement his new approach to the team, but with Ireland’s injury problems it is difficult to suggest that the timing of this fixture falls in the Irish team’s favour.
However, Kenny will need to find results — or even just some goals — soon or the media pressure will start to ramp up to make a difficult situation even worse than before.
