Ireland boss Stephen Kenny pays incredible tribute to France as they look to upset the odds in Euro 2024 qualifier
TAKING on France is the toughest job in European football according to Stephen Kenny.
And pulling it off would be an achievement that would, arguably, overshadow the rugby team’s exploits.
With a Grand Slam decider and a visit of the recent World Cup finalists in the space of nine days, the Aviva Stadium is where it is at these days.
Andy Farrell’s side are no 1 in the world with Kenny’s men considerably further down the charts in a sport with much greater depth.
France are third in the FIFA rankings, behind only Brazil and Argentina, and, whatever you think about their accuracy, Kenny is in no doubt about the task that awaits tomorrow week.
He said: “They’ve had an unbelievable year, the rugby team, and credit to them. They’re amazing.
“From our point of view, we’re probably at a different stage in our evolution, but nevertheless, it’s an incredible opportunity as well against the most highly regarded team in the world over the last few year’s World Cup winners in 2018 and finalists in December.
“That Emiliano Martinez save from Randal Kolo Muani just before the penalty shoot-out was incredible, that’s the difference, isn’t it, in being double World Cup holders.
“To take on France is the biggest challenge, of course I'd say that.
“Their record suggests that, they had amazing success.
“They have obviously have incredible.
“On the transition, you might think you are doing well against France but that's when they might hurt you and that's what we have to guard against.
“You have to counter the counter attack as they say.
“They are sometimes comfortable out of possession, then they just can be devastating when you leave gaps, Matty Cash having a good game at right back and Kylian Mbappé scoring two goals.
“That's the nature of it, if you leave gaps they will look to punish you with explosive pace, Ousmane Dembele's not in the squad but Kingsley Coman is, scoring goals for Bayern Munich and flying on the right so they are not short there.
“It is the biggest challenge, but one we must embrace and not be fearful of, be excited by.”
ONE DOWN...
One French team has already been accounted for at the Dublin 4 venue this season, in the Six Nations campaign.
Although Abbotstown in the training venue for both of their sides and, occasionally, like November, their stints there overlap, Kenny admitted his interaction with Farrell has been limited.
Kenny said: “I’ve met him a couple of times at a couple of different events and I actually met him at the airport a couple of weeks ago.
“I was going to Scotland, my son was playing for the Irish schools, and he was going to Italy, and we had a good chat at the airport. We were chatting for a while and I’m met him before. I can’t say I know him really well but we have a good relationship.”
Many top coaches have spoken in the past of the value in learning from environments in other sports and, clearly, Farrell has added another dimension to what had gone before with the rugby team.
Whilst Kenny does not discount the idea, he is very much his own man and does not believe in a one-size-fits-all template that can transfer from one team to another let alone sport.
But he is glad that his prediction, when a comparison between the two international sides was made, has begun to be validated.
COMMON GROUND
He said: “I think you can’t really copy and paste anything, and that’s what people try and do.
“They look at a successful team and they say, “Right, that’s what I’ll do, I’ll do that, that, and that”.
“Every sport is different but of course you can learn. Of course they’re doing terrific and the system they have, the schools system is very successful for them.
“It’s great. It’s interesting because I remember doing a radio interview with Marian Finucane and she said to me, first question, and no one was really asking the question: “Look at all the players coming through in the rugby, where are they in the football? There are none”.
“I was the Under-21 manager, and she said, “Where are they?”. And I said, “They’re there, Marian, believe me, they’re there. You’ll see them in the next couple of years.
“And she said, “There are conveyor belts coming through at all the provinces. Where are the footballers?” It was a different type of question.
“You see them coming through now. We’re still emerging.”
NUMBERS GAME
Something both sports have in common is the increasing reliance on statistics in recent years. Kenny is a fan but, ultimately, relies on his own judgment when it comes to assessment and selection.
Kenny – who is dispatching Stephen Rice and Gary Seery to Paris to watch France’s game against Holland on Friday – said: “There are so many different types. Damien Doyle, my head of fitness and performance, he would focus on the physical stats.
“He's sending me Matt Doherty's physical stats over the last few days, he has sent Matt the programmes, what he wants him doing at Atletico as he's not in the team.”
Jamie McGrath was another one who he checked upon to see if his figures since his calf and hamstring injuries corresponded to those from beforehand which they did.
And he explained: “The physical data is not just distance covered, there are the number of high speed runs, multi directional runs and measuring at high speed.
“The football data is completely different then. We've always had Wyscout and InStat and programmes like that but then we have advanced that with Impect, the German company, measuring what they call 'packing', they measure if you bypass opponents, if you play passes past three defenders, accurate passes and you get three points and they put scores together.
“Every match we look at our Impect and a lot of matches we're ahead in and, in a very high percentage, if you get higher Impect scores you win the match.
“We measure all our players' forward passes, if you dribble past players you get points. It's not a perfect system. It's down to people's opinions, coming out of IT or college courses saying that's that, that's that, that's that.
“No system is perfect. We also have football analysts who work for the FAI, Ger Dunne and Gary, who provide that. Stephen is absolutely really on top of everything there.
“He will go to the zenith degree of providing any sort of presentation to me on statistical analysis.
“He provided one on Wednesday on our throw-ins and France's throw-ins, going through the analysis of that. You measure everything but your eye is your judge.
“I heard that a long time ago and it always will be. Stats sometimes confirm what you can see, but sometimes it doesn't.”
