Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny says he has a full squad to pick from ahead of Thursday's Nations League group game in Bulgaria but has yet to settle on the side that will start a match he acknowledges is the biggest of his career to date.
Kenny has articulated his ambition for the team to play a brand of football that people in the Irish game will admire, but at the same time he plays down the prospect of any sudden transformation in Sofia.
“You’re not going to radically change everything in two days,” he says, “that’s not realistic, but we want to play with confidence - that’s important. We want to play with confidence and we want to have the balance of the team right so that we can be creative and create chances.
“We want to have speed in our attack as well. It’s very important that we have speed in our attack so that we’re a real threat when we need to be.”
The Dubliner takes a reputation for forging strong relationships within groups into the job but, he says, the Irish squad he has inherited has a special bond already.
“To be fair, they seem like great people and I wouldn’t take any great credit for bonding the group. There are a lot of really good people in it, a lot of humility, that’s very evident.
“They’re all good players, though, who are playing at a high level and they’re used to changing managers and coaches at their different clubs, they are used to having changes within their club environment. This is an international environment, it’s different, but they’re all adaptable, so tactically they’re adaptable. They’re intelligent people and they can take stuff on board.
“It’s only the first game but we’re looking at it on many levels really,” he continues. “The first thing is that the Nations League potentially gives you a World Cup play-off and a chance to be promoted to Group A, so with that in mind you’ve got to win the group. It’s not easy but we want to win the game if we can.
“There is also the bigger picture of the Slovakia game in October. I could say to you that ‘we take each game in isolation and we’ll look at that when it comes,’ and there is an element of truth in that but you have to take the wider view as well and we are building towards that.
“To have a good start in the Nations League group you would feel would help the confidence but Bulgaria I’m sure feel the same, they’ve had a very good win in the last competitive game and we’ll have to work really hard to earn the victory.”
Asked if he has thought much about the fact that it will be the biggest game of his career, he says he has been too focused to worry about it.
“If I took time and reflected on it, thought about it in that way, there is no doubt that it is but I haven’t had that period of introspection. I don’t have time for it. We just have to prepare the team and try to perform well.”
