Stephen Kenny stopped just short of having his Howard Beale moment on Monday, as he passionately delivered his vision for the Republic of Ireland side.
The manager tackled talk of a disgruntled fanbase, and former internationals describing him as displaying "tactical ignorance".
Kenny goes into Tuesday's friendly with Qatar in Debrecen on a run of ten games without a win.
Saturday's 1-0 defeat to Luxembourg, it's hoped, is the bottoming-out point. The very start of the upturn in fortunes and, most importantly, results.
A summer camp in June has been arranged, which will be pockmarked with friendlies against both Hungary and Andorra. During those nine days, Kenny hopes to further instil the values and the essence of how he sees a Republic of Ireland side.
"I wouldn't say I'm 'tactically ignorant' now, I don't think that would be the case," the manager said, when confronted with Tony Cascarino's view, "I wouldn't agree with that."
Kenny added, "He's certainly entitled to his opinion. He was a great striker for Ireland, and [I have] a lot of respect for him as a centre-forward for Ireland.
"You can judge each game differently, and in different sets of circumstances, but I thought against Serbia we were very dynamic. Our front three were very dynamic in that system.
"Alan Browne probably had one of his best games for Ireland. I think Callum Robinson's two best games for Ireland - and I viewed the entire Euro campaign - were against Slovakia and Serbia. In my opinion they were his best two games for Ireland by a distance.
"What Aaron Connolly would have given us the other night, what we didn't have against Luxembourg... is the ability to stretch the defence as Aaron Connolly did against Serbia with them runs.
"People said Aaron Connolly wasn't that effective on the night, but his constant running behind just completely opens up the play for someone like Alan Browne. People think Callum's one that runs over the top - he's not that at all. He's actually an intricate player, either playing off a striker or coming on from the left.
"Looking at Luxembourg the other day, some of the criticism is justified - that with all the possession that we had, we should have created more than we did.
"And we have to accept that there is an element of criticism there that is justified, that we need to be more creative in that final third and need better combination play between our attacking players and our wing-backs. I accept some of that criticism."
The naysayers are unlikely to be sated by a win over Qatar on Tuesday night, even if Kenny's warned that the emergent Gulf state are no pushovers.
For Kenny, time is key. He highlighted the fallow first few months of Mick McCarthy's original spell in charge of the team.
More pertinent to Kenny, is the comparison with his fellow League of Ireland graduate Michael O'Neill.
The ex-Shamrock Rovers boss registered a solitary win in his first eighteen games, with his bottoming-out coming - ironically - against Luxembourg and Azerbaijan in 2013.
"We've shown our capabilities," Kenny said on Tuesday, pointing to those games in Bratislava and Belgrade.
"We've let ourselves down a bit, from an attacking point of view, not capitalising not beating Luxembourg. So we have to accept criticism for that.
"We've a huge amount of talented players coming through. We've a lot of very good professionals, experienced professionals as well.
"We will integrate the two and make ourselves better.
"Yeah, there is a clear tactical shift - there's no doubt about that - but I do think they've [doubters] got to believe in these players.
"There's a lot of really talented players that are going to come good. I do feel that they're going to improve.
"We can look at other teams over the years, even in recent history... it was pointed out to me that Mick McCarthy's team that got to the [2002] World Cup didn't win in their first seven, and they had some brilliant players at the time.
"It was pointed out that Michael O'Neill's Northern Ireland had a long long [unsuccessful] run, and then lost to Luxembourg as well in 2013, and that was a turning point.
"So sometimes when you are implementing and introducing players like that, like we have done - and there can be criticism of 'you've introduced too many too quickly', people might say - but we have a lot of players that aren't playing at clubs, and players that have been injured.
"I want to build a team that really exhilarates Irish football people. And that's it - there's nothing more than that.
"We want to be much better, we've hit a sort of low the other day getting beaten by Luxembourg, and you've got to take that on the chin.
"Some of our play's been nothing short of brilliant against Slovakia and Serbia, and we'll continue to build on that and get better again. And that's the way I feel about it."
‘Ireland were almost like sleepwalking into it’ | Dan McDonnell
