Martin O'Neill questions direction Republic of Ireland are heading under Stephen Kenny

Martin O'Neill has questioned the direction the Republic of Ireland are going in under Stephen Kenny.

Ireland had been tipped to go close to winning their Nations League group, including by Kenny himself, but now find themselves in a relegation battle after losing their opening two games.

A shock loss away to Armenia last weekend was followed by another defeat at the hands of Ukraine in Dublin on Tuesday night.

And Kenny heads into Saturday's clash with Scotland knowing that the pressure is mounting on him once again.

O'Neill was still Ireland manager when they lost their first Nations League match 4-1 to Wales back in 2018 and almost four years on, the Boys in Green have yet to win a game in the competition.

Assessing where Ireland are at the moment, O'Neill told The Daily Record: "Where are Ireland right now? That’s a really good question. The Armenia game was a big, big setback. Sometimes you get a couple of results in matches against sides who are not in the top 80 – teams like Andorra, Lithuania. You can start to get a false impression of where you are.

"Then you travel to Armenia fully expecting to win and get off to a bad start, it's a major setback for them.

(Image: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne)

"I suppose a couple of years into Stephen's reign, you'd have to ask [where they're at].

"If his remit was to rebuild an Irish side and get time to do that then that's fine. But in international football you still have to win football matches."

O'Neill believes both Ireland and Scotland have lacked a player that is a real difference maker in recent years and points to Gareth Bale being a huge reason why Wales are heading to the World Cup later this year.

He added: “You need that difference maker. When I was managing the Republic,