Without the right players, we need the right manager
GIVEN how much he seems to enjoy recounting tales of Brian Clough, it’s surprising that the names of Larry Lloyd and Kenny Burns haven’t appeared more in Martin O’Neill’s press conferences.
Lloyd had calibre from winning a league at Liverpool but his career looked to be heading in the wrong direction after a couple of seasons at Coventry. The kindest way to describe Burns’ reputation was as a hard man who won 20 caps for Scotland as a centre-forward, but Clough trusted his assistant Peter Taylor’s judgment and turned him into a centre-back.
From two players that seemed destined to have reasonable professional careers, they formed the centre-back partnership to win two European Cups, because Clough and Taylor trusted their instincts and developed players to reach greater heights than they had done previously.
Improving players is, obviously, far more difficult to do at international level simply because of the relative lack of time in their presence, but the consistency with which O’Neill points to the club level of his squad begs the question of whether he is judging the player themselves, or simply is basing it on the clubs they play for.
Had Didier Deschamps chosen the best 11 players available to him, it’s unlikely France would have won the World Cup given the incoherence of their opening match against Australia when Ousmane Dembele started ahead of Olivier Giroud.
In almost every factor that a person would consider in rating a player, Dembele would rank ahead of Giroud but Deschamps recognised the importance of a theoretically inferior player to improve the team and, much like in 1998 (Stephane Guivarc’h), a centre-forward who didn’t score a goal was crucial in winning a World Cup.
Making such decisions is the manager’s job but when O’Neill makes statements, as he did after the defeat in Cardiff, that “we have several players who are not playing regularly in the Championship and it’s difficult, difficult to come in from Championship level and play against the likes of Aaron Ramsey”, it’s hard to escape the suspicion that he is trying to create an impression that his hands are tied. In reality, it’s his job to make the best judgment.
Since Euro 2016, O’Neill has been unhappy with the performance of his central midfielders with Jeff Hendrick seemingly a particular cause of frustration, yet O’Neill still doesn’t seem to know exactly where Hendrick fits into his plans.
In July last year, he admitted he didn’t know what the Burnley man’s best position was, although he meant it in a complimentary way because of his adaptability.
“I wouldn’t want to hold him down to a particular position,” said O’Neill. “Jeff can play anywhere across the midfield, I think he can play behind the strikers. Can he sit in and do a holding job? That’s not outside his capability.”
When everyone is available, Hendrick is certainly talented enough to be in Ireland’s starting line-up but rather than
cementing him into a role and then building a team around him, O’Neill seems happy to shift him and then criticise the performance if it doesn’t go well.
“We have to be more positive on the ball,” said O’Neill after the hammering against Wales. “We have to deal with it under pressure… that is the sign of a player.” Hendrick wasn’t mentioned specifically but the midfield was a particular source of irritation, even though the manager hadn’t helped by leaving them out-numbered for most of the game.
In contrast, O’Neill played three players in a central role against Poland and had huge praise for the contribution of Shaun Williams, saying: “I thought he (Williams) exuded calmness and I thought he brought that to our team.”
It was only a friendly with far less intensity but if Williams can carry out O’Neill’s instructions better than Hendrick or Conor Hourihane, the manager should be able to trust his conviction and play him. The fact that Hendrick performs well for Sean Dyche or that Hourihane’s Aston Villa are seen as a bigger club than Williams’ Millwall is irrelevant when it comes to picking Ireland’s best team.
Sean Maguire scored a bagful of goals for Cork City but it wasn’t until he moved to Preston that he received an Ireland call, which again suggests they were happier to trust Simon Grayson’s judgment that Maguire could be a Championship striker, rather than the evidence of their own eyes when he was watched at Turner’s Cross.
In terms of ability, there often isn’t a great deal between many of the players in the lower reaches of the Premier League and most of the Championship, which is what makes it imperative that an international manager can spot what a player is capable of, even if the club manager can’t.
Michael O’Neill rarely needs a second hand to count the number of Premier League players available to Northern Ireland but has forged a plan to make the best of those available to him, even if they are packed full of Championship players
Martin O’Neill’s outlook is part of a bigger problem in the development of Irish players where they are handed over to be judged at English clubs and, from there, assumptions are then made about them.
It’s a regular complaint that a particular player “can’t even get a game for club x” – even if the style of play employed by his manager might be nothing like that which the international team wants to play – and it isn’t going to get any better.
On Tuesday, Ireland’s under-21s were hammered by a German team of which every player had Bundesliga experience while Ireland’s highest ranked player played with Rotherham. The U-17s gave some cause for optimism in the summer, but every one of those players will soon run into the same roadblocks facing Irish teenagers to convince their manager not to spend the fortunes at their disposal on an established pro and instead take a chance on an academy player.
Some will come home, others will forge a career in England’s lower leagues and one or two might play regularly in the Premier League but if we’re hoping for a couple of Champions League-level players like Gareth Bale or Ramsey to boost the international team then we’re in for a long wait. If in the future we, theoretically, haven’t got the players to compete, it makes it even more important that we have the right manager.