WE MADE JUNIOR-LEVEL MISTAKES
Shane can cause problems for Italians but the manager has issues to address
THE Ireland players will not have had a good night’s sleep last night and they won’t be feeling much better this morning.
But they have to put the misery of yesterday’s performance against Belgium behind them and think only about Italy now. The time to reflect on the tournament as a whole, will be when it is all over. And let’s hope that is not on Wednesday night.
We should have beaten Sweden on Monday and taken three points. And we should’ve played much better against a talented and revived Belgian team yesterday.
But we didn’t. And we can’t dwell on it now.
The current format makes these last group matches significant until the final whistle and offers the smaller nations a chance of progressing in the tournament.
With one point as we go into the game against the Italians, we still have a chance and Euro 2016 is still alive for us.
There is a hope that Italy will play a “weaker” team against us on Wednesday. But I don’t necessarily see that as an advantage.
If I was one of the players Antonio Conte is bringing into the team, I would want to go out and prove that I have a part to play in this major tournament as it moves into the knock-out phases.
It is not a given that they will be weaker. And it is not a positive.
Watching Italy against Sweden, took me back to some of their performances in qualification.
They were not great going forward, Sweden stifled them and they were not at her best. Although Italy probably deserve to win the game, I was actually feeling more optimistic about facing them after seeing the way they had played against Sweden.
With the age of some of their players, particularly the back three, they will need fresh legs for this third game and having already qualified for the last 16, the pressure is off Conte and his players.
With that fresh blood and enthusiasm, they could play with real freedom, and having seen the players at the back in qualifiers, they do struggle against pace. If there was one good thing to come out of our game against Belgium yesterday, it is that Shane Long showed, albeit in small doses, that he can cause any defence problems.
It made sense to rest him for the latter stages. He has to start against Italy because if he doesn’t we are going to struggle to carry any threat. Wes Hoolahan was not in the game enough. Manager Martin O’Neill doesn’t like to play him in two games in quick succession, so I am not sure how he will cope with the third one, but he, too, has to play. And he has to lift his game. Although he’s not alone there.
I would imagine Stephen Ward will be taken back out of the side, which is probably a good decision, with Robbie Brady slotting back in at left back and James McClean starting the game.
The decision-making across the whole has to improve. At times Seamus Coleman went too early going forward but you have to have a feeling for the game and have a sense of when is the right time to make those kind of runs.
There were a number of issues that the players, who are guaranteed to start against Italy, have to address.
They may not want to dwell on yesterday’s result and collective performance but they do need to take a serious look at their individual performances.
Ireland teams have a history of pulling out decent performances on the back of a bad display and/or result. We are often at our best when we are written off and we are the underdogs.
We conceded really poor goals which were all preventable. If it had seen a junior team or a side at a younger level, I would have been pulling my hair out at the basic mistakes we made in the build-up to all three goals.
The first goal came from a challenge that should have been a penalty. I wince using the phrase, ‘if it had been anywhere outside the box, it is a foul’. The simple fact is it was a foul and it was a penalty.
But we have to defend the counter attack better. The two holding midfielders have to sense danger. The defenders have to sense danger. And James McCarthy was brushed aside far too easily and made a poor diving tackle, making it easy for Kevin De Bruyne to get down the line and then pick out Romelu Lukaku.
For the second goal, there were 28 consecutive passes, which is a new record in the Euro finals, beating one which was held since 1980. That might be a nice record for the Belgians and looks a lovely goal for them. But, to me, it says we didn’t even try to lay a glove on them.
McCarthy failed to sense the danger, got sucked under the ball and therefore made no challenge on Axel Witsel who was able to bury a free header past goalkeepeer Darren Randolph. And where were the two centre-backs to deal with the cross?
And for the third, I don’t have an issue with McClean losing the ball in the corner because he was trying to be positive. But, obviously, I do have an issue with Ciaran Clark’s challenge by the touchline.
He is either committed and cleans him out, or has the sense to stay on his feet, keep it a two-versus-two situation, and not concede the ground.
I have been in those situations, and you look at it afterwards and think ‘what was I doing?’
And as I watched from the stands, I could see what was unfolding and thought ‘don’t go, don’t go. Oh, he’s gone…’ There was only one outcome after that
Throughout the game, we didn’t carry the same threat as we had against Sweden. Hoolahan was not in the game and Long was too isolated.
Jeff Hendrick was probably our best player, and is having a good tournament, while Brady tried to get on the ball and actually keep it.
But on the whole it was sloppy and slack, keeping the ball was a real problem and if we play like that against Italy – whatever side they out – we will be heading home.
There will have been a few conversations among the lads as they were relaxing over a beer or glass of wine last night. A few home truths said, a few hands held up and a few wondering how we played so badly and carried no threat.
But they can’t dwell on it. We showed against Sweden that we can be a threat, we can be solid and we can look like a team. We have shown in the qualifiers that we can get results against the top sides and we have responded to adversity and indifferent results or performances.
I have said all along we can get a result against Italy. If we can apply all of the above, we still have a chance.