Inconsistent Ireland need to discover a real ruthless streak under boss O’Neill
AFTER 32 games under Martin O’Neill, most folk should have an idea what to expect from the Republic of Ireland when they cross the white line. That was how it worked under Jack Charlton with his ‘put ’em under pressure’ decree, and Giovanni Trapattoni’s obsession with his ‘little details’.
Nothing is predictable about O’Neill’s team. If anything, the evidence points to a squad lacking the identity of the Charlton and Trapattoni teams, or even Mick McCarthy’s when Roy Keane was driving everyone on.
With O’Neill, Ireland are the antithesis of consistency, as reflected by their results, and performances. In three years under him, a number of hardearned advantages have been gifted away, while a litany of lost causes have been rescued. There have been no runaway wins, or hammerings, apart from Belgium.
And when Ireland face Georgia and Moldova next month in the World Cup qualifiers, no one can be sure which team will turn up. Against Serbia in Belgrade last Monday night, Ireland’s display was a hybrid of hope and uncertainty.
For 10 minute spells in either half, they were on cruise control; for large chunks in between, they were rudderless. It was almost enough for Eamon Dunphy to fling a marker across the studio again.
In a results business, however, that point may be sufficient to nudge Ireland over the line in Group D, either as winners or as play-off candidates in 13 months time.
Under O’Neill, there have been as many great escapes as letdowns. Late goals against Georgia (90th minute), Germany (94th), Poland (91st), Italy (85th) and Serbia (85th) turned draws to wins and losses to draws. Those recoveries pointed at deep reserves of courage.
On the flip side, there have been implosions. Since June of last year, Ireland have blown leads against Scotland, BosniaHerzegovina, Holland, Sweden, France and Serbia. Not once did Ireland close the deal.
Which is the real Ireland? Is it all in the head? Or is it just the way Ireland play? Richard Dunne said this week said if Ireland wants to lose its tag of doughty scrappers, it must rip up the coaching manual. He also warned that a new style of play, more pleasing to the eye, would take four years to implement and the team wouldn’t win a match.
Enda McNulty, a top sports psychologist, doesn’t agree with Dunne that it comes down to ‘who we are’ and believes that the inability to get over the line in games ‘is not just an Irish thing’.
‘I’ve seen it in basketball, I’ve seen it in American football, I’ve seen it in golf, in tennis, in the teams I’ve played on,’ said the All-Ireland winner with Armagh.
So how do teams get it all together? What should be the first step to a new-look Ireland sealing the deal more often?
‘Step one is confronting the reality,’ said McNulty. ‘Take your whole team, the whole franchise, lock them into a room in for a day and say guys “we’re going to look at the really brutal truth. We’re going to get you to appraise why we’re underperforming here, why we’re not winning, what the hell is going on”.
‘I think (success) is very much correlated to the quality of mental preparation, the quality of leadership on the pitch, off the pitch, and the quality of communication from your sideline onto the pitch. ‘And it is directly correlated to “in-the-moment toughness” of key guys on the pitch to be able to say: “we are one-nil up here, let’s be absolutely relentless”. Imagine Paul O’Connell standing in the middle of the pitch driving it on, saying “Keep your foot on the neck of them”.
‘Physical condition is (also) a big part of it. You would say there’s a trend over the last 20 games that Ireland could get more physically fit,’ he added.
McNulty, (pictured) watched Ireland on Monday and gave a professional’s insight into the outcome. He said: ‘I wasn’t impressed with Ireland tactically, technically, or the overall skill level, but I was impressed with the how they dealt with the adversity.’
He noted the joy after Daryl Murphy’s 80th minute equaliser, though and it brought him back to when he consulted with Alan Mathews in his first spell as Longford Town manager.
McNulty added: ‘One of the things Alan worked on was “when we score you don’t celebrate. You spring back to your position. We can celebrate after the game”. In soccer, there is a culture where we all jump up and down, dance, sing, take our jerseys up over our heads, wave at the crowd but what should the athlete be doing? Going back to his job.’
Results prove that while Ireland’s battling quality remains strong, it is the ability to kill teams off from the front that O’Neill must hone in his side. They have done it once under him, in the second leg of the Euro 2016 play-off against Bosnia.
Repeating that against Georgia and Moldova would prove good practice ahead of the key World Cup group games, where Ireland will need to be ruthless if they want to go to Russia in 2018.