McCARTHY BLOW
After week of argument midfielder looks certain to miss Austria tie
AFTER fighting James McCarthy’s corner and making a point by including him in the Republic of Ireland squad, Martin O’Neill is resigned to being without the Everton midfielder for World Cup combat against Austria next Saturday.
The Irish manager is considering his options at left-back too where Stephen Ward’s absence for Burnley yesterday, also with a hamstring injury, is likely to lead to his withdrawal from the squad which checks in to Dublin tomorrow.
O’Neill, as his is way, played safe with his provisional squad on Wednesday by naming 35 players but no more than 27 will fly to Vienna on Thursday and O’Neill is ‘not holding my breath’ on McCarthy and Ward being issued with boarding passes.
‘I’ll have a look at James when he comes in,’ said O’Neill. ‘If the game was this weekend, he would not have been available. He is doubtful for Austria, but James did not want to be left out of the squad completely.
‘He has a lot of work to do between now and then and I wouldn’t be extremely hopeful.
‘Sometimes injuries clear up a bit more quickly, it’s the same with Stephen Ward, he wouldn’t be available this weekend either, but it might clear up. I wouldn’t be holding my breath on them,’ added O’Neill, who is deliberately giving his players a breather before starting the Vienna build-up on Tuesday.
‘A weekend with their families is fine. It has to be about getting our players as fresh as possible for the match,’ he explained.
With McCarthy likely to miss out, it’s a plus for O’Neill to have Harry Arter available after missing the October double-header against Georgia and Moldova.
‘Harry’s forging a path again which is good and if he can stay clear of injury over the weekend, it would be great for us,’ said O’Neill.
Arter, who has yet to play a minute in competition for Ireland, has earned positive reviews at Bournemouth this season but O’Neill, a former midfielder himself, wasn’t blown away when he watched Arter play last month.
‘I saw him against Watford and I said to him that it wasn’t his best game. Sometimes people get a wee bit carried away. Thankfully, Harry isn’t getting carried away with all the accolades being bestowed on him.
‘He’s a fine player, he’s doing really well. As I said before, anybody playing at what you would call the highest club level can only be good news for us because that step-up we’ve talked about for some of our players is not severe (for him).’
Arter’s chances of starting in Vienna are also enhanced by Ward’s woes. Without his first choice left-back, O’Neill hinted he may switch Robbie Brady to the position he is familiar with. ‘Robbie can see everything in front of him from there,’’ he said.
That would leave Glenn Whelan, Jeff Hendrick and Arter the likely central midfield triangle with Wes Hoolahan an option to turn to if Ireland need a goal.
The Group D table paints an encouraging picture for O’Neill and mirrors two years ago after the opening three Euro qualifiers. Then, as now, there are seven points on the board, four of which have been bagged on the road.
Austria are three points behind Ireland and O’Neill reckons ‘they need to get something out of the game to stay in it’.
Not that he is dismissing the Euro 2016 finalists. ‘I still think after eight games they’ll be there or thereabouts because they’ve got good strength.’
‘It will be a difficult game, Austria under-performed at the Euros after skipping through the qualification. They were very strong and fancied themselves to do well.’
O’Neill won’t set out to contain but expects his team will find themselves on the back foot at different periods in the game.
‘I don’t think we’d be going into the game, sitting and trying to get a draw. There’ll be times when you’ll be driven back in games.
‘Look at this week, Barcelona were driven back by great play from Manchester City despite going ahead. How often does that happen for a team with the best three strikers in world football? So what is in store for us? We just have to battle for everything. It’s a genuine battle and it’s an enjoyable battle. It’s part of our make-up at the end of it all.
‘We’ll go in with a game-plan in which I think we’re capable of scoring a goal, genuinely.
‘We’ll have to be really strong at the back, we’ll have to take out defensive lapses like the one we had against Moldova,’ he warned.
‘We’ll have to be on the front foot for as often as possible.’
A point in Vienna would represent a fine return heading into the winter break as it would keep Austria at arm’s length in Group D and ensure Ireland remain in second place irrespective of the outcome of the Wales-Serbia game in Cardiff.
‘I think if you’ve completed three games away from home and you’re unbeaten, you’d be pretty pleased about that,’ said O’Neill.
With four of six qualifiers in 2017 at home, O’Neill is adamant results in Dublin will shape Ireland’s World Cup destiny.
‘We’ve given ourselves a chance (to qualify) but a result against Austria would obviously set up the two matches at home in March and June. Regardless, it will probably boil down to what we do at the Aviva.’
Ireland are unbeaten in seven competitive games on home turf, winning five and drawing two.
Extending that record through to October next year is likely to hold the key to bridging a 16-year gap between World Cup finals.
I don’t think we’d be going into the game, trying to get a draw