McCarthy has easy solution to full-back crux
Ireland must find room for Doherty and Coleman and there is a way...
SOMEWHERE, beyond the stonewalling and the evasions and the hopeless dysfunction, there are good news stories in Irish soccer. The only complication for Mick McCarthy is that the two most encouraging ones are concentrated on the one position.
The rejuvenation of Seamus Coleman is a heartening tale that won’t easily be bettered in Irish sport this year.
This is mainly because of his great decency. Coleman is an extremely wealthy athlete, part of a famous team in the richest league in the world’s most popular sport.
But he has remained what we consider normal: he has manners, he is modest, he does advertisements for an Irish grocery chain.
He is also, as captain of the national team, a representation of Irish soccer of whom people can be unequivocally proud.
There is much in the game and how it is governed in this country to make the public angry and drive them to despair, but Coleman is an impeccable ambassador.
He is flinty, too, proving that the class which once saw him connected to elite clubs like Manchester United and Arsenal has survived the wretched leg injury he sustained just over two years ago.
It hadn’t always seemed he would rebound from that terrible leg break against Wales, and as recently as this year, he was the target for Everton supporters unhappy with his game.
But his nomination as a contender for Premier League player of the year for March illustrated how he responded.
Coleman is softly spoken but tough as old leather. He had to be, to battle his way through the League of Ireland to star for one of England’s grandest old clubs.
And that hardness means he will not easily surrender his international place to Matt Doherty. This is where Mick McCarthy starts to
furrow that broad brow of his.
He tried to fit both Coleman and Doherty into his team in the tame win away to Gibraltar.
Three days later, for the match against Georgia at Lansdowne Road that started out as an angry protest and ended with tendrils of hope blooming around the Ireland side again, Doherty was left out of the starting side.
In comments after the win, McCarthy did not offer much encouragement to Doherty that he is involved in an even fight with Coleman for the right-back position.
‘It’s unfortunate for them but it’s not unfortunate for me because if one of them is injured, I’ve got another good one,’ said the manager. ‘I’m playing Seamus and I’m afraid it’s just tough on the Doc.’
Perhaps McCarthy believed this at the time, but if he did the terrific display by Doherty in Wolves’ defeat to Watford in a rollicking FA Cup semi-final last weekend should have prompted a radical reassessment.
It was the latest in a series of high-class displays by Doherty this season. Wolves’ return to the Premier League has been distinguished by a number of stars, but none of them have shone brighter than Doherty. His form was recognised in September when he was voted the PFA player of the month, and he will be a strong contender for selection at right back in the team of the year.
It was a cup game, though, that drew the best from him yet. He scored a goal and set up another.
It made obvious a feeling that persisted even after Coleman’s role in leading Ireland to the win against Georgia: Doherty simply must be accommodated in this side.
How McCarthy does that will tax him, and finding a solution will require all of the experience for which he is handsomely remunerated. But Doherty is too good to be on the sideline – or, to put it more starkly, players of his quality are now very rare in Irish squads. It was suggested after the Gibraltar game that Doherty could be used in central midfield, and there is a persuasive note to that. Playing him on the right, in front of Coleman, did not work, with the two men too often trying to utilise the same space or make similar runs. However, Doherty has the speed and the touch to be used as part of a three-man midfield. He has also scored seven goals this season, three of them in the league, so is a proven danger close to the opposing goal. Ireland visit Copenhagen for the vital qualifier against Denmark on June 7. McCarthy must, by then, have solved the problem posed by his two best players. Both must play.