All the right ingredients are in place for new boss
THE busiest year for the women’s national team ends on Tuesday evening. The final match of their inaugural Nations League campaign will be their 14th international over an eventful 12 months. From Marbella to Windsor Park, via St Louis, Sydney and a monsoon in northern Albania, it has been a historic year.
Back in February, Ireland played out a drab goalless draw with China in the south of Spain. At the time, there was still giddy anticipation of what awaited the team in Australia. But even back then, players were yearning for more freedom. To be let off the leash a little more.
Vera Pauw talked up the sixth consecutive clean sheet, a remarkable statistic for a side whose previous campaigns crumbled by the concession of soft goals. But the feeling was that at their first major tournament, they would need to be more creative.
The Irish players seemed to get the change of direction they desired at the start of this Nations League campaign. Seven goals were scored in the first two games – and plenty more chances were created. Katie McCabe and Denise O’Sullivan were revelling in more liberated roles further up the field. Perhaps, a different voice was what was needed.
However, Friday evening’s game in Tallaght felt like reverting to the previous regime. It was about grit and grind, digging out a result. Afterwards, interim boss Eileen
Friday’s game in Tallaght felt like reverting to the previous regime
Gleeson even emphasised that the team kept a clean sheet, just as the previous manager used to do.
The narrow 1-0 win does mean that Ireland have won more games than they have lost this year – six wins, five defeats and two draws. And even allowing for the inferior opposition they have faced, there is little doubt that Ireland’s form has been better in the second half of the year – compared to the first seven games, when they won only once and failed to score in five matches.
‘We have to be positive about that,’ Gleeson said on Friday night. ‘Are there aspects of the performance we would like to change? Absolutely. Is it a learning process? Absolutely. Have we people playing in different positions? Yes. Does it bring different moments in the game where we need to be better? Yes. Did we come away with three points? Done.’
There were concerns on Friday night, though. McCabe, in such sparkling form for Arsenal, was below par, adding credence to the theory if the captain plays poorly, the team tend to play poorly. But McCabe’s ineffectual evening might have been more to do with how the team set up and the unbalanced look to the midfield, meaning she, O’Sullivan and Kyra Carusa weren’t getting decent supply.
‘It was the same shape (we used before) just with different personnel in it,’ Gleeson insisted.
‘Katie was central in the two with the objective of being higher in a central role, but because we were so deep we didn’t see the benefits of that.
‘With Katie and Denise up there, we needed to be higher up the pitch but we conceded the space we needed to occupy. Sometimes, these things happen in a game, It’s a learning process.’
McCabe was a little more effective in the second half when she was moved from being a deep-lying second striker and deployed in her more natural wide position, although she also benefitted from Sinead Farrelly bringing a bit of control to the Irish performance.
All of which should be food for thought for whoever becomes permanent manager in the coming weeks, with the FAI planning to announce Pauw’s successor before Christmas.
As far as we know, Gleeson hasn’t changed her mind about returning to the head of women’s and girls’ football role on a full-time basis. The Dubliner has been typically coy when she has been asked about her intentions, though – at Thursday’s press conference she replied enigmatically: ‘A smile for Christmas!’
It is believed that there has been plenty of interest in the post, understandable considering McCabe’s form for the Gunners and the impression that the team made at their first World Cup. Among the dozen or so contenders who were on the initial long-list, there were names both from the club game as well as those with international experience. FAI director of football Marc Canham has sought the assistance of two FAI board members, Packie Bonner and Niamh O’Mahony, to settle on the final candidate.
Whoever takes the reins will have a lot to work with – and some exciting young talent coming through. In that sense, maybe these two final Nations League games were a missed opportunity. It would have allowed the new manager to get their feet under the table and assess what they have to work with.
It was also a missed opportunity in that Gleeson didn’t take the chance to look at some of those exciting younger players in her squad, in particular Jessie Stapleton. Playing her strongest hand in a game that was effectively a dead rubber for Ireland seemed an odd decision.
But then history beckons for Gleeson, who with a win in Belfast on Tuesday will go into the history books as the most successful Ireland manager ever, in men’s or women’s football. The Dubliner dismissed the relevance of that possibility last week, pointing out it has only been six games, but it will be a fine achievement to look back on nonetheless.
And history will not remember the passivity of Friday’s performance or the fact that the best player on the pitch was the Hungarian captain Henrietta Csiszar, whose unfortunate own goal decided the game. This will simply record that Ireland found a way to win and as Heather Payne pointed out, that is what the best teams do when they are not playing well.
Ireland will need to be better when they climb among Europe’s elite next April. But the sense is that they can be better. For much of this historic year, we were always left with the feeling that there was more in this team than the rigidity of the tactics was allowing them to show.
Over the past five games, they have been trying to prove that to themselves. Friday was just a blip on the road. It doesn’t mean that the change in direction wasn’t needed. Or that the new manager, whoever it might be, will not have plenty to work with.
Ireland will need to be better among Europe’s elite next year