So, is this the dream team for Scotland?
MacPhee tells Sportsmail that boss O’Neill’s skills are easily ‘transferable’
AUSTIN MacPHEE is not making a sales pitch, but merely explaining a little about the painstaking work behind a spectacular transformation.
To be honest, if the visionaries at the SFA need Michael O’Neill’s name inserted in a banner headline before realising he’s an ideal candidate for the Scotland job, we really are in trouble.
Pointedly diplomatic, yet answering Sportsmail’s questions with honesty and enthusiasm, MacPhee must know his Northern Ireland guv’nor is in the running to replace Gordon Strachan.
But with his adopted nation just ‘three hours away from the World Cup’, as the Scot puts it, there is plenty to focus on without wondering about what might be.
The Hearts assistant head coach, part of an O’Neill backroom that includes Jimmy Nicholl, is obviously excited about the forthcoming play-off against Switzerland.
For Tartan Army members still wondering... yes, FIFA did go ahead with the draw despite Scotland’s absence. Rumour has it they’re proceeding with next summer’s tournament, too.
What would we give to swap places with a team who have consistently performed beyond expectations under O’Neill’s guidance, reaching last year’s European Championships and
International managers need humility to create loyalty
then making it through the group stage, too? Maybe we don’t have to go quite so far to experience a similar kind of revival.
Asked outright to compare Scotland with Northern Ireland, and pushed just a little on whether the approach taken by O’Neill might work here, MacPhee told
Sportsmail: ‘I think you look at the players you have, first and foremost.
‘And I’ve seen plenty of journalists write that, if you just judge on the level of club they’re playing at, only three Northern Ireland players would get into that Scotland squad.
‘But they’re not playing in other European leagues, so they’re obviously doing similar things at their clubs.
‘Obviously the Celtic players are in the Champions League and they’re getting a lot of good European exposure.
‘But the fundamentals behind it are certainly transferable.’
Should O’Neill be called for an interview at Hampden to expand on that argument, all he really needs to do is say the words ‘Josh Magennis’ and then drop the mic.
Nothing against the former Cardiff goalkeeper, now a striker with Charlton Athletic.
But he played at the Euros last summer while still employed by Kilmarnock.
O’Neill has mastered the art of improving players, helping their careers develop. And he’s done it all without the kind of access club coaches take for granted.
‘There is a misunderstanding, among people who haven’t worked and lived in both worlds, that the skills of a club manager are transferable to the skills of managing in international football,’ said MacPhee.
‘Of course, there are 11 opponents on the pitch and you still have to win a game.
‘But there are so many differences, the preparation being the key thing, getting players on a Sunday or Monday when they still haven’t recovered from their club game.
‘Jose Mourinho or Pep Guardiola haven’t lived through that. They haven’t lived through building a team where you can’t make signings, can’t work with them for five weeks of pre-season.
‘They don’t know what it’s like to work with a team when they don’t have a contract with the player — so the player’s agent and management maybe doesn’t think playing international football with a very slight hamstring strain is a good idea.
‘You are not the most important thing in their lives. You are not paying them the most amount for their job.
‘You need a human side and a humility to create as much loyalty as possible when you don’t see the players very often, you don’t pay them — and they don’t have a contract. So, to say the skills of a club manager are the same as the skills of an international manager is purely a guess.
‘You’ve got to be patient, sympathetic, and you have to be able to live without football between November and March.
‘Until you sit behind that desk and the phone isn’t ringing, there is no game… for a long time, you are not important.
‘If I was running the recruitment process, it’s a punt on anybody who hasn’t done it. Because I’ve now done it for three-and-a-half years as an assistant — and I feel I know more about it than a lot of club managers.
‘Your 16th to 22nd man in the squad, maybe the key players at their clubs, you fly them around Europe for ten days without giving them a game. Why would they want to come back? Why would they be motivated to return?
‘You have to consider all these things. That’s about people skills. And then you have to worry about winning the games.’
O’Neill can be judged on his body of work alone. His achievement in taking Northern Ireland to the Euros, where they became the first Pot Five nation ever to win their group, is enough in itself to convince most.
MacPhee speaks of his gaffer fixing the ‘fundamentals’ of a nation who were 130th in the world upon his arrival in the dog days of 2011. Accommodation, travel, food, everything had to be changed.
The Fifer only signed on in 2014, by which time Northern Ireland had failed to qualify for another World Cup, but were beginning to at least raise their sights.
O’Neill took his team to South America to play Chile and Uruguay.
They were, to hear MacPhee tell it, expected to be ‘cannon fodder’ for teams warming up ahead of the big show. Using that tour as an
He has put his heart and soul into helping the players
example, and singling out Magennis as a case in point, MacPhee said: ‘When Josh went to South America, he was in and out of the Kilmarnock side. He was just breaking into the Northern Ireland side.
‘In the three years since then, by helping Josh develop, speaking to people about him, Michael has helped Josh get to England.
‘He is now successful there and for Northern Ireland. I think he’s scored three goals in the last four games for us — including against the world champions. Now, Josh was a goalkeeper for Cardiff at 20 years of age.
‘Liam Boyce was with Cliftonville when we went to South America. So, we had a part-time footballer on the bench for a game against a team including Edinson Cavani and Diego Forlan in Montevideo.
‘Liam went to Ross County, Michael put him in our squad. Nigel Clough spoke to Michael about Liam — and he’s now in the Championship in England with Burton.
‘So, Michael has found players who have grown with the team. And they know he’s put his heart and soul into helping them, even if that’s getting a move that will benefit them financially.
‘You need to do all these additional little things to build a squad, like contact time or the level of a relationship you only get as a club manager.
‘With that trust, we became hard to beat, unpleasant to play against.’
Unsurprisingly, for a man who served as assistant to Ian Cathro at Hearts, MacPhee describes himself as ‘a bit of a football purist’.
Completely surprisingly, however, he is adamant that possession
football simply doesn’t work for teams like Northern Ireland.
‘What do northern European countries want?’, he asked. ‘The people who watch the games? I’m not convinced they want intricate passing football.
‘They want the ball in the box, fast attacks, winning the ball back and crossing the ball.
‘That’s what gets them excited. Because a lot of the times they’re freezing cold. So, 140 passes in a row doesn’t get you off your seat.
‘But if the ball goes in the box four times and is won back three times and you’ve had two corners, that’ll get you off your seat.
‘Norway were in our group. They had a coach who wanted to play like Pep Guardiola.
‘In their first three games, they had more possession than anybody other than Germany and everybody beat them. Then they went and got Lars Lagerback. By the end of the campaign, they were putting the ball in the box again and again and again.
‘Michael has identified how to bring the crowd at Windsor Park with us. And it’s not by rolling it around the back four.
‘For players like Steven Davis and Jonny Evans, they’ve shown a lot of humility, being key players in a way that isn’t necessarily showcasing their talents.
‘But they realise that it will improve the team and increase our chances of winning.
‘Fans at Windsor Park get excited when we get a corner, as they think we might score.’
The odds on scoring from setpieces improved when the coaching staff noticed that Chris Brunt always had difficulty with deliveries from one corner of the ground. It turns out they needed to build up the pitch run-off to give him more room.
Now, as MacPhee puts it, Northern Ireland can hit teams from all four corners of Windsor Park. When his revelation prompts a laugh and a comment about attention to minute detail, he points out: ‘You’ve got four months. You have the time to think about these things.’
Right now, MacPhee is thinking about his day job at Hearts, as well as putting together short and easily digestible information packages on Switzerland for his Northern Ireland players — and the very real possibility of being part of a World Cup Finals.
The thought of being part of a Scotland coaching team that ends that run? Surely it has to set his pulses racing?
Searching for a way to answer without treading on toes, MacPhee finds a pretty happy medium, explaining: ‘When Scotland didn’t qualify, I was disappointed.
‘Having experienced the night when we beat Greece and qualified for France, it maybe didn’t mean as much to me as it did to all the other staff who were Northern Irish.
‘I mean, I love Northern Ireland and always will. But you could see how full of joy they were, having been through the hard times.
‘One day, I would like it to mean as much to me.’
Well, one day, it might.