This has to be our new normal
What we did against France last Monday has to become the norm.
No more references to us ‘being one of the best passing sides in Europe’. that’s being populist.
What Ireland actually did last Monday was spot on.
they were defensive. But they had to be. this was
France they were up against. More to the point, this is us.
We are more like Scotland than we are Spain. Our qualities are to defend, to be aggressive, to compete, to get crosses into the box.
People hate route-one football but I can’t recall too many people complaining during Euro 88, Italia 90 or USa 94.
We don’t even have to go back to those long-ball tactics to be competitive.
Resilient
No, what we need to do is see more of the same from last Monday. the side was organised, resilient (for the most part) and pragmatic.
In terms of tactics, that was an 8/10 display. But in terms of the execution of the tactics, that was no more than a 3/10.
My low mark stems from the France goal. a loose pass from Josh Cullen makes its way to
French full-back, Benjamin Pavard.
Now, when you are set up defensively, as Ireland were last Monday — you have to do certain things in certain areas of the pitch. One of those is to press a guy when he is about to shoot. It is not to turn your back on the ball as Dara O’Shea did.
think back to the great rearguard performances of the past, Richard Dunne’s in Moscow, Paul McGrath’s in Giants Stadium.
Do you remember either of them turning their back?
Do you think big Shane Duffy — had he been fit — would have done so? he’d have taken it on the mush.
a lot of people have spoken to me about my Starsport columns, questioning why I am being so critical of the manager Stephen Kenny, asking if I was going to change my opinion.
I don’t have an opinion. I have a plan.
the way forward for Ireland may be to look backwards to last Monday.
Energy
that was a pragmatic way to approach a game like France. We have always been an aggressive side, we have always brought energy, have thrived in our belief to be the underdog.
We get the fans behind us, like the Scots did against Spain, when we tear into teams.
this fallacy of us becoming a side that can play out from the back — that has to go.
We should learn that from Josh Cullen’s misplaced pass last Monday. Or from Matt Doherty’s misplaced pass against Latvia.
Let’s go back further. When Darren Randolph was the keeper, there was a quick throw he took against Finland which ended up in a goal.
We are repeatedly giving away cheap goals by trying to be something we are not.
We need to be realists going forward. Last Monday — save for Cullen’s attempted pass to Pavard — we were.
that’s the Ireland we have to be when we face Greece, the Dutch and France again.