O’Neill will stick to recipe for success

MICHAEL O’NEILL will not deviate from the formula which took Northern Ireland to their first ever European Championship finals when he plots their route to a World Cup in Russia.

Two months after returning home from France to a hero’s welcome, the Northern Irish return to action in the Czech Republic at the start of a qualification process for the next major international tournament in two years’ time.

O’Neill’s side are viewed differently on the continent following their run to the last 16 at the Euros and it was telling that new Czech coach Karel Jarolim not only spoke of their strengths but also pinpointed Steven Davis and Kyle Lafferty as threats.

One of the dangers Jarolim highlighted was Northern Ireland’s ability to trouble teams at set pieces, and O’Neill insists his team’s style in this campaign will not differ from the one which has brought success.

Put to him that maybe teams were working to nullify their threat at setpieces, O’Neill replied: “It’s been something which has been said about us but I’m never going to apologise to anyone for scoring off a corner or free-kick.

“It’s a big part of our game. If teams concede free-kicks in the defensive third and give away corners it’s up to us to try and punish them.

“We watched the best games in the world and often the game is decided off a set piece. It would be foolhardy of us not to try and maximise those opportunities.”

Defensive solidity has also been present under O’Neill, given his side have not conceded more than one goal in a game since November 2014.

“We’re not going to score 25 goals in qualification, we have to make sure we concede as few as possible,” O’Neill noted.

“If you look back at qualification for France, there was only one game, Romania, where we didn’t take any points, that’s based on a good defensive record, a good shape.

“We’re not going to change it dramatically in terms of how we set the team up and approach every game.”

He may have to alter his formation in Prague, though, as injury will prevent Craig Cathcart from lining up in the three centre-back system.

There will be plenty of change from their opponents, who are without experienced duo Petr Cech and Tomas Rosicky, and O’Neill was hoping he would get an indication into Jarolim’s thinking in Wednesday’s friendly against Armenia.

Jarolim used 22 players and O’Neill noted: “We learned they are very clever because you’re not allowed to do that.”