O’Neill, Ireland and what we keep hearing and not hearing

Dots1982

I’ve written this for my blog at https://veryintobloggingveryintonewmedia.wordpress.com/2017/11/24/oneill-ireland-and-what-we-keep-hearing-and-not-hearing/
Happy to debate its points

After Ireland’s unexpected destruction at the hands of Denmark here are four takeaways (plus a rant) from the match, the campaign and O’Neill’s reign so far and in the future:


1- the media reaction dwelled overly on the “throw the kitchen” sink changes Martin O’Neill made at half time. The subsequent collapse in the second half became a stick to beat O’Neill with (even though out of the three goals conceded, two came from individual player errors).
Really the focus should have been on what happened in the first half, especially for me the first half of the first half before Ireland conceded. For me there has not been enough focus on how McClean and Murphy failed to provide any relief for the Irish team. Their job was to hold up the ball and get us position up the field. Unfortunately the Danish defence figured out they had our frontmen’s number and confidence built from the back.
Murphy won’t play for ireland again more than likely due to age so what about McClean and his future in a green shirt? It was a chastening night for McClean. He gets a pass from the media because he’s been our best player in this campaign and because he shows so much passion and fight. However a demanding aloof manager like O’Neill is unlikely to grant McClean the same understanding.
There is an opening in the team with Johnny Walters probably having played his last campaign. I never rated Walters particularly highly but after watching our play on that fateful Tuesday night I think I may have been wrong. We need someone able to be a lightening rod for long direct passes into the opposition half. It was a task that proved beyond McClean and he became a liability to ireland by giving away fouls. If McClean is to continue having a future in the starting eleven he needs to improve his touch and ability to take in possession. As a Celtic fan he should be familiar with Georgie Samaras’ and the style he played of retaining the ball on the wing. He can’t be trusted in his own half with the ball as he will lose it or foul the opposition. Can he be trusted in the Walters role? The signs versus Denmark were not good.


2- The bafflement over Brady’s and Hendrick’s underperformance is a bit ...well..baffling. Let’s not beat around the bush here. The two of them had a good Euros and were in the shop window. They ended up at Burnley. What does that tell you? Clubs did their due diligence and didn’t see “it”.
They are both good players in different ways but one had far more potential in their teens. Hendrick is tidy and has a good engine but the game can completely pass him by. Brady is different, he had his football apprenticeship and was highly rated at Old Trafford. He is also Ireland’s top scorer at under -21 level. It may be harsh but looking at him now if he didn’t have his crossing ability on that left foot I could see him playing League of Ireland football for Pats or Bohs. But I wonder what else did Manchester United see in him? Just that left foot? Which is really only useful when he has time on the ball because he hasn’t much trickery or pace to bamboozle a fullback? I have no theories but I’d love someone to ask Alex Ferguson or the staff that scouted and trained him in the early years

3- O’Neill’s future is only in question if he himself might call it a day. The idea the FAI might end his tenure is not plausible. The results he has achieved are too good. You can argue the home results have been bad but so what..the away results have been good so what’s your point??
The worry with O’Neill is that any kind of decent manager he comes up against knows his gameplan too well as it’s so obvious. That if you get tight on our crossing there isn’t a whole lot of other ways we know how to score a goal. Also any manager playing against us should look to pick their tallest players available in defence and at the base of the midfield.
Most decent managers should be able to figure out O’Neill’s plan easily. We can only hope that the 5-1 home lost versus Denmark might allow lazy opposition managers to look at us as a soft touch.


4- the talk that we could never produce a player of Eriksen’s talent isn’t true. We don’t have a player near that quality but that is mainly unlucky. Even if our structures are bad...well they have always been and we still have produced great players in every decade. We will never produce a conveyor belt of quality players with bad structures but not having at least one world class player currently is mainly down to bad luck. The doom merchants saying we never will again without wholesale changing of structures are over-egging the problem
.
5- Finally a rant based on a comparison. I’ve seen previous Irish managers been discussed and compared favourably and unfavorably to O’Neill. One of the managers whose reign is looked upon now with misty eyes is Mick McCarthy’s. Mostly because the football we played under Mick was better than the football we played under any other manager. Now we could debate the merits of having Roy Keane in the team allowing the team to play a more possession based game against O’Neill having nothing like that level of Midfielder. Instead let’s analyze some of the decisions and events that occurred during McCarthy’s reign and reflect on how O’Neill might have been judged by media and fans if he had these made these calls. We’ll even leave Saipan out of it.


He played an error prone Ian Harte at centre half at the expense of Paul McGrath who he basically enforced international retirement on.


Played Roy Keane at centre half in a home nil nil draw with Iceland


Lost 3-2 away to Macedonia in a wretched performance where Jason Mcateer produced one of the worst assaults on an opposing player I’ve ever seen. McCarthy accused the Macedonia victim of rolling around and faking injury in a TV interview with Tony O’Donoghue after the game.


Dropped Robbie Keane for Tony Cascarino for an away game versus Croatia which we lost when Robbie had scored versus Serbia in a win a couple of days previously.
Conceded upteemth painful late late goals .


Brought on Alan Moore instead of John Aldridge when we needed a goal versus Iceland. Aldo retired in the dressing room after the game.


David Connolly received a red card after been brought on by McCarthy in a playoff defeat to Belgium for a stupid kick at the head of prone Belgian defender.


Two of his players (Phil Babb and Mark Kennedy) got themselves arrested in the week leading up to qualifier versus Holland while in Dublin for international duty. It’s basically never been raised by media how O’Neill is really the only Irish manager I can remember where player discipline off the field and drinking issues have never arisen.


I could probably go on, my point is the criticism Mick got was mostly fair as he made a lot of dodgy calls and his players equally showed shoddy behavior patterns under him in a way that we have never seen under O’Neill.


O’Neill gets pelters largely for not picking someone who is in and out of the Norwich team in every single game and for not playing more attacking possession football in a team with a non-footballing footballer like James McClean as its best player.


In the opinion of this writer if O’Neill made the mistakes Mick did, figuratively his head would be on a stick.

Idbatterim

very good post. Some interesting points. Id be hapy to keep oneill but changes need to be made, constantly hoofing the ball away is outrageous. I remember at the start of the denmark match roaring at the tv, easy passes were on and it was hoofed up field!

if hoolihan goes at least that conversation will be over, I would prefer if he stayed and was utilised however.

we did play much better football under mccarthy, but the players were much better...