An imperfect 10 will do for McCarthy

After doing the heavy lifting in Copenhagen on Friday, Ireland should be relishing a comparatively easy shift in Dublin tonight.

At least that’s the popular view and, given the global gulf separating the footballing nations of Denmark and Gibraltar, probably the logical one too.

But try whetting Mick McCarthy’s appetite for a feast of chances and goals and expansive football from his team in the Aviva, and see how far that gets you.

“I want to win the game,” he says. “I don’t get this about how we have to be expansive. We tried that. We were expansive against Georgia and had lots of chances. We scored one, but we won the game. We weren’t allowed to be expansive in Gibraltar but we scored one and won the game. I thought we played well in Denmark and one goal gets us the draw.

“So long as we win I’m not bothered. I’m not saying we are going out to do anything other than try to play football, but I want to win. It’s a borderline silly question. You have seen us play over the last three games, you know the style of play, so that’s quite evident, how we try to play football, and we will try to do that again. But if it ends in a scrappy 1-0 win, off somebody’s backside, I am not bothered, I will take the win. The more games we win, we qualify. I want 10 points.”

That’s telling us. Not that you’d be expecting anything a whole lot different from most managers on the eve of a European qualifier.

Between pragmatism, professionalism, an aversion to giving hostages to fortune and according basic levels of respect to minnow and giant alike, McCarthy is never going to start blowing Ireland’s trumpet before the referee has blown his whistle.

There’s also the fact he has only recently had to endure what he has made no bones about admitting was the stressful experience of seeing his team just about squeak by in Gibraltar, albeit in conditions and on a pitch which should make Lansdowne Road seem positively idyllic by comparison.

And if he needed any further reason to err on the side of caution, at least in public, it would have come on Friday in Tbilisi when Georgia took 30 and 60 minutes to get comfortable against Gibraltar before a 76th minute penalty added a touch of gloss to their victory.

LEADING BY EXAMPLE: Seamus Coleman encourages his team-mates in yesterday’s training session. Picture: INPHO/Ryan Byrne

But if Gibraltar aren’t quite as soft a touch in this campaign as they were when Martin O’Neill’s Ireland put a total of 11 goals past the neophytes in the 2016 Euros qualifiers — and certainly seem better organised for attempting to offer mass resistance — there’s still no escaping the sense of expectation that McCarthy’s team should really be able to improve on their goal a game record to date.

And even the manager will admit it would be a bonus for Ireland going forward in the group, if one of the four strikers he has available — David McGoldrick, Sean Maguire, Scott Hogan, and Callum Robinson — could open their international accounts tonight.

“Absolutely, absolutely,” he agrees. “They would themselves as well. What’s nice about it is we’ve a humble squad of players, they want to win the game for everybody.

“But strikers, for all they contribute to the game, they want to score goals. They’re a selfish bunch and that’s the way they should be because they want to score. I always think it’s nice to have a collective squad and all they want to do is win the game collectively. They’ve proven that. But, yes, that’s a bonus (if a striker scores.) If they do I’ll be pleased for me, for us and for the national team that strikers are scoring goals.”

The mandatory three points aside, the manager would also like to see better ball retention from his players than was the case in Copenhagen.

“When we win the ball back high up the pitch, (we should be) doing better with it, keeping it, not giving it straight back to them because we did on a lot of occasions, which I spoke about at half-time and I’ve spoken about since. Sometimes, I don’t know whether it’s a rush to score a goal, when you go from that crash, bang, wallop mentality to get the ball back — which you have got to have, that real aggression — then the pulse rate needs to come down a bit and you need to calm down and pass the ball to each other.

“I thought we did the first bit really well; the second bit not as well as I’d like. But they were playing against a team that were closing the ball down as well. I think if you looked at the two stats in terms of how far and how hard and the sprints that both teams ran, it was a really competitive game on Friday.”

Despite the rigours of that encounter, McCarthy says he isn’t planning wholesale change from the team which battled hard to claim a vital point in Copenhagen but, after impressing with his bright and lively input when he came off the bench on Friday, Callum Robinson is one who could be in with a chance of starting tonight.

Mick McCarthy: ‘If it ends in a scrappy 1-0 win, off somebody’s backside, I am not bothered, I will take the win.’

Meanwhile, the manager reckons the Danes will really be feeling the pressure against Georgia in the Parken tonight where, now five points behind leaders Ireland though having played a game less, the home side urgently need to bounce back from the disappointment of Friday’s dropped point.

“Georgia are a very good team,” says the manager.

“Denmark have the advantage of being at home and not having that long-haul flight to get there. Who knows? Who knows? When Denmark scored that goal the other night they were cock-a-hoop. I think they’d thought they’d won the game, to be quite honest. It was quite right they way they celebrated their goal because we celebrated ours equally well! But seeing them coming off, they were deflated, really unhappy about that result. Maybe some of the comments they made about us and our team, they came home to roost, and they didn’t get the victory. And they have to turn that around. Georgia won 3-0 against Gibraltar, are confident, and are a good side. But I know Age Hareide, he has a good team. They will dust themselves down. Now they have to win it having drawn against us.”