We must make something happen to forget Georgia
Ireland have laboured in a number of games in this World Cup qualifying campaign yet, through our spirit and commitment, have still managed to get points on the board. But even though we ended up with another on Saturday, the display in Tbilisi was far worse than laboured – we looked paralysed with fear and lack of confidence. You’d have to go back a long time to find an Irish performance as inept as this was in the first half. As I said on television, it was like the Alamo – and this against a team that had three points on the Group D board.
Despite what should have been the confidence boost of getting that early goal, it was obvious after ten minutes that the back four were sitting too deep and that the midfield three were getting the runaround. They couldn’t get a tackle in or close the ball down or intercept passes and, because they were also playing deep, they were unable to provide any support for the ball forward, leaving Shane Long a hopelessly isolated figure upfront.
To see the back four – or, rather back six, with Jon Walters and James McClean having to help out - almost camped on their own 18-yard line was hard to comprehend because the solution was so obvious. A simple instruction from the sideline to push up would have helped our situation enormously because it wasn’t as if Georgia had a striker with the kind of blistering pace to run in behind us. If action had been taken, it would have given the midfield a chance to get closer to their opponents and allowed Walters and McClean to push on.
But that really didn’t happen until around the 70-minute mark when the Georgians began to tire and Martin O’Neill made a couple of substitutions which helped to create those late chances which, had we taken them, would have given us a precious if thoroughly undeserved win.
In trying to determine why the back four played so deep, it’s possible that their relative inexperience at international level could partly account for a certain nervousness in their mindset as a tight qualification group gets closer to the make or break point. But if so, the necessary leadership in such situations must come from the manager. I also think it’s only fair to pause in the criticism here and give credit to Shane Duffy for a fine individual performance. Between clearance headers, last ditch tackles, timely clearances and, of course, his debut goal for his country, he was one of the few Irish players to emerge with credit from a torrid night. The problem is that, if Ireland had gone about the game in the right way, he would never have had to do so much backs-to-the-wall defending.
Martin O’Neill was more than a little bit tetchy in his post-match interview on RTÉ but Tony O’Donoghue was only asking the questions that everybody at home and the Irish fans in the stands in Tbilisi wanted answers to. Like, why did the players not seem to want to express themselves? Why were they playing with such a conspicuous lack of confidence?
A full house at the Aviva tonight for the visit of Serbia will certainly want to see the team expressing itself a lot more. And how can that be made possible? Well, once again the most obvious answer would be the inclusion of Wes Hoolahan in the starting line-up.
The news yesterday that he is nursing a tight groin is worrying, because I would regard it as seriously damaging to our hopes of pulling off a win if he’s not in the team. Last week, Roy Keane was quoted as describing the ever-present clamour for Wes as “media spin”. It’s nothing of the sort. The stats show that Ireland are nearly a point better off in competitive matches when Hoolahan plays. And before people ask ‘but how many of those games are against weaker opposition?’ the evidence also shows that he started in the wins against Germany and Austria and came off the bench to provide the cross for Robbie Brady’s goal in the victory over Italy at the Euros – three of the biggest results of the O’Neill era.
Before Saturday, Martin O’Neill had mentioned how the hot conditions in Tbilisi meant it would be even more important for his players to retain possession. Yet, in the way they played, you could not detect even a semblance of an intention to keep hold of the ball. The big statement of intent to back up the manager’s words would have been to play Wes but perhaps, given his age and the fact that the next game was coming up so quickly, Martin felt it was better to keep him fresh for tonight. But, now, if he’s not passed fit to play and we lose to the Serbs, then the decision to leave him out in Georgia could come to be regarded as a critical mistake in our bid to qualify for this World Cup. And if Wes is fit but simply isn’t picked, then the manager will simply be making a rod for his own back.
It’s not just about Hoolahan’s own composure on the ball; his presence seems to encourage the others in midfield to get it down and pass it to some extent. Against Georgia, Harry Arter was virtually unrecognisable from the player who does that for Bournemouth. And Glenn Whelan and Robbie Brady didn’t seem remotely interested either in getting on the ball and trying to play through midfield, where our inability to complete even a few 10 or 15-yard passes was, for players at this level, mind-boggling.
That’s not to say that playing the long ball up to the front guy doesn’t have its merits – as the goals by Shane Long against Germany and Jon Walters against Austria attest – but we have to mix our approach. You can’t just give the ball away cheaply, even to a team as lowly ranked as Georgia. And certainly not to Serbia.
The selection from the start of Hoolahan, if fit, isn’t the only change I’d like to see in the Irish side tonight. Robbie Brady would be the more adventurous selection at left back, another statement of intent. It’s not intended as a criticism of Stephen Ward but I think Brady is better going forward with the ball. Not only can he pick out a pass and get in a cross but I also think his presence at left-full transmits more confidence to his fellow defenders to try and play out from the back a bit.
I also think there’s an argument for David Meyler to come in for Glenn Whelan. Meyler did very well when he came on in Vienna and, overall, I think he’s quicker around the park and a more positive passer than Glenn.
Martin O’Neill, I would imagine, will be mulling over whether or not to replace Shane Long with Daryl Murphy. I would stick with Long because, while it’s true he was ineffectual in Tbilisi, for a striker to be effective you can’t starve him of service. Yes, he missed one good chance with a header but that’s Shane in front of goal for you: a bit hit and miss. But I still feel we will need his pace if we’re to trouble Serbia. Murphy is less mobile, more of a target man, and would be better employed as someone the manager can turn to late on if we’re chasing the game and need to go almost exclusively long ball, as we did after going behind at home to Austria.
But we can’t be hoofing it all game tonight. If we do, we will simply surrender possession to Serbia and make it easier for a team who have more quality than us, a team who can call on players from some of Europe’s top clubs, and a team who are top of the group and playing with their tails up as they come to Dublin.
A reason for optimism? We’ve been in this place before. One of the big plusses of Martin O’Neill’s time in charge is our results against better opposition, like taking four points off Germany in the Euro qualifiers and beating Austria away and drawing with Serbia away in this campaign. We also saw, in that 2-2 draw in Belgrade, that there are weaknesses to be exploited in the Serbian defence, especially at set-pieces. So if we show courage to get on the ball and play without fear, we can improve our chances of putting the visitors under pressure, even just by getting ourselves advanced far enough up the pitch to pose a threat to their goal from a corner or free-kick.
Coming off the back of a comprehensive defeat by Belgium at the Euros, that celebrated win over Italy - even if there’s no denying theirs was a weakened side on the night – was a reminder that you can never write this Irish team off. Now, we need to bounce back in similar fashion against Serbia. And if we do produce something close to our best and get the win that would put us on top of the Group D table, what was probably our worst performance under Martin O’Neill will be instantly forgotten.
