Duffy: Critics too harsh on Ireland

Shane Duffy has hit out at the ‘‘very harsh’’ criticism of the Ireland team in the aftermath of Euro 2012.

Giovanni Trapattoni’s men failed to win a point in Poland but Everton centre-back Duffy, while conceding the team performed poorly, feels people should keep things in perspective.

“People shouldn’t be criticising the team so much,” Duffy, who missed out on a place in the squad for the finals, said. “Look at the Netherlands; one of the best teams in the world and they also lost all their games.

“They played poorly, but that doesn’t make them a poor team does it? The same applies to Ireland. We had a tough group, at the end of the day. People said that Croatia were going to be easy, but the reality is the eventual champions just about beat them.

“The team was out in Poland trying their best to do us proud but we have to be realistic and not go over the top by criticising the team so much.”

Duffy added on Goal.com: “We have a good team. You don’t get to the European Championships if you’re a bad team. I think we did really well to get to the tournament. Fair enough, we went out at the group stage, but some of the criticism of the team was very harsh.”

Ireland’s results in Poland have led to calls for the squad to be radically overhauled and Duffy will be one of a number of young players hoping to break into the squad in the coming months.

To do so, he knows he’ll need to feature regularly at club level.

“At the minute, I’m focused on making sure I’m playing regular club football. Obviously I’d love to get a senior call up, but I have to earn it.”