O’Neill calls on strikers to find keen edge
“We’re at home and people turning up for the game would want to see us going forward as much as possible,” the manager declared upon his arrival in Dublin yesterday.
“I’ll take in the quality of their side but the onus is on us to attack, that’s what we’re got to try and do.”
But, in the absence of the newly announced 2013 FAI Player Of The Year Robbie Keane and the withdrawal through injury of Kevin Doyle, O’Neill will be hoping his other strikers — who have hardly been free-scoring in the green shirt — can begin to step up to the plate this week.
“Yeah, absolutely, it’s really important,” he agreed. “As you say, the records are not that fantastic. Robbie, every day that goes on, he gets a bit older but he is still capable of getting a goal out of the blue. But I think also Shane Long will have gained some confidence, one from the move, and two he’s been doing fine. But I take your point, it’s up to all centre forwards here to make their mark from here on in.”
That said, O’Neill conceded a one-off game in March will give him very little time in which to develop his plans for the national team. Asked what he might achieve over the next couple of days, his reply was frank.
“In essence not a great deal, I have to say. If you consider that the five players that are playing today (Sunday), each and every one of them will come in tomorrow at some stage and they’ll be doing warm-downs and stuff like that. So essentially we’ll have some time tomorrow with the majority of the squad, have some time on Tuesday. And it’s really to do with a little bit of organisation as much as anything else.
“Pattern of play, I think you have to be working on that for a fairly lengthy period of time, hence maybe in the summertime getting a little bit more (done).”
Joining the injured trio of Doyle, Andy Reid and goalkeeper Rob Eliot on the missing list for Wednesday will be Richard Dunne, whom O’Neill has decided can stay with his club QPR.
The veteran defender will be 35 when Euro qualifying starts in September and, while definitely not ruling him out of contention then, O’Neill is happy for now to talk up other options at the back, in particular Stoke City’s Marc Wilson.
“If the qualifying game was tomorrow morning, then you’d have to give it (playing Dunne) some thought — he’s played a lot of games and he’s got a lot of experience. I thought that John O’Shea and young Marc Wilson did very well in the game against Latvia, and Wilson carried that form into the next match against Poland where I thought he did exceptionally well. He’s playing regularly at this minute for Stoke and his confidence has been given a boost from that. I watched him down against Southampton and I thought he did really fine.”
Dunne is one of those O’Neill will consider recalling for the May friendlies against Italy and Turkey and, if confirmed, one or two games in the States in early June. Darron Gibson and Sean St Ledger, both on the way back from injury, are two more whose progress O’Neill is closely monitoring. He also suggested that some young contenders, like Watford’s Sean Murray — who he watched on Saturday — and Jack Grealish, currently on loan at Notts County from Aston Villa, might also come into the reckoning in the summer.
Having previously expressed concern about the dearth of young Irish talent, O’Neill struck a slightly more optimistic note yesterday.
“You are hoping along the way that some young fellow will come up and be worthy of his place,” he said. “I think that is the important thing and not just picking someone for the sake of it who then gets an inflated opinion because he has been brought into a squad. They have to earn it and so far I have not been able to see anybody who can make that step at this time. But I am not despairing, there is time.”
However, O’Neill could not hide his disappointment at losing Nottingham Forest’s in-form Andy Reid, to a hernia operation, for this week’s game.
“It is really (disappointing). If you think back in November time, Wes (Hoolahan) started in that game, Andy was going to start out in Poland in the match and then he pulls his hamstring in training so he goes back and, really, I was looking forward to him coming into the squad at this time. As you say, he is in absolutely brilliant form and it’s a blow and it will be a blow to Forest as well but we’ll see what the summertime might bring.”
O’Neill revealed that he is considering adding his old club lieutenant John Robertson to his scouting ticket but added that he has yet to decide if and how he might still strengthen his coaching team.
Meanwhile, barring any further withdrawals over the next 48 hours, O’Neill is has no plans to cull any more players from his current squad of 25 for Wednesday’s game.
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