Martin O’Neill: We must deal with pressure

Martin O’Neill concedes that, even though they have home advantage, his Irish team will be the one feeling the most pressure when Scotland come calling to the Aviva on Saturday.

Joint-second with Germany behind leaders Poland in Group D, the Scots enjoy a two-point advantage over Ireland in the Euro 2016 qualifying table, having claimed that 1-0 victory in Glasgow last November.

“You would have to say that there is more pressure on us to win to redress the situation from the Scottish game and put ourselves right into it,” said O’Neill at the squad’s training base in Malahide.

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“There are certain players who thrive on it, but nowadays, more so than ever before, you can turn what you think is a relatively easy enough situation into severe pressure within a period of days, never mind anything else. It’s up to us to win the game, regardless of the pressure. We have to go and try and win and the best way to do that is deal with it, come out, be positive in the game and wrest the initiative from Scotland. It’s as simple as that. It really is.”

The consensus might be that nothing less than a victory on Saturday will suffice to keep Ireland in the hunt for France, but it appears O’Neill would not be throwing in the towel even if the worst came to the worst against Gordon Strachan’s men.

“While it’s far from over — there will be plenty of twists and turns — you would have to say that Scotland would gain a big advantage if they went and took three points from us,” he said.

In Ireland’s five qualifying games to date, they have managed a clean sheet only against Gibraltar, while that same stroll in the park win also accounts for seven of the 11 goals they have scored. For O’Neill, it’s that lack of a consistent cutting edge which he wants to see rectified as a matter of urgency.

“Whatever you say, I think it would be nice to get in front in a game rather than chasing matches, as we’ve been doing just recently,” he said.

“I think we’re capable of keeping sides out relatively okay. Our problem is not getting enough goals. I was asked the question yesterday, about what you think you can improve on and the very obvious thing is getting chances in the game and taking some of them when they are there. It’s nice to have natural goalscorers in the team and, if we don’t possess them, Robbie [Keane] is coming back.

“You see the Champions League final, where you know that you have got three players there capable of scoring a goal; it’s a lovely feeling to have when you have got world-class players being able to take defences apart.

“If you haven’t got that, then you have to use other methods to try to win games.”

If there was a touch of phoney war to last week’s proceedings, this week will see a real intensity increasingly brought to bear as the squad and the staff gear up for the big one.

“I enjoyed the buzz leading up to the England game, naturally, with this in mind,” said O’Neill, “but I think this week you will see amongst the players that they will be totally focused. It’s the last game of the season before they all break off and, with the importance of the game, it’s very, very important at international level that players leave club problems to the side. Some players here have had a difficult end to the season, but now they must leave their trials and tribulations to one side and concentrate on this game.”

On the injury front, O’Neill had encouraging news on both Wes Hoolahan and John O’Shea, while Robbie Keane — who played 90 minutes for LA Galaxy on Saturday — joined the camp yesterday, having already been in touch with the team physio to say that, according to O’Neill, “he feels in decent shape”.

The manager continued: “Wes did some training Monday, which is good. Again, I didn’t see that as a problem. I was hoping to get him on the field of play against England for about 15 minutes but he has played as many games as anyone. He played in the play-off match, though he didn’t start in the first game against Ipswich, but he played about 75 minutes in the second one and he played in the play-off final. So he, more than most of the Championship players, has had the games. So he was less of a problem. It would have been nice to have got him on, but he’s absolutely fine. And in terms of John, he’s feeling much better today.”

So no fresh injury worries from the England game must have come as a major relief?

“I know we have a few training sessions to negotiate here between now and Saturday but, yes, absolutely. The players have all remarked here this morning [on the benefits of game], not only those who got on and earned a cap against England — and that was great for them — but because my intention was to get something out of the game both in terms of the opposition that we played and, obviously, the physical side.”

All that said, O’Neill is conscious that, given the protracted build-up to the Scotland game, which has the players in camp for the guts of a fortnight, it’s important to the get work/rest/play balance right. Thus, from lunchtime onwards, the players were given the rest of yesterday, last night and most of today off, with the manager expecting them back at base at tea-time. No curfew was put in place last night, with O’Neill explaining that the players could “go and see family and things like this — that’s their time”.

The decision, he revealed, is in keeping with how he liked to operate as a club manager.

“I’ve not been one for cooping people up. I treat these players in, hopefully, an adult fashion and so far, so far, in my time here, they’ve responded. Famous last words, of course, there’ll be three in prison tomorrow [laughter].”