Analysing Ireland: The unembroidered value of tigerish James McCarthy

After that memorable win over Germany last October, a piece on an Irish sports website analysed James McCarthy’s performance amid suggestions it was one of the great individual displays in an Ireland jersey.

It consisted of a clip of McCarthy making a tracking run and clearance, another chasing down a breakaway and another basic track-and-tackle. If that makes them all sound fairly low-key, yet important plays, well that would be typical of a player who was expected to produce great things but who’s disappointed with less obvious contributions instead.

McCarthy was an influence that night in many ways, but it wouldn’t be immediately clear what he did different against Germany to the home qualifiers with Scotland or Georgia, after which he got an amount of stick.