McCarthy’s mission to unlock the goals

One of Mick McCarthy’s main objectives as Ireland manager is to release the goals he believes are in his team, even if the bulk of the squad he announced yesterday is the same as the one which flat-lined in Martin O’Neill’s last year in charge.

“They have goals in them, in terms of players who have been scoring this year,” he said. “David McGoldrick’s been scoring goals, Callum (O’Dowda) has been in the goals, Ronan Curtis has scored. You can say it’s Portsmouth, you can say it’s Bristol City... Alan Browne’s got 12 goals this season, Conor (Hourihane) got two last week. Sean Maguire’s been scoring goals. Can they bring that to the international team? Can I get it out of them? Can I get them to score goals? Can we play in a way that enables them to score goals. Do I think I can? Yes.”