‘Time for Ireland to excite Europe’: Louise Quinn pleads for ambitious Ireland approach
ITS A MINDSET: “It’s time to move on by getting our flair and creative players on the ball and pushing forward. That’s a mindset.” Pic: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne
Centurion Louise Quinn insists the time has arrived for Ireland to excite Europe after their disappointing World Cup tournament.
Ireland returned from Australia last week with one point from nine and a wave of controversy over camp dissent and the future of manager Vera Pauw.
The six-week break until the first Nations League campaign pits them against Northern Ireland in a first-ever international to be played at Aviva Stadium on September 23 affords space for the FAI to clarify the manager’s situation.
Pauw’s four-year reign is hanging by a thread as her contract lapses this month. None of Ireland’s players have publicly shared her desire to have the deal extended, with Quinn the latest to avoid the topic when appearing on RTÉ for punditry duties.
What she did call for, consistent with the undercurrent emerging from the squad, is an ambitious approach to be applied in the next cycle. Pauw has been often criticised for her cautious tactics.
Ireland’s consolation prize for missing out the cut for a League A berth in the Nations League was a group against lower seeds.
They will be favourites to top the pool that encompasses home and away matches against the North, Hungary and Albania up to December. That outcome will frame their path to qualifying for a first Euros, the 2025 version hosted by Switzerland.
“We’re soon going to have a clear head and look forward to this sort of thing,” said the Birmingham City defender, back in Dublin alongside former Ireland teammate Emma Byrne on the couch for the final two last-16 ties.
“I’d like to see us really going after games. Going forward, dominating and scoring goals was something maybe in general Ireland lacked.
“We have brilliant attacking players like Katie McCabe, Denise O’Sullivan and Kyra Carusa - who has really come into her own.
“I feel we’ll also be defensively sorted so we have to push on and figure out how we create more goals apart from set-pieces.”
Quinn noted that solitary strike nestled by Ireland over the 280 minutes at the World Cup was McCabe’s early worldie against Canada to earn a lead they couldn’t protect.
She said: “Our only goal at the World Cup was directly from a corner but we want to go and excite Europe and the World – get Ireland where we deserve to be.
“That’s possible but we have to take the right steps at the right time.
“Everyone wants to do their best to play attacking football. I get a buzz from the defending, bodies on the line stuff, but you want to take advantage of our quality players going forward.
“Everybody does different things at club level and you want to try to bring that together.” Byrne, who retired in 2017 with a 134-cap record that’s yet to be broken, also indicated a change of guard would be welcome.
“It’s very, very important that the next movements are positive regarding whoever is the manager and how they play,” she said.
“The Nations League is a great opportunity to practice that. As a coach, you also practice defending and making us difficult to beat.
“Well, we’ve been doing that for a very long time and done it very well.
“It’s time to move on by getting our flair and creative players on the ball and pushing forward. That’s a mindset.”
Ireland v Northern Ireland, Aviva Stadium (1pm);
Hungary v Ireland, Hidegkuti Nándor Stadium, Budapest (KO TBC);
Ireland v Albania, Tallaght Stadium.
Albania v Ireland.
Ireland v Hungary, Tallaght Stadium.
Northern Ireland v Ireland.
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