BRIAN KERR LAST night slammed Ireland’s record over the last two years under Martin O’Neill as “abysmal”.
And that was before the hosts drew 0-0 with the North at the Aviva Stadium in yet another performance to forget.
Before a ball was even kicked, the former Ireland boss was heavily critical of the Boys in Green, their recent form and their management, highlighting damning statistics in doing so.
How big of a game is this for O’Neill, with all of the negativity of late, in comparison to what his counterpart Michael O’Neill has done with the North, presenter Tommy Martin asked on Virgin Media TV.
“It would generally be considered that we have better players to pick from,” Kerr said. “Obviously Michael doesn’t have the same depth or the same band of players to pick from.
"Since the start of 2017, we've played 17 games. We've won 3, drew 6 and lost 8. And in those 17 games we've only twice scored 2 goals. That's abysmal."
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) November 15, 2018
Brian Kerr on Ireland's recent form and performances in comparison to Northern Ireland. #IRLNIR #VMSport pic.twitter.com/1qWH3bKk1S
“But it is also the style of football and that they seem to create lots and lots of chances, even though the results haven’t been so good for Michael [O'Neill] recently. They’ve had a go at matches, taken teams on and created numerous chances. We have created very few.
“Since the start of 2017, we have played 17 games. We have won three, we’ve drawn six and we’ve lost eight. And in those 17 games we have only twice scored two goals and no more. We scored two against Moldova and two against USA in a friendly. That’s abysmal for our international team: 17 international matches, three wins.”
And after the match in Dublin, Kerr picked up where he left off:
“As I said earlier, now we have three wins in 18 games…. that, I thought was a dreadful performance.
“One team had concentration, confidence, composure and a pattern of play. The other team were us. We had none of those qualities. We were all over the place.
“We were outplayed everywhere on the pitch, awful with the ball.”
"One team had concentration, confidence, composure and a pattern of play. The other team were us."
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) November 15, 2018
Brian Kerr is scathing of that Ireland performance tonight. #VMSport pic.twitter.com/MJfblZ8PIW
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