RTÉ PUNDIT EAMON Dunphy was critical of Glenn Whelan and the Irish management after a disjointed display against Serbia tonight.
Despite O’Neill’s assertion that the players were “brilliant,” Dunphy suggested aspects of the Irish performance were inept.
“We cannot give the ball away, and we cannot sit deep and give the ball away,” Dunphy said.
“There has to be a discipline when we don’t have it, which was absent, and there has to be a discipline when we have it, and support for people.
“We talked about how well they did in spells at the European Championships — there was very little of that tonight.
“We need to pass the ball. Quinn or Hoolahan are much betters option than either McCarthy or Whelan. We need to get Robbie Brady at left-back, and a partnership between Duffy and O’Shea, though maybe that’s a bit harsh.
We were fortunate tonight, and we were very disappointing for a very long period.”
Nevertheless, there was an element of the display that Dunphy was pleased with this evening.
We did show one thing that’s important — guts, and resilience to come back and get a result there, and fair play to them for that.
“This management team needs to get their act together, they need to get the right team on the pitch, and they need to teach them how to manage a game.
If you get an early goal, you go and want a second goal, and we never looked like we were going to get that second goal.”
Dunphy added that Wes Hoolahan has been “abused” in some ways by Martin O’Neill, indicating the manager was “reluctant to start him,” and explaining that the Norwich man should have featured.
Fellow pundit Didi Hamann, however, was less critical, saying that Serbia is “never an easy place to go,” and adding: “I can’t see another team (in the group) winning there.”
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