STEPHEN WARD, GLENN Whelan, Robbie Keane… The usual suspects were singled out for criticism as Ireland looked on the verge of dropping points against Georgia for the first time yesterday, in the sixth-ever meeting between the sides.
And of course, barring the irrepressible Aiden McGeady, it’s difficult to make a case for any of the Irish players playing well in Tbilisi.
Georgia away, it had been correctly predicted, would be a difficult fixture. They had managed to get a 0-0 draw with France and were also beaten just 1-0 by Spain at home during their last qualifying campaign. What had been less pronounced were other recent results however, which include defeats to sides such as Finland and United Arab Emirates.
The Georgians picked up only five points and scored just three goals in their last qualifying campaign. Temuri Ketsbaia’s side are relatively well organised and difficult to beat, but they are not ranked 95th in the world by accident. Notwithstanding those aforementioned two impressive results, it is difficult not to conclude that they are one of the worst sides in Europe.
So while Ireland’s somewhat fortuitous win yesterday was a relief, it was hardly worthy of vehement celebration, given the sub-par nature of the performance — O’Neill’s side lacked conviction throughout and were just over three minutes away from a result that would have been significantly damaging, both in terms of their morale and qualification hopes.
The counter-argument, of course, is that Ireland don’t have the players anymore to compete to a high level in international football, but surely they should be good enough to earn a more convincing victory against a team full of individuals from sides such as OFI Crete, Flamurtari Vlore, Samtredia and Karpaty Lviv.
Aside from Stephen Ward, every member of that Ireland XI yesterday had been starting for their clubs, and apart from Robbie Keane and David Forde, the other nine players all play in the Premier League. Three of the players that featured only the other week helped Stoke beat England’s reigning domestic champions Manchester City, while another three were part of an Everton team that came agonisingly close to securing a Champions League spot last season. To suggest footballers at that level should be happy with a last-minute win against opponents who play their domestic football in places like Albania is surely wildly accentuating the positives from an important but unconvincing three points.
Martin O’Neill, perhaps inevitably, suggested fans and critics should be satisfied with how the game went, but how content he feels about the performance privately is unclear. Certainly, it is difficult to picture assistant boss Roy Keane — a notorious perfectionist — leading the celebrations in the dressing room afterwards.
Before McGeady’s dramatic last-gasp intervention, it was a day in which it was “all going wrong” for an out-of-sorts Ireland team, as RTÉ co-commentator Ronnie Whelan put it.
Of all the disconcerting sights in yesterday’s match though, perhaps the most depressing of all was the recurring image of James McCarthy ambling away from play in the centre-forward position.
(McCarthy has been impressive for Everton in the Premier League)
McCarthy is an interesting case. He is widely regarded as being a key representative of the future of Irish football. And there is no doubt he is one of the most talented players the Boys in Green have had available for a long time — the £13million fee Everton paid to buy him from Wigan supports this theory, as does the fact that he made his senior debut with Hamilton Academical at just 15 years of age. He had a superb debut season in an impressive Toffees side, featuring in 34 of their 38 games, while the latest reports suggest that the club are set to offer their 23-year-old star midfielder a new contract on the back of interest from Manchester United. Yet you certainly wouldn’t have guessed it based on yesterday’s display.
O’Neill revealed in a pre-match interview with RTÉ’s Tony O’Donoghue that McCarthy was set to play in an advanced midfield role, in comparison with his deep-lying position at Everton and what followed will surely be remembered as one of the most anonymous displays of the player’s career, as the game completely passed him by, and he virtually sleepwalked through proceedings.
http://vine.co/v/OzzIdlKAMTa
The 23-year-old was invariably so far away from the play as to render his presence irrelevant. On the rare occasions when the ball came in his vicinity, teammates consistently opted to pass to someone else, as if barely registering his availability. On the one occasion when the ball did come into his path, in a dangerous positon — almost by accident following a hopeful punt upfield by David Forde — McCarthy offered fans a tantalising glimpse of his intrinsic footballing ability, which is all too often concealed, in the form of a beautifully weighted pass to set up Aiden McGeady’s first goal (see above).
Yet that one positive moment aside, there are only two others that stand out in the memory as far as the Everton man’s display is concerned — a cynical tug back on a Georgian player that he was lucky not to receive a booking for, and an overhit pass towards Robbie Keane amid a promising counter-attack, which resulted in a tongue lashing from Martin O’Neill that the TV cameras happened to pick up.
What’s so frustrating about his non-performance though, is that — unlike some of the lesser Ireland players who were poor yesterday — McCarthy is capable of so much better.
There are some logical explanations for his ineptitude, of course. He was conspicuously lacking in energy — not once did the star break into a full-on sprint, nor did he win many (if any) tackles. He missed the Oman friendly through injury, and perhaps his fitness was not really what it should have been in Tbilisi last night — a factor that would not have been helped by the stifling heat evident from the TV pictures. Moreover, whereas at Everton, he has a very defined role sitting in midfield with Gareth Barry, in Georgia, the ex-Wigan star looked lost in his new unfamiliar position, even if he should still have had the footballing intelligence to adapt and make more of an impact in the role.
According to the common footballing consensus, alongside Seamus Coleman, McCarthy — based on his club form — is Ireland’s best player, yet he has ghosted through his 24 appearances at international level thus far. Before now, his defenders offered excuses — he was inexperienced, ex-boss Giovanni Trapattoni was restricting him, he needed to be playing for a bigger club than Wigan. Yet none of those caveats are applicable now, and still the results are patently underwhelming, as yesterday’s game highlighted.
McCarthy’s struggles consequently bring to mind the early teething problems of another Scottish-born Irish star — Ray Houghton. In the much-loved documentary, The Charlton Years (see above), Houghton describes how, early in his Ireland career, the more senior figure of Liam Brady told him: “It’s about time you started to do a bit more in the game when you’re out there.” Houghton continues: “He was right. It was about time I started to grow up. I was an international player, and I had to prove it… It was one of the best lessons I ever had.”
Houghton went on to become an integral figure in the golden era of Irish soccer and gained legendary status as a result of some very memorable goals. So surely, like Houghton, it’s about time McCarthy started to grow up and become the player he has long promised to be at international level. Otherwise, Ireland, with one of their few top-quality Premier League stars dormant, will likely face another extended period in the international wilderness.
