Updated at 10.40
‘WHY DOES EVERYONE want Ireland to play like Barcelona?’ comes the inevitable retort, whenever someone questions the style or methods of Martin O’Neill’s Ireland.
The problem, however, is not that the current Ireland side don’t play like Barcelona — it’s that they make Jose Mourinho’s Man United look like Barcelona and Marouane Fellaini akin to Lionel Messi by comparison.
The sheer brutality and unashamed lack of sophistication of Ireland’s second-half approach against Austria last weekend was as blunt as anything seen in the infamously direct though unequivocally successful Jack Charlton era.
The frenzied finish to the game prompted one perplexed visiting journalist to afterwards congratulate O’Neill on taking four points in two games against Marcel Koller’s team, before asking how such an outcome was possible, when Austria are “in football terms, such a better side”.
While there were some sporadic, largely unsuccessful attempts to play football in the first half by the hosts, the sole tactic once Daryl Murphy entered the action shortly before the hour mark seemed simply to be for every other Irish player to hit the ball as closely as possible the head of the Waterford native, or failing that, Jon Walters, with the hope that the hosts might win a second ball from their knockdowns.
And the Austrian journalists weren’t the only ones left unimpressed. Reflecting on the game on Newstalk subsequently, football pundit and former national team manager Brian Kerr said he wouldn’t pay to watch the current Irish side.
Many people bemoaned the absence of Wes Hoolahan from the starting XI and compared the performance unfavourably to the 1-0 victory against the same opposition in Vienna last November.
What’s interesting though is that Ireland actually played much more football at the Aviva last weekend compared with the reverse fixture, despite appearances to the contrary.
At the Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Austria completely dominated the ball according to the figures provided by the official Uefa website. The hosts that day had 59% of the possession and completed 418 passes compared to 174 by Ireland.
In contrast, Ireland actually saw more possession in Dublin — the Boys in Green had 53% of the ball overall and completed 266 passes by comparison to 231 for Austria, who it should also be pointed out, made seven changes to the Vienna starting XI.
This pattern will be familiar to those who paid attention to the stats at the Euros, where Ireland completed far fewer passes against Italy than they did against Belgium, but still produced a superior overall performance in the former match.
Yet regardless of what the passing stats say, there is no doubting it was an uneven performance from Ireland last weekend.
They currently sit joint-top of the group, but have had the benefit of some favourable results such as Georgia’s draw away to Wales, and the latter’s subsequent stalemate against Serbia last Sunday, which meant that both the Boys in Green and the Serbs stayed top, four points clear of Austria and Chris Coleman’s side.
Yet despite finding themselves in a promising position, there is undoubtedly much room for improvement in the the Irish side’s game.
There is no doubting Ireland are capable of better — so far in this World Cup qualifying campaign, they have rarely if ever reached the levels they hit in France last summer.
With the possible exception of Austria away, have the Irish side come close to matching the intensity of the matches against Sweden, Italy or the first half versus France at the Euros? And before that, there were the similarly impressive wins over Germany and Bosnia.
What makes performances such as last Sunday so frustrating is that people know Ireland can play better. They faced an Austrian team who were seemingly in disarray pre-match and had several key players missing, yet ultimately were fortunate to escape with a draw.
Without Hoolahan to knit things together as he has done so well in the past, in the first half, Ireland were a team without purpose, who didn’t really seem to know what to do with the ball, so ponderous was their approach play.
And the lack of invention or technical ability aside, another recurring theme of late was starkly evident last Sunday — the Irish side’s tendency to not really play until the pressure came on and they really had to do something.
This problem has been apparent in nearly every competitive Ireland game in recent memory. Against Wales, it wasn’t until the opposition went down to 10 men that the hosts were expected to win and acted as such. In the Serbia game, they scored a fortuitous early goal, only to invite pressure on and belatedly start to have a go once they found themselves 2-1 down. Facing opposition as tame as Georgia at home, Ireland lacked any real threat or creativity in the first half, and it was only when the crowd got on their backs that the performance levels improved and a degree of intensity entered their game thereafter.
Even going as far back as the Euros, in the opening game, Ireland effectively stopped playing once they went 1-0 up against Sweden and were made to pay. They didn’t really turn up against a Belgium side made to look better than they were, and again, it was only when the pressure came on that they thrived in an all-or-nothing clash against the Italians.
In addition, the previous qualifying campaign was a similar story. After a dour 1-1 draw with Scotland, Martin O’Neill’s men looked down and out, before they produced a miraculous recovery inspired especially by the 1-0 win over Germany at a raucous Aviva Stadium.
The filmmaker Kenneth Lonergan has been known to wear a wristwatch that is set 15 minutes ahead of the actual time in order to curb his tendency to be late for everything. Perhaps Ireland need a similar trick of the mind to enhance their performances. Maybe the FAI could hire a hypnotist to convince the team they are 1-0 down at the start of every game.
For now though, like an overly laidback student who won’t start working on a paper until 4am the night before it’s due, it is only under severe duress that this Irish side can truly thrive.
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