JOEY BARTON PULLED no punches in his analysis of Ireland’s performance against Belgium today and it made for bleak viewing.
The Irish were thoroughly outclassed this afternoon in Bordeaux, losing 3-0 to the Belgians in Group E at Euro 2016 thanks to second-half goals from Axel Witsel and Romelu Lukaku, who netted a brace.
Barton, who recently completed a move to Rangers from Burnley, is serving as a pundit on TV3 during the tournament, and he was impressed by neither the approach, the calibre, nor the performance of Martin O’Neill’s side.
“You’re hindered by the players you’ve got at your disposal,” said Barton. “I mean, John O’Shea, no spring chicken. You look at your central defensive partnership of O’Shea and [Ciaran] Clark. O’Shea, part of a Sunderland side that conceded 62 goals in 38 games in the Premier League last year.
“Ciaran Clark, obviously Aston Villa were bottom of the pile, 76 goals conceded by Villa in 38 games. Then you’ve got [Darren] Randolph behind that who’s second-choice [goalkeeper] at West Ham. Seamus Coleman, who’s not had the best season; Everton’s defence has been a huge problem for them.
“So you look at it and go, how can we sit back and absorb pressure? Certainly against a front-four of Lukaku, De Bruyne, Carrasco and Hazard, it’s eventually going to cost you and it’s eventually going to result in what I felt, 3-0, you were thinking this could go on and be four or five, it could be the highest score of the tournament.
The gameplan had to have been wrong. If you put that kind of responsibility on a defence that you know is not going to be able to do that, because they can’t do it at Premier League level, what chance has it got against a front-four of that calibre?
“It was poor, poor execution. They got back into shape but they never disrupted them. You never saw an Irish player go and compete. We criticised Turkey last night for a very similar performance. I thought it was abject.”
Ireland are likely to need a win against Italy on Wednesday night in Lille to stand any chance of progressing to the knockout stages, but Barton doesn’t sound like he’ll be backing the Boys in Green to do so.
He said: “I think if you’re Ireland, if you think at this moment in time that you can put in the same level of performance against Italy in a few days’ time and you’ll get through, I think they’re going to get another reality check.”
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