IRELAND LEGEND Paul McGrath says the national team’s players are giving their all but some lack the quality for international level.
The former Aston Villa star believes new manager Heimir Hallgrímsson has been dealt a tough hand and that some of his squad are “maybe not good enough” to perform at the level required.
“He has put a team out to try and win games but I think we need to stop leaking goals,” McGrath says. “The lads are doing as well as they can but we’re a long way short of beating the likes of England. We should be beating Greece, [though] they are not a bad side.”
McGrath is still an avid watcher of the Irish football team, as well as other sports like hurling and rugby. So what does he think must be done to stop a nightmare run that, excluding matches versus Gibraltar, has seen Ireland go over two years without a competitive win?
“Some of the players who left to play for other international teams, there has got to be a way that when players play for their country, they have to stay with them then. It seems stupid if they are basically letting them go to different countries. That’s something Fifa and other people are going to allow to happen so you just have to roll with the punches.
“I think the lads are trying their best — some I would think are maybe not good enough.
“Maybe we have to change the pattern of play to suit the players we have, which is what we did (under Jack). Some of us were not the greatest players but we could put ourselves about a bit and that seemed to soften one or two of the teams.”
Two players who did leave the Irish set-up, Declan Rice and Jack Grealish, were instrumental to the hosts’ loss to England in Dublin last month. What did McGrath think of their decision to switch?
“I have met Jack quite a few times and I love Jack for how well he did for Villa, so I hate the thought just because he is a brilliant footballer, he made a choice or his Dad made a choice or his agent made a choice, I don’t know, that they wanted to switch.
“I would rather he made the switch and if he didn’t want to play for Ireland, I would rather he moved out.
“Declan as well, I would rather he moved out. If he doesn’t want to play for Ireland, I don’t think we need him.”
He pauses and then laughs: “Turns out we might have needed him, might need them both! But if you are not committed to playing for this country, you shouldn’t do it.”
Perhaps the most criticised area of the Irish team of late has been the midfield. Josh Cullen, Alan Browne, Jason Knight, Will Smallbone and Jayson Molumby have all been given opportunities, though no one has produced a dominant performance in recent times to suggest they deserve to be a fixture for years to come.
McGrath is asked about playing a central defender, Nathan Collins or Dara O’Shea, in midfield just as Jack Charlton often selected McGrath further forward in the early parts of his reign.
“You could move either centre half in, I think Nathan is probably a better all-round footballer,” he says.
“But Dara I think would do what I was trying to do, which was just soften up and try to put a tackle or two in. It was the way I tried to deal with it because I knew I wasn’t as good a midfielder as the players I was playing against. Just tackle people and give it to the people who can play football.
“I think then you’d need the other players, the other centre-halves, or the lads in waiting, to come in and do as good a job as Dara or Nathan [in the backline]. I don’t know if we have those players. It’d be nice to think we do, but until you’re tested and stuff like that, in international football in particular, you honestly don’t know.”
Though there are major differences in the football landscape, psychologically Ireland are in a somewhat similar position now to when Jack Charlton took over in the 1980s.
Back then, confidence and morale were in short supply as the Boys in Green won just two of their eight qualifiers for the 1986 World Cup and finished second from bottom in their group.
McGrath suggests Heimir Hallgrímsson can learn something from the ruthless way Charlton handled established players such as Liam Brady in pursuit of success early in his reign.
“It’s easy for someone like myself to say but we don’t have the players,” the former defender adds. “I mean Jack did come in and tore the sheets up and said: This is the way we’re going to play.’
“We had the likes of Liam Brady and quite a few gifted players. For Ronnie Whelan and Liam Brady to accept that a centre half would go into midfield, it must have been quite a bombshell to them thinking what can he do that we can’t do and especially the style of football we were asked to play, to get it forward very quickly.
“Liam and Ronnie were two of our best players ever. It would have been difficult for them to say: ‘Yeah, we’ll just sit in the stands and if you want to call us on as subs…’ I know one or two of them were on the pitch.
“It would have been hard for them to accept the style of football that Jack wanted us to play. After playing four or five games you could understand what he was trying to do. I would still have wanted Liam on the pitch beside me and I’d still want Ronnie on the pitch beside me but I wanted to be on the pitch, I wouldn’t have cared if it was goalkeeper or centre forward.
“You have to be a big enough personality to say to Liam we want you on the team but I don’t want you collecting the ball here. I wouldn’t have said it to Liam anyway. But that’s the way Jack wanted to play, he was a big enough personality himself.”
Paul McGrath has teamed up with Pringles this Movember to champion men’s mental health. McGrath will serve as Pringles ambassador for its Movember campaign which is encouraging men to talk about their mental health. Throughout October, special edition Pringles tubes will feature a QR code that will bring users to the Mo Conversations tool which offers advice for people on how to open a dialogue with men about their mental health.
Good piece Ciaran, sums us Mayo’s up to a tee.
It will be an epic, be it an epic fail or victory for the Red and Green.
Donegal all the way man
This study has clearly shown, that, based on the proportion of red to green thumbs, twice as many Mayo fans read the Journal than Donegal fans….time to blow the pr budget on the advertising in Donegal….
MAYO for SAM, donegal for catch!!!
we can do this… maigh eo abu… :-D
Evokes memories of childhood back home going to those galway matchs – great article! We’re just hoping they can do it, the hype of 1996/1997 has long since passed – Kerry’s cruelty in 04 & 06 put paid to that craze! Losing is unthinkable, but a rational person would have to pick Donegal to win I suppose. But maybe, just maybe Mayo are building quietly to a cresendo this year , and maybe Donegal peaked against Cork and the hype in that county is getting to the players (Apparently thousands turning up to training sessions!?). Surely that has to weigh on these players, no matter how much they’re drilled by Jimmy. Mayo have been in this situation before, hopefully that counts for something?
Am I clutching at straws? Once bitten, twice shy but F~ck it – MAYO FOR SAM!
Here is a bag of straws! :)
Last time GB won an open in the Tennis was 1936.
Andy Murray won the open in 2012.
On Sept 23rd 1936 the AI was contested between Mayo and Laois.
On Sept 23rd 2012 the AI will be contested between Mayo and Donegal.
A certain Henry Kenny (RIP) played that day, father of an Taoiseach.
Mayo came out as winners of the AI, their first. :)
Up mayo
who ever is victorious in this one, there wont be a cow milked for a month will the celebrations that will be had and many a person will be conceived because of Sam going north or west!!
Jimmy’s winning matches, Jimmy’s winning games. Donegal for Sam, Mayo for sandwiches.
Great piece Ciaran.
Maybe the famine ends Sunday?
Up Donegal!!!!!
Brighid, see ya outside coppers at about half 4 Sunday morning… I’ll have a mayo jersey on and a big smile…. I’ll take you for a snack box then we’ll had back to mine… sound??
I don’t think there has ever been a piece written that mentions St Jarlaths and Milltown so many times without mentioning John Scan Concannon …. could you not of stuck it in some how Murf ??
From a corkman, COME ON MAYO!!!!
Lmao fartbox, thanks but no thanks! Only one man for me-a Donegal one. There will be plenty of good looking Donegal dolls about coppers I’m sure. Go on Donegal ;)
“I’ve said in this column before I believe that no All-Ireland final in the 128-year history of the GAA has thrown up a pairing as emotive and unique as this one”
I dunno about that. In 1998 Galway & Kildare hadn’t won the All-Ireland in 102 years between them, compared to a mere 81 this time. That made it fairly emotional & unique. Imagine the emotion in Kildare after waiting 70 years & beating the three previous All-Ireland winners, including Micko’s win over Kerry.
The ’89 hurling final was certainly unique & emotional. It involved Tipp ending their All-Ireland famine against a team who had grown up hurling against the backdrop of the Troubles when, as Terence McNaughten said (I’m paraphrasing), walking to training with a hurl in your hand essentially put a target on your back. Wexford and Limerick were fairly into it in 1996 but that didn’t seem like such a big deal after the dam of emotion that burst in 1995. And what about the first all Munster final in 1997? Mutual loathing, the haves vs the have-nots, the country’s first taste of the back door – the lot!
What’s the big deal this time? Mayo have lost a few big games? Well boo-hoo, at least they got there. If they played in a tougher province then they’d have been culled before they got to the big stage in a lot of those years. A ratio of 3 All-Irelands from 51 Provincial titles tells it’s own story on that front. Losing some matches hardly compares to Tyrone’s emotional state in 2005.
Still, thanks for coming
Put us in a tough province then. We’ll happily go in. Or better still put the so called weaker counties in connacht, they wouldn’t have a hope of winning it. Leinster is full of weak teams and is a 2 team challenge-same as connacht. Ulster is a one county championship most of the time, or sometimes 2-same as connacht.
Munster with just cork and Kerry is the hardest province there is. So what’s your point?
When mayo get out of connacht they have to play teams from other provinces and quite often beat them. We beat the all Ireland champions 2 years in a row, is that because we have it easy?
Tomas, the Ulster Championship is far more competitive than it’s counterparts in Connacht and Leinster. It has very rarely been won by the same county back to back. Donegal made history when we lifted it this year, our 2nd is as many years, that win broke a record. That says it all.
I think throughout this season people have written off Donegal. They all said we’d never beat Tyrone and then we did, then they said we’d never beat Down and then we did, then they said we’d never beat Kerry and then we did, then they said we’d definitely get sent home by cork and we ran rings around them in the 2nd, albeit we dropped the ball towards the end, but we’ve no fear of being underdogs. We’ve spent the entire season proving the country wrong. We like a challenge and I’ve no doubt that Jim and the boys will prove everyone wrong again on Sunday. There’s only one place Sam’s going on Sunday and that’s to the fair hills of Donegal! Dún na nGáll abú!
Yeah except you’re not underdogs this time around! Its all different now, no critics to prove wrong, the weight of expectation on your shoulders. You’d nearly prefer Dublin to have something to aim at, but its Mayo, and we’re in your position now, underdogs, hungry to prove teh pundits wrong. Its going to be interesting thats for sure!
MAYO FOR SAM!