GUS POYET HAS delivered a stinging rebuke to Keith Andrews over suggestions he received inside information from an Irish coach prior to the Republic of Ireland’s 2-1 defeat to Greece at the beginning of this Euro 2024 qualifying campaign.
The two sides meet in the return fixture at Aviva Stadium tomorrow night and the Greek manager said “it was a cheap accustation, very cheap” from the Ireland assistant earlier this week.
The Irish coach in question is Gary Dicker, who played under Poyet when he was in charge of Brighton and Hove Albion from 2009-13 and is now a coach with the club’s U-23 side.
Dicker, who Poyet confirmed was in Athens, has had no involvement in a coaching capacity with the FAI or Stephen Kenny’s senior team.
“It was sad. I was very disappointed. I don’t know Keith. From the outside I seen him talking on television and the way he played football, I felt he was an intelligent man and he made a mistake, a big mistake.
“First, I don’t invite people to watch my training. I don’t. Secondly, nobody told me how the Republic of Ireland plays. Third, if you look how your country played before they play us: France at home, 5-4-1. Three days before that, they play Latvia, 5-3-2. How did they play against us, 5-3-2 in the first half, 5-4-1 in the second.
“Do you really think I need information? Let’s say he (Andrews) is young, made a mistake, made excuses but I was disappointed, very disappointed.
“Gary [Dicker] is one of the most intelligent players I had in my time at Brighton. He is proper Irish. Proper. And I promise you, this is one thing that is important, we talked more about how good Brighton play than the Republic of Ireland.
“Definitely Gary had nothing to do with that. He was in Greece, yes he was. He went to the game and the day he came to [Greek training] we done nothing to show him, in case he told the Republic of Ireland.
“Gary is a very honest man, he is a top bloke. It was a cheap accusation, very cheap.”
Poyet also took issue with Matt Doherty’s assertion that Greece players’ behaviour played a part in the red card shown to him following his confrontation with Georgios Tzavellas and Kostas Tsimikas which resulted in the latter falling to the ground.
In his own pre-match press conference earlier today Kenny also referenced how Greece are “a streetwise team” and “players throwing themselves on the ground.”
“He (Doherty) played for Atletico Madrid, no?” Poyet began.
“When he was in Spain, was he not watching the games, was he on another planet? It’s football. I never had a coach who told me to dive, I promise you. Did I dive when I was young? Yeah, a lot. Then I came to England and the first thing they said to me was don’t. And you need to learn. The first one who told me three times was Denis Wise, he said ‘don’t do that, you are in England now and you learn’. Do you want me to control the whole world with players who go down?
“Doherty made a mistake, he reacted to something and he got sent off. I don’t think tomorrow we will come in here thinking of anything like that. We come in here thinking, intensity, power, defending, one-v-one, balls in the air and for that there is no way you’ll go down. You need to defend. Let’s leave it at that, let’s play the game the best we can with ability, when it goes against you it hurts, sometimes it goes the other way, it’s how we play the game nowadays.
“I am surprised, I am surprised, I didn’t read that part, only the Keith Andrews part. Play the game. Be men.”
Greece can still qualify automatically from Group B and are level with the Netherlands on nine points with three games remaining – although their rivals have one in hand.
Victory over Ireland would tee Greece up for a crucial encounter with the Dutch – who host France tomorrow – on Monday.
Ireland, meanwhile, are labouring on just three points with qualification out of reach and a play-off highly unlikely.
“We need to adapt, need to be ready to control, ready to compete at that level, there is a moment that naturally the game will settle down so we need to get to that point whether it is 15, 20, 25, 30 minutes of the game,” Poyet said.
“You cannot be down 2-0 or 3-0, the idea is to be very brave in the beginning and start controlling and play the game because the more we can play our game, the more chance we have to win the game, so it is going to be a nice contrast of different styles, the one who imposes the game the most has more chance of winning.
“It’s something that is incredible, you play with the numbers (permutations) and, in the beginning I didn’t, but now three here, three there, we can make 18 points and be out.
“We can win the three games and be out because Holland can make 18 and we need to beat them more than 3-0. It will be tough but if we do well and do our job and France to give us a hand tomorrow night. That will make the game on Monday even bigger. But tomorrow, first tomorrow.”
Greece (possible): Vlachodimos; Rota, Koulierakis, Mavropanos, Tsimikas; Siopis, Kourbelis, Bakasetas; Masouras, Mantalos, Fountas
