The Current State of the International Side

 

As international football ends for 2014, this article evaluates the current prospects of the Republic of Ireland international football team.

 Martin O`Neil and Roy Keane were announced as Rep of Ireland`s Management team over a year ago to almost universal fanfare but it seemed an eternity until their first competitive game in charge. An away trip against the Georgians gave Irish fans their first glimpse of the pairing in competitive action. In a shaky performance Ireland managed to pull off a late victory through a fine performance by Aiden Mcgeady. Despite the nature of the performance, we were comforted in the knowledge that this was a good three points from a place Spain and France have recently struggled.

 Next up was a home game against Gibraltar, their firemen and policemen could not come to the rescue and they were duly dispatched 7-0 in the Avivia stadium. 

 The first big test came against a Germany side still celebrating its World Cup win in Brazil. The match itself went the way most expected; Germany had lots of possession with the Irish heroically holding on hoping for a miracle. When Toni Kross struck it seemed as if this was not to be Ireland`s night but the luck of the Irish was in and a strike from John O`shea sealed a famous draw.

 Then came the visit to Scotland in Celtic Park.  A highly anticipated game involving two evenly matched sides, on paper at least. A much more adventurous Scottish side came up against a robust Ireland side playing a long ball game. The Scots were rewarded for their approach and won 1-0.

 A superficial look at these results will show a return of 7 points from 12 that keeps our hopes of a second placed finish alive. Add in the fact that 3 out of 4 games were away from home and things look quiet rosy.

 A more critical dissection of the games gone by paints a much bleaker picture. Ireland were extremely lucky to win in Georgia, helped by Aiden McGeady putting in arguably his best performance in a green jersey. Gibraltar were always going to be a foregone conclusion, the result in Germany was laudable but the performance was not and the game in Scotland showed up the true failings in the Irish game plan.

 As good as the result in Germany was, it papered over the cracks and there are many. Germany did not have their full complement of player available and when this changes the complexion of the group will dramatically change.  Scotland are extremely close to Ireland on paper with an almost identical split of Premier league to Championship players in their starting 11. It is clear they are using their resources much better then Ireland at this current moment. 

If we rank the teams competing for second spot in the group, Scotland, Poland and Ireland in terms of their performances so far, Ireland comes a distant third even taking into account the German result. Poland have beaten the Germans and Scotland in turn have travelled to Poland and got a draw. The possibility of Ireland beating Poland, Scotland or the Germans is remote. The simple reason is we don’t use the ball well enough to do it.

Ireland do not need to add a Spanish tika taka style to their play, they simply need to use it like Scotland. The players are available to do so. We have players adept at holding on to the ball and utilizing in it in a productive manner. Players like James McCarthy, Darron Gibson, Anthony Pilkington, Wes Houlahan and David Mcgoldrick are capable of being adventurous. The reality of this group is we will need to beat at least one if not two of the top teams in Dublin. This will not be achieved by the type of back to front football seen in Ireland’s matches so far. If a change of direction is not seen then the consolation of a play-off may not even be available.

A Poland team with the talents of Lewandowski, Piszczek and the promising Ajax star Milik will cause Martin O’Neil many sleepless nights in the New Year. Poland are very capable of taking 4-6 points from Ireland, a scenario which would all but end our qualification hopes completely.

The accepted prediction for our group was that Germany would run away with it and leave Ireland, Poland and Scotland to scrap it out for second place. Second in the group appeared a realistic aspiration for Ireland; fighting two sides they appeared evenly matched against. In this scenario Germany would top the group as run-away leaders and Ireland achieving second spot by a point or two or perhaps even on goal difference. In a three team mini-group scenario such as this, losing in Glasgow is not the end of the world as this can be made up by achieving a decent result against a team in the mini-group. There remains a strong likelihood Germany will top the group by a healthy margin but their slow start has thrown open the door to the chasing pack particularly Poland.  A two horse top spot race in this group would be bad news for the Irish as it would close the door on a second place finish and leave us to fight with the Scots; a scenario in which the loss in Glasgow becomes extremely important. However, after just four games in the group permutations such as these are mildly interesting at best and not at all useful.

This writers prediction for the group is Germany to win it, Poland a close second, Ireland third and the Scots a close fourth. It promises to be an extremely intriguing group and a real test of Martin O`Neil`s management skills and Roy Keane`s temper.

                                               Roll on 2015!