Nations League: Slovenia v Republic of Ireland, Bonifika Stadium, Koper, Tuesday, 5pm (Irish time) – Live on RTÉ2
About an hour before the Carla Ward era began for the Republic of Ireland against Turkey at Tallaght Stadium last Friday, the official team sheets caused a rush of excitement.
Katie McCabe was listed up front beside Kyra Carusa in a 3-5-2 line up. The information, for media consumption, was misleading. Ward went with a 4-1-4-1 as, yet again, the second highest Irish goalscorer with 29 goals in 94 caps started at left back.
Familiar plans were hatched to squeeze the Turkish midfield and create space for McCabe down the flank. Official statistics from the 1-0 victory over the 60th-ranked team in the world show that Ireland had two of four attempts on target from 72 per cent possession. They created no chances in the second half.
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Ward put the performance down to a “hangover” from the Euro 2025 play-off loss to Wales in December.
Like Colin Bell, Vera Pauw and Eileen Gleeson before her, solving the McCabe conundrum remains the primary challenge for Ireland’s new manager.
The prematch team sheet suggested the Irish captain would finally be used the way Wales got 40 goals and 22 assists out of Gareth Bale – a left back who transformed himself into a central forward or coming off the right when bagging 10 goals as the Welsh qualified for Euro 2016 before ultimately reaching the semi-final of the tournament.
Instead, Ward attempted to deploy McCabe in a similar way to how Arsenal encourage her to attack from fullback, which is only made possible by global stars who innately understand how to play possession football in the opposition half.
The selection of Megan Campbell as the left of two centre halves, with Caitlin Hayes dropped, was done to put McCabe in similar positions, while Marrissa Sheva filled a roaming role off Carusa that showcased her insatiable work ethic and lack of close control.
Sheva, Anna Patten and Heather Payne are injury concerns for Tuesday’s game while Liverpool’s Leanne Kiernan is out with a calf issue.
“We’re trying to keep possession higher up,” said Campbell. “We have the quality to do that, but the confidence is something we have maybe lacked in ourselves as a group. We need to put that right because everyone is technically good enough.”
Campbell is good enough, as are McCabe, Denise O’Sullivan and Ruesha Littlejohn, but the rest of this Ireland squad have consistently struggled to keep the ball beyond three passes. This was evident under Bell, Pauw, Gleeson and throughout Ward’s first game in charge.
Littlejohn already identified a lack of technical proficiency as the missing ingredient needed to get Ireland to Euro 2025. She even called for a “grassroots” revolution.
Ward, to her credit, immediately addressed a glaring issue holding back women’s football in Ireland by arranging a trial match between a development squad and the under-19s last Wednesday in Abbotstown in an effort to repair the connection between Irish-based talent and the national team.
It’s a start. After Friday’s unimpressive showing on a torn-up surface in Tallaght, it was put to Campbell that people possess plenty of evidence to dispute her belief that Ireland can play ball.
“We don’t believe their opinion. Football is about having possession and creating opportunities. We haven’t done that in a long time in terms of possession-based football with the national team. So we’re changing that up now.”
The best place to prove people wrong is at the Bonifika Stadium in Koper on Tuesday evening. The worst case scenario has Eintracht Frankfurt’s Lara Prasnikar scoring a 50th international goal as Slovenia build on Friday’s 2-1 win in Greece.
Necla Kiragasi’s side want Ireland to abandon their previous reliance on set piece and breaking ball. Like Turkey, they will press high and seek to punish errors.
“We want to be on the ball and we want to keep possession and do that higher up the pitch,” Campbell insisted. “We changed from a 3-5-2 to a 4-3-3, so obviously you have one less in the backline which creates an extra one up front.”
Back to the Bale theory, why can’t the “extra one up front” be the most lethal left-footed Irish international since Ian Harte? Ward could start Izzy Atkinson at left back or shift Campbell to her natural position with Hayes returned to the back four.
The appointment of Mahon, who spent 10 years at Manchester City, and Liverpool’s Amber Whiteley as Ward’s assistant coaches is a statement of intent to embrace a more modern style that might take until Brazil 2027 to bed in.
“The way Carla wants to play is going to take months, even a year to be able to play that type of football,” warned O’Sullivan. “But I am really excited.”
Ireland (possible): C Brosnan; A Mannion, C Hayes, M Campbell, I Atkinson; R Littlejohn; A Larkin, D O’Sullivan, L Quinn; K McCabe; K Carusa.
