James McClean likely to replace Walters against Belgium

The Italian players queued up, it seems, to tell a grateful English media the other night how Antonio Conte had engineered Italy's defeat of Belgium.

But Martin O’Neill laughed off the idea yesterday that it was the new Chelsea manager’s tactical tinkering that proved the different between the sides, insisting instead that footballers are the ones who decide matches.

“The great, great Brian Clough said it. The game is still simple: when you haven’t got the ball you have to work your guts out to get it back again, when you do have it, if you have talent around you, you have a chance.

“I don’t think it has anything to do with the formation. The Belgians would have known how the Italians set up long beforehand and I think we will have to be adaptable.

“If there is a possibility of even thinking that a 3-5-2 could win the game, I would consider it. I would definitely consider a number of things . . .

The systems

“But lads . . you love talking about the systems and I don’t want to feel old school, but players win and lose the games.”

After Ireland drew their opening one at the Stade the France, there is a little more urgency now about where they might take three points and O'Neill has little option but to select a side with victory in mind.

Jon Walters, will not be part of, though, with the Stoke City striker all but completely ruled out by the manager after a training session in which he did not take part. The hope now is that he the 32-year-old might recover from the Achilles problem he aggravated on Monday at least enough to play some significant part in Lille next week.

That may well, he acknowledged, mean a start for James McClean on Saturday.

“James has never let us down,” he said. “James has done great for us. James at this minute, the way he trains for us, he is probably unlucky not to be in the starting line-up. So he would certainly come into our consideration but there would be a few others too.

There are no other injury problems for O'Neill to worry about though, with Jeff Hendrick coming through what was only his second competitive 90 minutes since the start of March without any repercussions. Wes Hoolahan, the manager insists, has bounced back from the soreness he felt in his calf towards the end of, and after, the Sweden game.

A revelation

Hendrick, the manager says, has been “a revelation” in the way he has grown into this Ireland team and Hoolahan, he added, has his best ever game for his country at the Stade de France. Now they, and everyone else, must go out there and do it all again.

“They [Belgium] present totally different issues to Sweden in terms of build-up, in terms of approach and in terms or how they might play. There is only so much you can do and individuals like Ibrahimovic and Hazard will eventually break you down because they are good enough players to do so.

“I think they are possibly the most talented set of individual players at the tournament but the thing we’re trying to do here is be confident within ourselves on the ball. Deal with it; feel as if we belong here – and I honestly think that was the most impressive thing of all in the [Sweden] game.

“They will cause us problems so we have to show the same spirit and determination again and try and play as strongly with the ball as we did the other night.”

Clearly in good spirits, the manager who swore last week there would be no more gags, cracked a hatful yesterday, all characteristically rather endearingly awful but none invited the slightest controversy.

He had, he said, spoken to Ciaran Clark in the wake of the defender's own goal against the Swedes and, he suggested, the defender was far more upset after their little chat. Of the time everyone got to spend on Tuesday with their loved ones he quipped: "I saw my own family for about 10 minutes. That's quite sufficient, I must admit – it was quite sufficient for them, anyway. My daughter was delighted to see me, I'm not so sure my wife was . . ."

But his real punch-line had a little bit of zip to it: We’re ready for it,” he says.

“We’re ready to go.”