The local media were scathing in their assessment of Ireland's performance in Paris on Monday night with Le Monde, for one, suggesting that Martin O'Neill's men hadn't brought anything much to the occasion other than the weather. Would that those players could really conjure up a storm like that at will.
In reality, there wasn’t much conjuring of any sort going on, certainly not of goals, or goal chances, which was no great surprise, of course; the team now has just one goal to show now for the four games they have played since beating Wales away last October.
O’Neill has made no bones about the fact that there is an issue and insists that both his team selections and tactics have been significantly influenced by his desire to address it.
But the manager was blunt after the 2-0 defeat by France in his reaction to a suggestion that his side might have done much better on that front at the Stade de France. And he rejected the notion that there is some underlying pressure now for his players to beat the United States this weekend.
“Look, the reason for friendly matches is to try some things,” he said. “We have chosen to play away in Turkey in March, not a home game, and chosen [to play away] against France. Now, it would be no surprise to anyone here to find out that France would be in the final four of the World Cup; no surprise to anyone. That’s the standard.
“It’s been difficult to try and get goals, to try and create enough chances to take one or two if we can. That is something we must strive to improve again if possible. I don’t think we can ever stop trying to improve on that, trying to make chances and create things, not to be just depending on set-pieces. But it’s about having that quality. You saw that quality in abundance in the French. That is where we’re trying to get to. It’s a long stretch but we have to try and do it.
“So getting beaten was not a disappointment to me. It’s not a disappointment in that sense. I think if you looked at the two teams, the calibre of the opposition and the choice that we have in terms of where the players are playing and leagues they’re playing in, I don’t think it’s a major surprise.”
The calibre of the players at his disposal is not getting any better for the moment and nor is the level they are playing at. O’Neill suggested that being bought by a manager who really sees him as a potentially important player would be welcomed by James McClean but both men would surely have been hoping that besides Stoke, there might have been some Premier League interest in a player who was amongst Ireland’s best in the recent World Cup campaign.
Enormous ask
That players like Derrick Williams and Graham Burke did relatively well on their debuts, meanwhile, is also welcome but the former is only getting back to the Championship after a year in League One and the other is currently playing in a league that includes a couple of part-time sides. That sort of step up, he acknowledged is, with the best will in the world, an enormous ask.
“To me, the point of friendly games is for some of these players is to try to find out what they’re capable of in the length of time they play. And, secondly, that if they are chosen then at least they have some experience of international football so when the main event comes they are ready as they possibly can be. To win the games, absolutely, it would be great, fantastic, but at the end of it it’s a friendly game and it’s all geared up to the matches ahead which is the important thing.
"The French players were athletic and lean, brilliant on the ball . . . really good players," he observed when specifically asked about the difficulty Alan Browne, the player of the year at Preston (a club that only missed out by two points on a Championship play-off place) had in getting to grips with things on Monday.
“That is not the player, with respect, that young Browne is playing against every single week.
“He’s a midfield player for Preston. It’s an incredible step-up but that’s what you have to try to cope with. That’s what these players have to try and do. They have to try and go from this football that they play in the Championship, where it’s very competitive and sometimes it’s compelling but it’s not the quality that you’re talking about these players you are up against having.
“I think Monday’s game will stand to them as a great experience even if he didn’t come off all that well at the end. But the step up? It’s day and night.”
