Keane says ball retention an old problem for Republic of Ireland

Like Martin O'Neill, Roy Keane is happy to tip his hat in the direction of Dundalk but the Corkman appears to be at odds with the team's manager, Stephen Kenny, with regard to the nature of Irish football and footballers.

Kenny got quite worked up last week about the notion that players from these parts are somehow naturally disadvantaged when it comes to producing a passing game.

He insisted his side would look to play their way through the group stage of the Europa League come what may rather than settling into what visiting coaches almost invariably end up describing as the “British game”.

Keane, though, reckons that retaining and passing the ball has been a persistent problem for Ireland teams, from the one he played in first to the one that draw 2-2 in Serbia where Ireland’s result was generally acknowledged to be a good one even as the performance was slated by some pundits.

Big problem

“That’s part of the game we are in,” said Keane, “part of the industry; it didn’t surprise me.

“You want both. You want a good performance and obviously the right result. It was a difficult night for us, you obviously want to retain the ball better but I think Irish teams could have been retaining the ball better for the last 30 years, not just three months. It is a big problem in the game for us.

“You can talk about the things we don’t do well but think about the things we do do well. . . the honesty of the players, the desire, bits of quality. Two goals away from home: whatever way you look at it, is never an easy thing to do. Against Serbia, who are no mugs; that was good.

“If we went away to a lesser team and got battered, then that would be different. But look, the criticism you take with a pinch of salt, just as you take the plaudits with a pinch of salt because it is a game of opinions.

“If people want to say we could have done better in possession then I probably wouldn’t disagree with them. But you people talk about DNA . . .if our DNA is to show fight and heart and grit then that is a nice DNA to have.”

It is certainly something, he suggests, that has become deeply ingrained with the Ireland managers he played under, he maintains, happy enough to play to what they felt were the strengths of the side rather than dramatically alter the approach in the pursuit of something more artistic.

"I played with some really good players for Ireland and I don't remember ever keeping the ball that great. I could be wrong and someone might remind me but I don't ever remember having 60 or 70 per cent possession away from home and absolutely hammering a team. My experience with Jack and Mick and Brian Kerr. I don't think we kept the ball very well.

“Everyone loves watching Barcelona and Brazil and of course it would be great if we could just keep the ball and everyone was comfortable in possession and we could wear teams down and pick holes in them and get balls down the side of people and have that bit of magic.

Underage teams

“But it’s not just the senior teams; I’m going back to when I was involved in the underage teams . . . we have always found it difficult to keep the ball. Sometimes it’s lack of quality or when you do have the quality – the Ronnie Whelans, the Bradys, the Townsends and the McGraths – they’re playing under a manager like Jack [Charlton] who said ‘listen, we have to play a certain way to get results,’ and that has to be respected, of course it does.

“But Irish fans want to see winning teams as well. People still have the good memories of qualifying for tournaments and I don’t get pulled up in the street by people saying, ‘you didn’t pass the ball enough’.”

Ireland’s efforts to show some improvement tomorrow might be helped by the quality of the opposition although Keane claimed that the description of Georgia as one of the group’s “lesser sides,” was “ridiculous”.

Injury problems

The squad’s preparations for the game have been hit by a strong of injury problems and Keane confirmed yesterday that

Harry Arter

is the latest player to succumb to a strain with the Bournemouth midfielder ruled out of Thursday’s game despite a scan that suggested his groin strain was less severe than initially feared.

“The feedback from the club level on his scan was good news but he feels a tightness and if you don’t train two days before a game you’re hardly likely to be involved.” A return by Sunday cannot, said Keane, be ruled out but the long flight makes it unlikely.

James McCarthy, he suggests on the other hand, could well be available despite not having trained fully with his club since a groin operation a month ago.

Keane says that O’Neill tends to be mindful of clubs and their managers when making these calls although Ronald Koeman might regard his comments last week about Ireland looking after the midfielder as having been as close as he could reasonably go to sending a “Don’t playhimogram”.

Keane, in any case, sounds optimistic about the midfielder, observing: “He seems really upbeat and actually looked quite sharp in training. I’d like to think he’d be available for Thursday.”