Coming away from Valletta, the narrative around this Ireland team remains largely unchanged, but Nathan Collins believes the players can alter the script when France arrive in Dublin next March.
Sunday’s unconvincing victory at the Ta’ Qali Stadium was not the confidence-building end-of-season performance Stephen Kenny would have wanted. It was a win, not a lot more than that.
What exactly Ireland can glean from their Malta experience that will prove useful when France run out at the Aviva on March 27th is hard to know. But Collins feels one of Ireland’s biggest weapons for that Euro 2024 qualifier will be to bring chaos.
“As a kid you just want to play on the big stage, the fans backing you, and this is a chance to do that and express yourself against the top teams, to show that we can do it, go out there to enjoy it and cause mayhem, really,” says Collins.
“We want to have the Aviva rocking behind us against those big teams. I’m excited, I want to play against the best players, I want to show what I can do, so I’m looking forward to it.
“I think on the international stage the standard has gone up, teams taking points off bigger teams. Small teams are well set up, well drilled and they cause carnage. It’s hard to break down.
“I don’t think we are a small team, I think we have a lot of quality, France will have to set up well against us too. It’s a tough place to come, when the Aviva is at it and we’re at it, I think we can take any team.”
For that to be the case though, Ireland would certainly need to become more adventurous in their attacking play. They had 13 goal attempts from 53 attacks against Malta, 10 from 54 against Norway. All too often Ireland’s build-ups have been slow and ponderous.
“I think you can have all the possession in the world but we need to be a bit more penetrative,” says Collins. “I think we need to take a few more risks and just have a few more shots, possibly.”
Ireland will play a home friendly in the days leading up to that France encounter, with Latvia emerging as the potential opponents though the details of the fixture have yet to be confirmed by the FAI.
Since making his debut against Qatar in October 2021, Collins has become a mainstay on the Ireland team and picked up his 10th cap in Sunday’s win.
Kenny clearly sees the 21-year-old as one of his back three, but Collins was caught for Norway’s second goal last Thursday night, his defensive header falling to Ohi Omoijuanfo, who drilled home the winner.
“I think I was unlucky, nine out of 10 times I head that away and it doesn’t get a deflection,” he says. “But it happens, it’s football, I’d rather do it in a friendly than in a qualifier, so it’s out of the system now.”
Ireland did keep a clean sheet in Malta and despite the lacklustre nature of their overall display, they end 2022 on a winning note.
“The Norway game was frustrating,” adds Collins. “It was two bad set pieces, when we looked back we weren’t happy, the back three weren’t happy, so we needed a reaction against Malta.
“I think to get a clean sheet against Malta was a big thing, I think we needed that going to the new year. It ended on a high, we got our win.”
On the club front, Collins will be playing under a new manager at Wolverhampton when the Premier League season resumes, with Julen Lopetegui now in charge at Molineux. Wolves are currently bottom of the table.
“It has been frustrating,” concedes Collins. “I think as a team we probably haven’t been as good as we should be. But it’s gone now, we have a break, we need to reset. I think there is loads to play for, it’s a long season still.”
