The way Matt Doherty was omitted from the Republic of Ireland squad can be interpreted as an act of decency by Heimir Hallgrímsson. Not dropped, put on ice at age 32, despite Séamus Coleman being injured again.
According to Hallgrímsson, the Irish right backs to play Finland and Greece next week are Festy Ebosele and Andrew Omobamidele because Doherty and Coleman will probably run out of road come the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
Everyone knows this Irish side cannot afford to plan for the future. The here and now is all that matters as a country ranked 62nd in the world has a Nations League relegation-match in Helsinki next Thursday against the country ranked 64th.
The manager must pick the players he believes will do a job and, to use his own words, ensure our national football team “stop this bleeding”.
Doherty does not deserve to be singled out – there is plenty of blame to share around after losing 11 of 13 competitive games – but he has not looked switched on in games, for Wolverhampton Wanderers or Ireland.
The manager has drawn a line in the sand. That said, I did not foresee two Premier League players being dropped but Jake O’Brien needs to break into the Everton team or take a leaf out of Nathan Collins’ book. When Collins fell out of favour during his first season at Wolves in 2022, he wasted no time moving to Brentford the following summer.
At least the selection of Mark McGuinness, a regular for Luton in the Championship, instead of O’Brien, shows that a hierarchy exists under Hallgrímsson. The same applies to midfield where Finn Azaz and Jack Taylor are rewarded for their performances at Middlesbrough and Ipswich.
Professional athletes understand cause and effect.
All the above decisions send a clear message to the group. If you are not playing, and not performing to a decent standard, you can forget about international football.
It is also worth commending Hallgrímsson for leaving the door open for players who have done a job for Ireland in the past but are struggling at their clubs. He can be accused of a hypocritical selection policy but so could Mick McCarthy when I was out of the Sunderland side. Mick kept picking me and I used to arrive into camp with a transformed attitude, just knowing the manager wanted me in the team.
Cause and effect, I went back to Sunderland with goals and confidence.
In my 14 years making the short hop over to Dublin, I also remember how the current players are feeling. When poor results started to pile up, when the goals dried up and we kept conceding from the same, sloppy mistakes, you begin to dread some aspects of international camp.
Brutally honest team meetings can be cathartic but they can also damage morale. Of the current squad, only Robbie Brady featured at Euro 2016, our last trip to a major tournament.
Let’s be honest, all the evidence indicates that Ireland are several cycles away from returning to a World Cup or Euros.
At least the new manager is not banging his head against the same brick wall. Shake up the squad, switch to a back four and pack the midfield with players who can work and distribute in an equally efficient manner.
The Stephen Kenny approach, of playing out from the back slowly, or the modern way that Marc Canham wants every Irish representative side to adopt from under-15 up, cannot possibly apply to the senior team in 2024.
We need to chisel out a win in Helsinki. This can still get worse, much worse. Irish football has multiple issues but above all else, the financial driver of the FAI is full houses at the Aviva Stadium.
I know from my darkest days in the green shirt that Ireland fans will keep showing up, so long as the team puts in honest to God performances and the manager brings a tactical acumen that the 62nd-ranked nation in the world needs.
Doherty and O’Brien were left out. Not enough credit in the bank. It puts others on notice.
Ireland have reached the point where Hallgrímsson can strip it all back, almost take responsibility away from players by giving them simple, specific tasks.
This sounds like a return to our agricultural roots but one message players will have heard was the need to take possession – I am thinking Josh Cullen or Azaz – knowing that Sammie Szmodics is peeling off a Finnish centre-half and sprinting in behind.
That’s how Szmodics scored a mountain of goals for Blackburn Rovers in the Championship last season, to earn a move at age 28 to the Premier League with Ipswich.
We all hope, in time, to construct the attack around Evan Ferguson. In the meantime, as Ferguson regains form and fitness, Adam Idah is scoring off the bench for Celtic and Troy Parrott is showing the value of an Irish striker thinking outside the English football box by making a name for himself on the Dutch club scene.
The point is, we have options. Caoimhín Kelleher, Collins, Cullen, Chiedozie Ogbene and Szmodics offer the bones of a decent team.
Until Hallgrímsson rebuilds confidence, I’d imagine most training sessions in Helsinki and Athens will focus on scoring off set pieces.
Direct football has nothing to do with a goalkeeper punching the ball from back to front. Liverpool, Brighton and Brentford move possession forward, quickly, getting at least three or four attackers into the opposition’s half before the defence can set.
There are other examples of sharp, two-touch play off minimal possession. On Wednesday, Lille beat a Real Madrid side that started Jude Bellingham, Vinicius Junior and Endrick, with Kylian Mbappé and Luka Modric coming off the bench, thanks to a penalty from Canadian international Jonathan David.
The blueprint exists and it is similar to what every successful Irish side has used in the past.
