GLENN WHELAN HAS praised the Ireland team’s performance last night against Germany, saying “overall, we’ve given a good account of ourselves”.
Although Noel King’s side ultimately lost 3-0, the Stoke midfielder feels the scoreline did not fairly reflect their performance.
“3-0 is a little bit harsh,” he said. “At 2-0 down, we tried to nick one, but then they broke right at the end. But nobody gave us a chance before the game.”
Asked about the team’s tactics at the start of the game, Whelan admits they consciously erred on the side of caution
“The plan wasn’t to press them — we didn’t get out of our own half,” he said. “The new manager’s come in, and he’s got a way of playing.
“Obviously, we wanted to try to keep it compact and we did that. If you look at the goals that we’ve conceded — one was a deflection and the second was poor on our part coming from a corner, we’ve rushed out and left a body in there, and the third goal is a breakaway.
“There’s some positives to take. We’re just disappointed for Noel that we couldn’t get a goal and give him something to celebrate.”
And Whelan admitted he was surprised at being asked to play an unfamiliar position on the right but said he was more than happy to assume the role.
“All week, we’ve set out with this formation, but during the week, I never found myself on the right and then, Noel spoke to me [Friday] morning about trying to do a job out there.“I said to Noel, I’ll play in goals if needs be. I’ll do anything for my country.
“But from my perspective, it was easy enough because I had Seamus behind me. He spoke about where he wanted me and when needed, got legs to get ahead of me.”
As regards his club situation with Stoke, Whelan admits it has been difficult at times to have to accept a place on the bench.
“It’s been tough,” he said. “I got dropped after the first game. I didn’t think I deserved to be. I’ve kept my head down. I’ve played a couple of the cup games and we’ve done well in them.
“Going out tonight, I tried to put in a performance worthy of getting back in the team and I’m sure I can do that. So I’ll keep my head down and work hard and give the manager something to think about.”
Audio provided by Stephen Doyle of 98FM.
Go home Glen you’re drunk
Cant think of a worse player to have played for Ireland
Calamity McShane springs to mind
Harsh. In the absence of any genuinely creative players you need functional players like Whelan. Far from the worst. I’m not his biggest fan but he gave 110% same as someone like Kilbane.
Alan Kernaghan
Joe Lapira
3-0 most certainly was not harsh – just more Trapattoni era spoofery. This guys best efforts last night came when trying to obtain Ozil’s jersey and he failed at that too.
By far not out greatest ever player I’d agree but I suppose you’d have done a better job then John
All that rubbish on the TV commentary last night from the 3 amigos on how poor Ireland were. Hang on a sec fellas. We conceded 3 goals last night. First was a lucky deflection, second was poor (defending Ok ) but third was a break after 3 mins of injury time in 93rd minute as we were pressing hard still for something out of the match.
This nonsense that we showed nothing different from Trap’s time. We tried a passing game last night against top opposition and were found wanting.
We played Germany on their patch with an interim manager in charge for first game. They are ranked 3rd in the world and have half a team that dominated the club European competition playing for them. People need a bit of perspective.
Not the performance I expected from the boys or manager, but King was right on one thing, the panel on RTE is joke, ten years at least past it’s sell-by date.
If he thinks that was a ‘good account of themselves’ it shows the standard Whelan has set himself.Lucky to have over 50 caps.Yes he was played out of position last night but this lad has made zero afford to improve his game and is horribly immobile slow and has been accountable for a heap of our goals conceded in the past few years.I think hes well below McCarthy,Gibson,Meyler,Wilson and even Quinn in terms of players who can play the holding rle or deeper midfield role yet he is still getting lucky look ins. I dont think hes place in the squad is tenable anymore hes had his chance given his all but his all is not up to standard.Time to try something new and forget this guy
he’s right. 3-0 was harsh … on Germany. 9-1 would have been a better reflection
He’s not a great player but at least he is committed. The abuse he gets is over the top when you consider there were a couple of others in that pitch proven to have far more questionable commitment to the Irish team who seem to escape all criticism. Gibson, stokes, mc carthy were just as bad as whelan last night.
Very easy to voice harsh criticism On Glenn Whelan,has always given his best for Ireland,is it his fault he gets picked to represent his country ,he must be doing something right,I think it’s time for change but we have to remember we have a 70% average team and as soon as he is replaced the finger will be pointed at someone else.
Wouldn’t agree with Dunphy very often but hit the nail on the head with Whelan. To top it off then he thinks mediocrely is satisfactory for Irish football and fans.. Delusional
No one can fault his effort, god bless him. The facts are he can’t even run let alone play international football
I’m sure he was surprised to be asked to play at all! Good account? How deluded can the guy be. Rubbish player, played out of position and had a rubbish game. Was only interviewed because he had one decent long ball out of defence in Stokes’ general direction. The whole performance beggared belief.