A COUPLE OF Ireland’s former players were withering in their criticism following Ireland’s performance against Greece last night.
Glenn Whelan, capped 91 times, questioned whether some of the Irish players were as hurt by losing in the green jersey as they should be.
Stephen Kelly, the former Ireland, Spurs and Birmingham City defender, described Matt Doherty’s attempt to recover his position for Greece’s second goal as “awful”.
“It’s not easy, me as a fan watching that. I’m just a little bit worried, does it really hurt the lads as much as it’s hurting me?” Whelan said on Virgin Media.
The former Stoke midfielder worked with the squad earlier this year and continues to scout opposition for Ireland.
He went on: “I think there’s certain individuals, it’s just too easy to bat it off. You can go onto social media, and onto the next one and hashtag this and that, whatever you want to do – but show us out on the pitch, show us on the grass that it hurts. Tackles, put fouls in, block shots, whatever it may be. I just think we’re a little bit too easy to play against and a little bit pushovers at the minute.”
Whelan said the reaction to defeat seems different now to during his time in green, 2008-2019.
🗣It's been disappointing, really bad over the last two games, I'm just worried does it hurt the lads as much as it hurts me
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) September 10, 2024
🗣You need to be showing a bit of passion that losing games for Ireland should hurt
Glenn Whelan on current Irish players
Live on Virgin Media Two pic.twitter.com/6FZqamaMKv
“That was the biggest thing for me. Do not lose, whatever you do. I don’t think it’s hurting enough bodies in that dressing room. Nate’s (Collins) come out and he’s a young lad, he’s a terrific talent, but he’s talking about lads, ‘we’ve had a chat in the dressing room’ . . . I don’t want to chat. In our dressing room if we got beat it was arguments, it was fisticuffs, that’s what you want. You need to be showing a bit of passion that losing games for Ireland should hurt, should really hurt.”
Whelan added: “If you speak to any of the lads they’ll tell you it’s one of the proudest things you can do, and you can talk the talk but you need to go out and perform and you need to show what it means to play for Ireland.”
Kelly was perplexed by the pace and vigour of Doherty’s run back towards the box after he had lost Christos Tzolis, who went on to score Greece’s second goal moments later.
“I’m not one for calling out a player . . . but this is awful, this really is awful,” Kelly said On RTÉ.
RTÉ soccer analyst Stephen Kelly was highly critical of Matt Doherty's defending for the second Greek goal in Ireland's 2-0 defeat at the Aviva Stadium. #RTEsoccer pic.twitter.com/ZrqMNYdtGn
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) September 10, 2024
“Matt Doherty is tracking the runner and he just stops, and then what’s worse about it is the jog back. You cannot legislate for a player jogging, it’s just a run. The ball bounces up. Tzolis heads it into the air, Collins is dong his best to get back but gets done by the chop.
“But (if) Matt Doherty just runs back, sprints back in, he’ll probably recover in that position.
“You can’t legislate for that. That’s nothing got to do with the forward changes, that’s nothing got to do with the formation that’s changed. I don’t know, that’s just a lack of . . . I don’t know, I don’t know if he switches off, he doesn’t think he can get there. I don’t understand what the concept is. Just sprint. And there’s no excuse because you’re fresh onto the pitch, Matt has not played the whole game.”
Kelly added: “Sprinting is the basics of football, it really is and I don’t know what you do with that.”
