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On more than one occasion while speaking to the press on Wednesday, John O’Shea stressed the need for “a more Irish performance” when the international side he helps coach take on Portugal in Lisbon on Saturday. Considering the Republic of Ireland have been utterly hopeless in recent failed campaigns to make major tournaments, and currently sit bottom of their Geopolitics World Cup qualifying group, cynics might say that what is actually required against CR7 and chums is a less Irish performance. But if “Sheasy” thinks slathering the troops with Kerrygold, sending them out on to the pitch waving knobbly sticks and ordering them to Riverdance through the national anthem might help keep the score down, then Football Daily is wholeheartedly in favour of the idea.
To be fair to O’Shea, he went on to specify that he and head coach Heimir Hallgrímsson want to see the kind of leadership, unity, resilience and fight that were conspicuous by their absence when their team folded like a deckchair against Armenia in Yerevan last month, even if Ireland’s players might have been better served demonstrating such qualities against a team they were largely expected to beat. One of those defeats that few saw coming but also wasn’t much of a surprise, Ireland’s beating by Armenia was notable for a couple of high-profile and costly errors by a couple of the team’s more experienced Premier League defenders. Putting on a more Irish performance, then, might prove a tall order, given their weird propensity to wilt in the face of the mildest pressure upon being asked to wear a green shirt.
