A 3-2 win in Poland? We’ll take that. It’s funny, I felt hugely positive after Ireland’s opening group games against France and the Netherlands, even though we lost both of them. We played good football in those games and you could see this team is now playing to its strengths. My worry was that we usually perform well against higher-ranked opposition but often stutter against teams like Poland, who are in or around our level. So, I was nervous ahead of the game in Gdansk. And very happy after it.
We look comfortable with the system we’re playing now. It’s still quite conservative, but the team has accepted we’re never going to be, say, a France. We need to be the best version of ourselves.
It’s not the greatest Irish team we’ve ever had, but we have a group of players who have started to play to their potential. I’m thinking of players like Emily Murphy. Marissa Sheva is another one – she is now hitting levels I didn’t know she had.
Murphy’s development is interesting. She was once the England under-17 captain and was described by then-Chelsea manager Emma Hayes as “the future” after she scored twice on her debut for the club. She took her time before declaring for Ireland and that kind of thing can rankle. By then, she was playing second-tier college football in America.
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I think there was a bit of an attitude issue when she first came in to the Irish squad. This was a player who had been feted since her teenage years, so maybe it’s hard not to succumb to believing your own hype. But it looks to me like she’s learnt that she’s not the big dog in that Irish dressing room, that she now knows her place. And with that, she has become much more of a team player rather than the individual she was when she first came in.
Her path through football hasn’t been as straightforward as she might have thought it would be. She’s had to go on a journey similar to Katie McCabe’s when she went on loan to Glasgow City from Arsenal. But along the way she has matured while having to work her way back up. I think that journey has stood to her; there is now a humility about her which she has brought to her game.
Like Sheva, her fitness levels are tremendous. She has brought a physicality to the team, as well as an ability to hold up the ball, which is invaluable. There’s a guile about her too and a game intelligence, along with courage and confidence. She is developing into a very important player for this team.
But so much of it, too, is down to the service she has received. Needless to say, much of that has come from McCabe and Denise O’Sullivan. You’re probably tired of hearing about how key they are for Ireland, but we only keep saying it because they are.
McCabe’s goal? Technique, power, audacity. Very few people in the women’s world game could execute something like that. There’s been so much speculation about her future at club level, but if Arsenal let her move on this summer I think there will be plenty of big clubs chasing her. Based on that goal alone, why wouldn’t you want someone of that quality on your team?
We’ve always had a tendency to over-utilise McCabe, expecting her to cover every inch of the pitch, but I think we’re learning to lighten that load. Chloe Mustaki covers McCabe on the left of defence, giving her the freedom to get forward. Added to that, Sheva gives a good balance inside that strengthens the centre.
As for Denise, we know by now what she brings to this team and how it suffers without her. Not only does she cover the ground defensively, she’s the springboard for our attacks as well. And you can never underestimate her leadership. I think Poland thought if they could rough her up, that would be enough to blunt us. But if they knew Denise O’Sullivan, they’d have known she’s a hard one to rough up.
The performance was, of course, far from flawless. Tanja Pawollek’s headed goal was brilliant, but the defending of that short corner was poor. Hopefully that was just an oversight, but if it happens again we have a problem. Ewa Pajor’s goal? Few could finish with such deftness and such a gorgeous swagger, but she has been doing that routinely for Barcelona. She didn’t get much support from her teammates on Tuesday, but she is sublimely gifted and will be a threat again at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, whether she is supported or not.
My main worry is our failure to lock on to attackers. That’s a downside to a back five. In a back four, fullbacks look after wingers, centre-backs look after strikers. When you have five at the back, there can be confusion over who locks on to who. That’s something we still have to figure out and it has cost us at times. But it’s easily fixable through communication and awareness. Yes, it was a great win in Poland, but we can’t overlook the concession of those two goals. That needs to be sorted out.
Despite those concerns, I like how this Irish team is developing. It took a while, but Carla Ward finally has them playing to their strengths. Again, they’ll never be a France, but I think they’re approaching the very best version of themselves.
