McCarthy still errs on side of caution

Fifty matches into his career in international management, Mick McCarthy looks to be on something of a roll. The win over Andorra extended his team's current run to 10 without defeat and their position at the top of the World Cup Group Two qualifying table is something few would have considered remotely possible at the end of last summer.

Despite that, though, Wednesday's performance left a huge amount to be desired and underlined once again McCarthy's constant need to have luck on his side. The suspicion is had this week's game been against either of the group's two major forces, Portugal or Holland, both Niall Quinn and Roy Keane would have been in town.

But the difficulties Ireland had in putting away a terribly limited side of part-timers strongly suggested McCarthy's key players must remain injury free if the Republic is to capitalise on a very strong qualification position.

McCarthy may have answered the initial criticisms of Wednesday's performance with his traditional post-match claim that the press were excessively negative, but the manner in which the win was achieved has again highlighted the vulnerability of his team and his own tendency to be terribly over-cautious.

A few more goals against the Andorrans might well have been worth an extra point in what is a very tight group and the team's inability to score them means that, in the event that McCarthy's side is tied on points with either of its main rivals in October, it is highly unlikely to have the better goal difference.

More worrying is the fact that while Ireland have taken the required points from the last three qualifiers, the team has, by McCarthy's admission, played poorly on each occasion. A huge improvement is now required for the visit of Portugal in June and if it isn't achieved a single defeat would badly dent the team's chances of making it to next year's finals.

Though McCarthy has consistently improved as a manager since his appointment five years ago, his instinctively defensive nature still poses the biggest threat to the team's prospects. Eighteen months ago in Macedonia, Croatia and Malta, Ireland's problems started when McCarthy essentially attempted to defend from an equally strong position.

His substitutions on Wednesday, when he brought three defenders into a game that Ireland could have done with winning more convincingly but which by then was certainly won, suggest that deep down little has changed.

Against the Portuguese and Dutch the Ireland manager will have to resist the temptation to attempt consolidation, while the visit to Estonia now presents McCarthy with a very real dilemma.

Like this week's match, that game looks very winnable, and must be won. But it is undoubtedly a potentially trickier fixture than Andorra at home and so, assuming for a moment the two Keanes, Kenny Cunningham, Mark Kinsella and Jason McAteer all come through the Portuguese match without picking up their second booking of the campaign, all will travel to Tallinn a single caution away from being suspended for the visit to Dublin of the Dutch.

McCarthy showed his willingness to take the longer-term view when he left Robbie Keane and Cunningham out of the Andorran game but at the start of June we will get a much clearer idea of how well he has learned to gamble on the way to clocking up his half century.

Ruud Van Nistelrooy's national team skipper believes the best is yet to come of the new Manchester United striker, who came off the bench for 20 minutes memorable minutes for Holland against Cyprus in Eindhoven on Wednesday night and headed the final goal in a 4-0 romp.

Holland captain Frank de Boer said: "I have seen him in a few games for PSV and he's just missing that little touch to be at his old level but I think he can recover that."