Nations League, Group 2 – Greece v Republic of Ireland, Theodoros Vardinogiannis Stadium, Crete, 3pm (Irish time) – Live on RTÉ2
If there’s a sizeable degree of pressure on her players to atone for February’s mediocre Nations League display against Turkey and the 4-0 mauling by Slovenia, there’s plenty on the shoulders of Carla Ward too after the opening to her reign as Republic of Ireland manager.
“That’s on me,” she said of that first half away to Slovenia, when Ireland went 3-0 down, and while that admission was partly an attempt to take the focus off her players’ horror show, there was truth in it too.
A system that left an overrun Ruesha Littlejohn alone in midfield was Ward’s chief error. And choosing Megan Connolly to partner Anna Patten at the heart of the defence after Megan Campbell withdrew through injury, when they had never played there together before, was a gamble that backfired.
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Putting Aoife Mannion in an accustomed left-back role didn’t work either, nor did pushing Katie McCabe up the field, the captain having yet another ineffectual game. And then there was the decision to play Kyra Carusa wide right, to accommodate Amber Barrett in the centre of the attack, when Carusa is considerably more comfortable – and effective – through the middle.
Plenty of teething problems, then, for Ward, although being new to the squad, she could be forgiven for not knowing the bulk of her players’ strengths and weaknesses just yet. She’ll need to have figured them out, though, before Friday afternoon’s game against Greece in Crete and the return in Tallaght next Tuesday.
In the absence of Heather Payne, an ankle problem forcing her out of the game, and Connolly, injured on club duty with Lazio, there will be at least two changes to the team that started against Slovenia. Campbell is available again and the versatile Chloe Mustaki, young Shelbourne midfielder Aoibheann Clancy and Celtic striker Saoirse Noonan have all returned to the squad.
Greece, 35 places below Ireland in the rankings, are bottom of the group after losing their opening games to Slovenia and Turkey, but both defeats were by just a single-goal margin, so Ireland would do well to anticipate a battle. McCabe, Barrett, Denise O’Sullivan and Leanne Kiernan certainly should – they were in the last Irish team that travelled to Greece when their hosts’ injury-time equaliser put a major dent in Ireland’s Euro 2021 qualifying hopes.
Ward has, then, to get her system right this time around, and has to decide on whether to give another chance to the bulk of the team that failed to impress in February. The likes of Jessie Stapleton, Emily Murphy – who has been in fine form for Newcastle since joining them in January – and Noonan will all be pushing for a chance. Noonan is by far Ireland’s top scorer in club football this season with 29 goals in 35 appearances for Celtic. And, of course, there’s the perennial question – where to play McCabe?
IRELAND SQUAD: Courtney Brosnan (Everton), Sophie Whitehouse (Charlton), Grace Moloney (unattached); Jessie Stapleton (Sunderland – on loan from West Ham), Anna Patten (Aston Villa), Aoife Mannion (Manchester United), Caitlin Hayes (Brighton), Megan Campbell (London City Lionesses), Chloe Mustaki (Bristol City), Katie McCabe (Arsenal); Denise O’Sullivan (North Carolina Courage), Tyler Toland (Blackburn Rovers), Ruesha Littlejohn (Shamrock Rovers), Marissa Sheva (Sunderland), Aoibheann Clancy (Shelbourne); Leanne Kiernan (Liverpool), Kyra Carusa (San Diego Wave), Abbie Larkin (Crystal Palace), Amber Barrett (Standard Liege), Lucy Quinn (Birmingham City), Saoirse Noonan (Celtic), Emily Murphy (Newcastle United).
