Martin O’Neill right to be positve but faultlines remain

An upbeat Martin O'Neill was at pains immediately after Monday's game against Serbia to emphasise that this was "qualification" rather than "tournament" football with home advantage for their opponents not something that his Ireland team had to contend with at Euro 2016, at least until they played France, when others things too counted against them.

Still, it is hard to see how his players could hope to get through the coming campaign successfully unless than they exert a good deal more control over games than they did at the Red Star stadium, with Uefa’s statistics for the game highlighting, in a shocking way, how the Republic of Ireland rode their luck.

Ireland had a pretty respectable 41 per cent of possession in the game and managed eight attempts on goal, five on target. The more remarkable figures, though, relate to the Irish team’s movement of the ball, with Uefa suggesting that O’Neill’s men attempted just 138 passes, 94 of which (or 68 per cent) were successful.

Taken to the cleaners

To put that in context, the team completed 278 of 337 attempted passes while generally getting taken to the cleaners by Belgium in the summer when they generally averaged around 300-plus completed passes per game.

That, of course, was "tournament football" but lowly Liechtenstein attempted 209 passes in Spain the other night with three-quarters of them reaching the intended target; Moldova did better again in Wales where they completed 288 of 343. Both lost, in Liechtenstein's case very heavily, and O'Neill might reasonably contend that he has no particular desire to move the ball well when in possession of it and get beaten 8-0.

And so it is worth looking at Northern Ireland, whose 0-0 draw away to the Czech Republic bears at least a passing resemblance to the Republic's result. They had a similar level of possession too, at 39 per cent. But they seemed to move the ball more effectively, completing 157 out of 202 passes – a success rate of 77 per cent.

Far from seeming concerned, though, by the manner in which his side earned their point on Monday, O’Neill was extremely happy. “Yeah, I’m delighted with the point,” he said. “Absolutely delighted with it. We got off to a great start but when you score in two minutes, there’s a long, long time [to go]. We scored early on in the match against France too. Again, similar to France in many aspects, we’re sitting there reasonably comfortable. It would be nice to go and try to get a second goal.

“We tried to push forward, but Serbia , like France , started to push us back again. As you’d expect. But overall I’m delighted with the fact that we fought back. Delighted with the fact that we created chances as well. We scored two goals away from home on a quagmire of a pitch against what I would still consider very decent opposition.”

Most of which is fair enough – the “comfortable” bit is stretching things slightly – although he repeatedly said over the course of the last qualification campaign that if his players were to compete as equals with notionally stronger sides they needed to put their foot on the ball more and make sure they kept it.

Opposition pressure

Too often Ireland had appeared susceptible to opposition pressure when in possession, passing it well enough until they were closed down, when they would then revert to a long, hopeful ball. After a marked improvement on that in France, it was very much the pattern of the performance in this opening World Cup qualifier.

If, of course, Ireland can then win frees or corners further up the pitch, then Robbie Brady’s delivery means there is a potential pay-off to the approach. But when that does not happen, Ireland’s opponents are merely gifted possession and O’Neill’s back four generally finds themselves under pressure again very quickly.

Both happened in Belgrade with Ireland scoring from two Brady set-pieces but the team’s defence straining under long periods of pressure by a Serbian side whose width stretched Ireland almost to breaking point at times.

Crucially, though, the home side were not quite good enough where it counted most – in front of goal – and the Irish battled through on a pitch that effectively favoured the team trying to play less football in front of a crowd, put locally at just 7,000, that generated nothing like the sort of atmosphere that might have been expected.

Ireland, for all that, showed character, both when they were defending their lead and then, even more impressively, in the way they recovered so quickly from the setback of conceding a second, potentially devastating goal.

The visitors began to generate chances almost immediately and, not for the first time, O’Neill’s changes paid off, most obviously in the form of Daryl Murphy’s first ever senior international goal.

The Serbs, though, will look back at this match and see two points that got away. Having failed to convert their chances through much of the game, they then proved incapable of shutting their opponents out once they had taken the lead.

Whether they can bounce back remains to be seen. Certainly the return Nemanja Matic and Aleksandar Kolarov should greatly improve them and they could get back on track by beating Moldova next month.

Developing talent

Still, setbacks in the games that follow, at home to Austria then away to Wales, could leave them adrift by Christmas, and for all their developing talent they have shown little of late to inspire confidence that they could dig themselves out that sort of hole.

For their part, the Austrians and Welsh will most likely look at this game and be encouraged by aspects of both teams’ performances, even if both would probably take the point Ireland picked up in Belgrade if it were offered to them now.

O’Neill was certainly happy with it, or perhaps just relieved to have taken something when at one point the game looked lost. When that happiness passes though, he will surely see the urgent need for improvement, particularly in advance of the trip to Vienna.

“This was a big point for us,” he said before flying home, “and we have to go and try and make use of it now in the upcoming games. Austria, who didn’t perform to their ability [at the Euros], have won away from home. That’s a big result for them.

Off the mark

“But we’ve got off the mark, we’ve scored a great equalising goal. We created a number of chances in the game – and, in fairness, so did Serbia – so we’ve really got to sort of tighten up all over. But, in those conditions here, we’re off the mark.”

Given the way the night unfolded, that he regarded the glass as half-full was to be expected. And he is right, of course, Ireland are off the mark and the importance of that cannot be underestimated