Ireland’s cautious setup against Armenia has drawn a lot of criticism, even if the Boys in Green did manage to scrape through with another three points on what looks to be a doomed World Cup mission.
Despite sitting 42 places above their opponents in the FIFA World Rankings, Ireland lined out with a passive flat back five, a decision that has been widely questioned in the hours and days since Tuesday’s 1-0 win.
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The decision to play 5-4-1 not only greatly isolated eventual match-winner Evan Ferguson up top, but its combination with a lack of pressing and impetus meant that Armenia enjoyed plenty of possession in the Aviva Stadium.
Many may have surmised that the conservative approach (which mirrored the more understandable one taken against the might of Portugal in Lisbon) may have been influenced by last month’s calamity in Yerevan.
Damien Delaney went one further in the aftermath of the game, with the ex-Ireland centre-back suggesting that it was a specific response to the performance of captain Nathan Collins in that disastrous defeat to Armenia.
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Damien Delaney questions Nathan Collins’ limitations for Ireland
Heimir HallgrÃmsson has nailed down Nathan Collins as his Ireland captain, with the Brentford man leading the team out against both Portugal and Armenia, even with veteran skipper Séamus Coleman in the squad.
Collins is one of the most consistent Irish performers at club level and captains Brentford, but has not been immune from criticism when he pulls on the green jersey.
He and Dara O’Shea were brutally exposed in a back four in Yerevan last month, with the pair caught with balls over the top, and found wanting in allowing huge gaps between the defence and midfield.
Speaking on the Indo Sport podcast this week, Damien Delaney said that he had huge concerns about Collins’ pace limitations at the heart of defence.
The Corkonian went so far as to say he believes Collins’ limitations had had a direct impact on HallgrÃmsson’s decision not to encourage his team to press aggressively.
“When Heimir HallgrÃmsson set his team up the way he set them up, you have to ask, ‘Why?’ Why does he not trust his team defensively?” Delaney said.
I’ve got a big issue, I don’t think we have the mobility in the heart of our defence [with] Nathan Collins…Dara O’Shea to an extent, but Nathan Collins gets exposed when he’s left in areas of relative large green grass where he has to make decisions. I don’t think he’s mobile enough.
To say, ‘Why didn’t we press high?’ – if you press them high, you’re expecting the team to either play through the press…but another way they can beat the press is to go over it.
You don’t have to go through it, they can have one pass back to the goalkeeper and it gets slung, and all of a sudden you have Nathan Collins and Dara O’Shea isolated on their own on the halfway line.
Have you forgotten about the game in Yerevan? That was the biggest “lights on” moment for Heimir. He went, ‘Oh my god, we can’t do that.’
I don’t think [Collins] is asked to play that at Brentford. If you watch the way Brentford play football, he was often playing in a back three for Thomas Frank – I know this year he’s playing in a back four.
They’re obviously aware of his limitations. They’re obviously aware that he’s not as mobile as they perhaps thought he was. They obviously get bodies around him and limit his decision-making process that he’s going to get exposed. They understand his limitations and build the team around him.
I said before this window I thought there was an argument for him to be left out of the team. The manager is caught in a situation now where he’s made Nathan Collins his captain, so he has to play him, but he can’t play him in a two.
He’s not mobile, but he’s not immobile either…the problem with centre-back is, if your team is attacking and you’re caught there on the halfway line with a centre-forward…he can dictate to you what happens.
Delaney said that HallgrÃmsson may have feared Armenia exposing the space behind the Irish defence as they did in the return fixture, or that a pressing game may have led to Collins and O’Shea sitting back once again, as they did when they were caught out in Yerevan.
It is a strong take on the Ireland captain, whose place in the team appears to be untouchable under HallgrÃmsson.
That is for good reason given Nathan Collins’ clear natural talent, but Ireland fans will have to hope that Damien Delaney is not proven right in next month’s do-or-die qualifiers against Portugal in Dublin and Hungary in Budapest.
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