Jason Knight insists Ireland made Armenia look better than they actually are and places in the starting team are consequently at risk.<\/p>\n
Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson\u2019s side were outclassed by the minnows Armenia in Tuesday\u2019s 2-1 defeat, with Knight\u2019s midfield area the key battleground ceded.<\/p>\n
Knight\u2019s partnership with Josh Cullen as the midfield pivot combination has come under scrutiny after they struggled to cope with both Hungary and Armenia over the opening World Cup qualifiers.<\/p>\n
Ireland are already playing catch-up and the 24-year-old admits vast improvements are required to redeem self-respect, whatever about their remote qualification hopes.<\/p>\n
Top seeds Portugal will be confident of maintaining their perfect run against Ireland on October 11 before the home rematch with Armenia three days later.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne hundred percent,\u201d the Bristol City midfielder said about Ireland\u2019s problems enhancing the hosts, avoiding any sugar-coating their lapses.<\/p>\n
\u201cArmenia have dangerous players but we made them look better than they are. We should have done better because we have really good players. We just didn\u2019t do that\u2019s the disappointing part.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe preparation was definitely put in and we have the players but we just didn\u2019t turn up. And that\u2019s on us.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that all over the pitch we were just that one yard off it. When that happens at any level you\u2019re going to get punished.<\/p>\n
Armenia\u2019s tactical approach centred on that familiar ploy of outnumbering Ireland in midfield.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it was down to Armenia having the extra man in midfield,\u201d Knight said after his 41st cap. \u201cWe just didn\u2019t get enough pressure on the ball early in the game and never recovered from that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quite clear what\u2019s expected of us midfielders, to break up play and get the forwards into the game as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw that in the second half against Hungary but it wasn\u2019t there in Armenia. I don\u2019t know why, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
A clamour to have uncapped Bosul Lawal promoted to the engine-room mushroomed over the window. Knight is aware that nobody is safe from the chop for the visit to Portugal in four weeks\u2019 time.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou always have to prove yourself,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve played a lot of games for Ireland and have to keep proving myself. It should never be a guarantee to play for Ireland but that\u2019s on us all.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all must prove that we\u2019re worthy of playing in an Irish shirt. That\u2019s the case for October too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes and Co lurking in Lisbon could mean Ireland\u2019s plight may get uglier. Armenia at home is not a given either.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need something special,\u201d confesses Knight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must go there and get a good result. Portugal are a good team and it won\u2019t be easy but we as players have put us in that position. We must get a result to turn it around.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen we certainly have to put this wrong against Armenia as a right, ensuring we\u2019re on the money against Armenia. We\u2019ve to win that game at home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jason Knight insists Ireland made Armenia look better than they actually are and places in the starting team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,1842],"class_list":["post-13185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}