Contrition and bullishness, not the most natural of bedfellows, have been the order of the day as the Republic of Ireland go about rescuing a World Cup campaign that slipped into the mire in Yerevan last month.<\/p>\n
That 2-1 defeat to Armenia will go down as one of the low points in the modern history of the national football team regardless of what happens next, and the players rolled out to speak to the media this week admit it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all know that we\u2019ve let people down, let ourselves down,\u201d said Southampton midfielder Finn Azaz who started both the opening 2-2 draw against Hungary in the Aviva Stadium and the disaster in Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow it\u2019s just a case of looking towards the next two games to put it right and that\u2019s the feeling right now. There is an anger there to put things right. We know it wasn\u2019t good enough and we\u2019re feeling we can really make a statement and put it right.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Making a statement would involve a draw or a win in their next qualifier, against Portugal in Lisbon. Or, at the very least, the sort of heroic effort that saw them thieved of anything concrete four years ago when conceding twice late on in Faro and losing 2-1.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the tallest, most unlikely, of orders. And that\u2019s before Armenia arrive in Dublin for Tuesday\u2019s game to serve reminder as to just how bad Ireland were in that September disaster. What Ireland need to do is start by plucking some low-hanging fruit.<\/p>\n
\u201cStopping lapses of concentration in key moments and managing the games,\u201d said Azaz. \u201cThe mistakes at certain times have cost us against Hungary and against Armenia. So definitely eliminating those and making sure the concentration is there [is important].<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout those mistakes I think we\u2019d give ourselves a really good chance. I think we have a lot of quality in the squad. You can see that at club [level] and when I\u2019m at training I can see it. Getting that right is fundamental.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Heimir Hallgrimsson\u2019s tenure as manager hangs by a thread but Azaz, like others in the squad, accepted the lion\u2019s share of the blame in insisting that everything had been done for them by the staff to allow them to perform.<\/p>\n
Like his boss and Troy Parrott, Azaz refuses to give up the ghost in terms of next year\u2019s World Cup in North America but he admits too that an Irish \u2018result\u2019 in Portugal would be just as shocking in its own way as their embarrassment against Armenia.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know what Portugal are so the obvious answer to that question is \u2018yes\u2019. But at the same time with that added energy of losing that last game \u2013 we all know we shouldn\u2019t be losing that game \u2013 there\u2019ll definitely be an added edge to make it right.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eliminating those errors and finding a system that prevents the midfield area from being overrun have to be Hallgrimsson\u2019s top priorities but Ireland could really do with Azaz finding some form in the green jersey as well.<\/p>\n
Maybe more so next Tuesday in Dublin.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old made his name with some superb form over an extended period of time with Plymouth Argyle and Middlesbrough in the Championship where he contributed either a goal or a \u2018goal contribution\u2019 in half of his 93 appearances.<\/p>\n
His form last season with Boro led to a \u00a312m move to Southampton in late August but he hasn\u2019t yet found his feet on the south coast in his half-dozen games to date and he admits to being disappointed with his start so far.<\/p>\n
A disrupted pre-season has fed into that \u2013 and there was a similarly sluggish beginning to his life at the Riverside to take note of \u2013 with his efforts against Hungary and Armenia last month adding to the underwhelming nature of the campaign so far.<\/p>\n
Ireland could really do with a fully firing Azaz this next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is always going to be that expectation and that added pressure of playing for your country. I feel like my role as a creative player, the manager has kind of given me that space and that freedom.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve just wanted to bring that creative\u2026 That\u2019s all my focus has been on. It hasn\u2019t been on, \u2018Ah I need to do this, I need to perform\u2019. It is more, \u2018how can I help this team create more chances? How can I adapt and have the best impact in this game?\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s kind of my sole focus. I haven\u2019t worried too much about the things you\u2019ve been saying, that\u2019s because I\u2019ve had enough experience in football to understand that and live with that expectation and pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Contrition and bullishness, not the most natural of bedfellows, have been the order of the day as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,1842],"class_list":["post-68785","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\/68785","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=68785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}