"We're bottom of the pile" - Tony Cascarino's stark verdict, but all is not lost

Irish Daily Mirror

2 days ago

Tony Cascarino believes the Ireland players have been liberated since the 'style over substance' debates were shelved.
Former Ireland boss Stephen Kenny made no apologies for trying to implement a possession based, attacking game under his watch.
Kenny baulked at suggestions that Irish teams could only play a direct game and wanted to reinvent how the national team was viewed at home and abroad. But while he blooded over 20 players in the process, the results suffered, with just six competitive wins banked in his three years in charge.
And in that time, the post-match debate raged in the stands, pubs, newspapers, TV and radio as to whether it really was the way forward. Former Ireland striker Cascarino believes that might have stifled players and he reckons Heimir Hallgrimsson's more pragmatic approach can reap bigger rewards.
Ahead of tomorrow's Senegal clash, Cascarino said: 'It feels like there's a glimmer of hope and that something is happening. I was very critical of Stephen Kenny - not him personally, just I thought he came with a flawed idea to outplay teams. That's great if you have the best technical players, but it's like telling a boxer to go into the ring against a really big hitter and say 'just knock him out'.
'It's not like that and in sport, you have to win in different ways. We played a game that was flawed because technically we were so behind the teams we were playing.'
'Big Cas' revealed how the team's decline in recent years was a hot topic of conversation at a reunion of Jack Charlton's squad.
Cascarino said: 'We all played at major tournaments with Ireland and wanted the team to do well, but we were shocked at the demise. England were always the ones to beat, but under Jack we were out in front of them for a while. Then it was Scotland, maybe Wales, and then Northern Ireland. But for the last few years, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland have all achieved more than us. We're at the bottom of the pile. F****** hell, we've fallen that far and that's weird for me.'
Cascarino continued: 'We need a style that affects, hurts and makes a difference. We have to play with purpose and get into positions to hurt the opposition. I think back to big games when I played, against Spain, Holland and particularly England, and they all hated playing against us. But for the last few years, every team loved playing against us. That's not Irish sport.
"If you go to GAA, hurling, rugby - Irish sport is about taking it to them. What does the Irish rugby team do at its very best? It goes after you in every position. They make it really uncomfortable. That's what this football team needs to do, as it should embody what Irish sport is about.'
Niall Quinn soldiered with Cascarino in many an Irish team over the years, and there was pep in Quinn's step leaving Aviva Stadium in March. He was there to watch Ireland's 2-1 win over Bulgaria that secured their League B status in the Nations League, and he liked what he saw.
Around that time, Quinn gave interviews where he discussed why he gave up TV punditry, saying how the game had changed so much. Quinn said: 'When every match has the goalkeeper and the two centre-backs getting the most touches of the ball in both teams, I didn't know what to say. That said, I was at the last Ireland game and we got the win playing a style that involved getting crosses into the box and I had the biggest smile on my face. I loved it.'
Cascarino - speaking courtesy of Tonybet.com, Ireland's newest online sportsbook and casino - knows exactly what Quinn means, and couldn't agree more.
'Players are sucked into this idea of how to play,' said the former Nancy, Marseille, Chelsea, Celtic, Aston Villa and Millwall striker. 'How many boys at the bottom of the Premier League really believe in what their managers are saying to them? They're not convinced it's going to work for them.
"It's nearly like a cult in football, that you have to play this way. You don't, and especially if it hurts you. People are obsessed with possession and not losing the ball. That's great to a degree, but it doesn't address playing with purpose, which is what all the great teams did.'
And Cascarino, capped 88 times for Ireland, continued: 'We all get a bit nostalgic about what football was like before, and I loved it that way. I look at what my eyes are telling me and I never want football to go down the road of only one way of playing, and that's what's happened.'
Hallgrimsson's Ireland are not blowing any teams away and familiar failings still lurk around every corner, threatening to haunt players and supporters alike. But Cascarino feels there has been enough evidence to suggest that better days lie ahead going into a World Cup campaign against Portugal, Hungary and Armenia.
Whichever team tops the group will qualify for the 2026 World Cup in America, Canada and Mexico, with the runners-up going into a playoff semi-final and final. Hallgrimsson's contract expires at the end of the qualifying campaign but while Cascarino knows results dictate, he doesn't feel the FAI should be looking elsewhere.
Cascarino, 62, said: 'The signs are that it will improve, but we'll only know that when the games are played. So, it's absolutely thumbs up so far, but it has to continue. I wouldn't think of anyone else at the moment, I wouldn't even consider it. He's the right man at the moment and is in the driving seat.
"But you have to get a good result in a qualifying campaign. We beat Spain at the old Lansdowne Road and that was a massive result at the time. Can this team go and get a big result? The answer is yes, we can, but you have to be prepared to put your neck on the line. Our football feels like it has some stability back to it. There isn't too much conversation about the way we're playing.
'Under Kenny, all the conversations on TV were about the way we played, and that was a problem. We're not having that conversation anymore. It's gone, and should be gone.'