Rachel Graham: Ireland's vulnerability to opposition counter-attacks is 'worrying'

RTÉ News​

2 days ago

The Republic of Ireland's vulnerability to being picked off on the break is an area that needs to be addressed as quickly as possible, according to former international Rachel Graham.
The Girls in Green will round off their UEFA Women's Nations League group campaign against Slovenia this evening at Páirc Uí Chaoimh (live on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player) - the same side that thrashed Carla Ward's team 4-0 earlier in the pool phase - and with only a victory by four clear goals or more being enough to finish top and claim automatic promotion to League A.
Ireland go into the game off the back of a 2-1 victory over Turkey but the overall performance on Friday left as many questions as answers with the Irish team starting slowly before needing a late rally to turn defeat into victory in Istanbul.
Speaking on the RTÉ Soccer Podcast, Shelbourne midfielder Graham felt Ireland's display highlighted areas of concern against a Turkish side ranked well below the Girls in Green.
"Obviously the most important thing was the win and that's what they got so that's the main takeaway from the game but I feel it's kind of the same narrative after every time we win a game where we've got the win but it hasn't been the most convincing or most comfortable win," she said.
"And I get these so-called weaker teams have gotten better in the last few years. But we've also got better the last few years and we have players playing at a good level, so I don't think we can keep saying that as an excuse because we are improving too.
"Look, I don't think it was all doom and gloom. I think there were some passages of play where we were good and moved the ball really well. But it's always just in passages, it's never for the full 90 minutes or duration of the game, where we let sloppiness creep in and we give the ball away cheaply or we make the wrong decision in the final third.
"Even the goals that we got were two pieces of luck. It's an own goal for the first one and then if the centre-half doesn't slip, we don't get the second."
But it's the defensive aspect that is more concerning from Graham's point of view with a propensity for Ireland to leak chances particularly when the ball is turned over in attacking areas.
"We are conceding a lot of chances to these so-called weaker nations which is a bit worrying," she said.
"I think the biggest takeaway, if we don't beat Slovenia by four goals and do go into that play-off, it's how vulnerable we look when we are attacking.
"You could see we were trying to win the ball high up the pitch and when it doesn't work out, it's a long ball and we do get caught out with it.
"Even our back-line it's not the quickest, so if a ball gets in behind and we're high up, it's a real struggle for us to get back and you saw that in the Turkey game. That's where their goal comes from and when we played Slovenia the last time that seemed to be a problem as well.
"Overall it's a win (over Turkey), it's a good win to come back from 1-0 down but I don't know if it's papering over cracks, but there's definitely issues that we need to get right, if not for Slovenia, then for the play-off."