By:
Conor Martin
Former Republic of Ireland international Rachel Graham has highlighted Ireland’s vulnerability ahead of their final UEFA Nations League group game against Slovenia.
Tuesday night’s opponents thrashed the Republic 4-0 in the reverse fixture and those of an Irish persuasion will be hoping for a positive result.
A win by four or more goals for Ireland at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Tuesday night will see the Girls in Green leapfrog Slovenia and earn automatic promotion to League A.
Anything else will see them play a two-legged play-off in the autumn against one of the League A third-placed teams.
Ireland beat Turkey 2-1 last Friday but will need to improve going forward.
Rachel Graham highlights Ireland’s vulnerability
During her appearance on the the RTÉ Soccer Podcast. Shelbourne’s 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.
“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.”
Defensive issues a worry
“We are conceding a lot of chances to these so-called weaker nations which is a bit worrying,
“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.”
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