Nations League playoff, 1st leg: Republic of Ireland v Belgium, Aviva Stadium, Friday, 7pm – Live on RTÉ2
In her eight matches in charge of the Republic of Ireland so far, Carla Ward has used 25 players, so she should have a fair idea by now of their respective qualities. Granted, six of them – either retired, injured or omitted – are unavailable to her for this Nations League playoff against Belgium, with another, Anna Patten, suspended for the first leg. But the pressure is on the head coach to get the balance right in the most important test of her reign so far.
She has a number of key decisions to make, among them who will replace the injured Courtney Brosnan in goal and Patten in defence, the pair her only ever-presents until now; which of her scant enough midfield resources she opts for, and whether to play a 4-4-2 or a back three flanked by wing backs.
On the first of those questions, captain Katie McCabe, sitting alongside Ward at the Aviva Stadium on Thursday, might just have let the answer slip. “I’ve been playing with Grace [Moloney] in an Ireland shirt since I was 15, so there will be no problems there,” she said, before speedily adding “whether it’s Grace or Soph [Sophie Whitehouse].”
Brighton’s Caitlin Hayes is the most obvious replacement for Patten should Ward opt for three centre backs, but it’s in midfield, as she admitted earlier in the week, that she doesn’t have a wealth of choices – certainly not match-fit ones.
RM Block
She did, though, play down O’Sullivan and Ruesha Littlejohn’s limited game time of late, the former due to a knee injury she picked up in August. “Denise has got an abundance of energy, quality and experience and while she’s only played 25 minutes in the last couple of months, we’ll get as much out of her as we can.”
Similarly, Ward argued that Littlejohn’s “experienced head” made her a contender for the midfield holding role, despite the 35-year-old being used sparingly by Crystal Palace since joining them last month. Durham’s Tyler Toland is an option, as is Jessie Stapleton should Ward opt to move her out of defence, but Jamie Finn isn’t long back from an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
Asked if she knew her best 11 at this stage, Ward said she was “close”.
“There are always a couple of question marks, which is good, with the forwards in particular. It depends on the way you approach the game,” she said, vowing that “we certainly won’t be looking to just park the bus” against a side ranked seven places above Ireland.
Kyra Carusa, another player who has watched the bulk of her club’s recent games from the bench, is still the more likely starter in the central attacking role, but it is anyone’s guess who will join her up front. Ward has thus far tried out Lucy Quinn, Amber Barrett, Marissa Sheva, Abbie Larkin, Emily Murphy and Saoirse Noonan.
McCabe, meanwhile, was asked about Eileen Gleeson’s legal case against the FAI, in which Ward’s predecessor has made a number of “gender discrimination” allegations and complaints about less than satisfactory working conditions. Was McCabe aware of Gleeson’s concerns?
“Yeah, as head coach and captain, we would have had those conversations about where things needed to improve in certain areas. So I would have been aware of certain things that were mentioned. My job has always been the football, so she’d never burden me with any sort of responsibility to go and speak to the hierarchy of the FAI. She led by example when it came to that, but she knew she always had my support as captain as well.
“It’s an ongoing situation. There are always conversations to be had on where we can improve, and I think they will be had again when they need to be with the FAI. We don’t shy away from speaking to them if things need to be better.”
IRELAND (possible): Moloney; Payne, Mannion, Hayes, Stapleton, McCabe; O’Sullivan, Littlejohn; Murphy, Carusa, Sheva.
