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Gary Breen

πŸ‘€ Speaker
1144 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

Indo Sport
Ireland next steps | Heimir doubts | Italy's World Cup curse

I felt the team adopted a defensive structure that they backed themselves in terms of being able to see it through.

Indo Sport
Ireland next steps | Heimir doubts | Italy's World Cup curse

I think the problem reared its ugly head early on in the game.

Indo Sport
Ireland next steps | Heimir doubts | Italy's World Cup curse

We just couldn't defend set pieces or we didn't do it well enough in terms of blocking.

Indo Sport
Ireland next steps | Heimir doubts | Italy's World Cup curse

And I think Haim has said, and he initially came in when he said about this team, he's going to make sure we're the best at set pieces.

Indo Sport
Ireland next steps | Heimir doubts | Italy's World Cup curse

We're not.

Indo Sport
Ireland next steps | Heimir doubts | Italy's World Cup curse

And we're not going to work up on the back of it.

Indo Sport
Ireland next steps | Heimir doubts | Italy's World Cup curse

Well, there's been so many generalisations in terms of the analysis and the 5-4-1 shape in terms of how defensive it is that it gives the kind of emphasis to the other team.

Indo Sport
Ireland next steps | Heimir doubts | Italy's World Cup curse

I never felt that, Joe.

Indo Sport
Ireland next steps | Heimir doubts | Italy's World Cup curse

This is one of the rare occasions I was watching the game thinking, this is so comfortable.

Indo Sport
Ireland next steps | Heimir doubts | Italy's World Cup curse

But I just felt, and the only reason I felt that the pressure kind of succumbed a bit to us was the fact that in putting balls into the box, which we defended comfortably, I thought the lads were brilliant, especially O'Shea.

Indo Sport
Ireland next steps | Heimir doubts | Italy's World Cup curse

I thought he was immense.

Indo Sport
Ireland next steps | Heimir doubts | Italy's World Cup curse

I just felt that

Indo Sport
Ireland next steps | Heimir doubts | Italy's World Cup curse

if we kept giving away set pieces, the way we were marking, the way those lads were blocking, I thought we were going to get a little bit in trouble here.

Indo Sport
Ireland next steps | Heimir doubts | Italy's World Cup curse

And I couldn't for the life of me understand why, if Manning was struggling so much against Graeci, who was brilliant in both boxes in terms of winning first contact, why didn't Coleman swap with him?

Indo Sport
Ireland next steps | Heimir doubts | Italy's World Cup curse

Why didn't the coaches say, listen, you're struggling a little bit, let me take him?

Indo Sport
Ireland next steps | Heimir doubts | Italy's World Cup curse

So often in games where you're defending set pieces, I would have been...

Indo Sport
Ireland next steps | Heimir doubts | Italy's World Cup curse

designate whoever the best header of the ball was.

Indo Sport
Ireland next steps | Heimir doubts | Italy's World Cup curse

But if he wasn't really competing, someone else was quickly saying, I need to go on him or something like that.

Indo Sport
Ireland next steps | Heimir doubts | Italy's World Cup curse

And I just thought that little bit there is where we kind of lost ourselves a little bit in terms of that.

Indo Sport
Ireland next steps | Heimir doubts | Italy's World Cup curse

I know a lot of people now say, if you go to the different variation of that 5-4-1, if you go 5-3-2 and you've got those two centre forwards out there, there's an outlet then.