Aaron Connolly described some of his play as "selfish" following Ireland's 1-0 defeat to Finland in the Nations League on Wednesday.
The Galway teenager found himself in some dangerous attacking positions but rather than pass to a teammate in a better position, he chose to shoot.
"[I was] selfish at times," Connolly told Sky Sports.
"I probably should have squared one to Daryl [Horgan]. I've tried to go at a tight angle. It's those sorts of moments that costs us the game. I need to start looking at that side of my game, just game awareness really. It's cost us, I think.
"As a striker, you need to be selfish but at times you need to know when to shoot and when to pass. At the time, I think it was the best thing to shoot. Looking back on it, I definitely should be squaring that."
Just as it did in Dublin last month, Finland's winner was scored by Fredrick Jensen. The goal came in the 66th minute following a sloppy short kickout by Darren Randolph.
"I think we deserved to win that game," Connolly said.
I'm not even sure what happened for the goal. Obviously, we've lost it at the back and they've punished us. It's disappointing. It's another game that we haven't scored in.
You feel like there's going to be a break sometime for us and we'll put one in. It just doesn't look like it's coming at the minute.
Connolly missed Ireland's European Championships playoff against Slovakia last week as he was deemed a close contact to an FAI employee who initially tested positive for Covid-19 but later tested negative on numerous occasions. The Brighton striker described that experience as "frustrating".
"1.9m away from somebody who ended up with a false positive," he said.
"I don't want to go into it too much but to miss a game like that... I might never get a chance to play in a game like that again."
Watch: Randolph Error Costs Ireland Dearly Against Finland
