Damien Delaney believes that when Stephen Kenny looks back on Ireland's 1-0 win against Lithuania, he will see the need for his side to be more "efficient" with the ball.
Ireland dominated possession against the side ranked 137th in the world, but were sloppy at times. They had the ball in the net on four occasions only to see the offside flag raised on four occasions. It took a superb 97th minute strike from Troy Parrott to give them the win.
"Everyone is talking about, 'Oh, Ireland are going to play good football. We're going to try and dominate the ball,'" former Ireland international Delaney told Virgin Media.
"It creates a different set of problems. When you dominate the ball, you need to open teams up. You need that patience, that quality. That's part of the evolution.
"We had the ball because they let us have it, and they let us go wide. [Ireland had] 40-plus crosses. That's not because we're good at putting in crosses. They're letting us go wide, and we're putting it in the box.
"That means you need to retain the ball better. There were so many moments [where we gave the ball away] and it might not have seemed like a lot because we got the ball back straight away, but it broke momentum.
"When you keep turning the ball over as cheaply with unforced errors, it gives the opposition a breather. They weren't good enough to keep it. They gave it straight back to us.
"Usually, it meant us starting from inside our own half again. We had to build all the way up and get to the edge of their box. We didn't have any opportunity to create periods of sustained pressure where they were pinned in."
"I just feel that Stephen will look back at it and say 'when we now dominate the ball against the likes of Armenia, we need to be more efficient."
Damien Delaney on a 'scrappy Ireland' performance against Lithuania.#IRLLIT | #COYBIG pic.twitter.com/wWf1r06EFU
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Kenny made six changes to the side which drew 2-2 with the world number one ranked Belgium on Saturday. Delaney felt the poor performance was not down to the number of alterations.
"Those players are all playing at a really good level," he said.
"We have to be better with the ball. In the 90 minutes of the game, I didn't feel we created enough clearcut opportunities.
"We were very rushed. We when went down one side, and it came back, rather than transferring to the other side, and nothing is on there, we'd go back again.
"That type of patience [wasn't there]. Usually, it would come back to one of the midfield players, and they'd whip it into the box - these guys love that, they'd head it away.
"Or, we'd have a nice little bit of play, and rather than continue it, we just went for the jugular straight away, trying the through ball and got caught out.
"It was an utterly dominant performance, and we deserved to win it. 700-plus completed passes, 40-plus crosses.
"I just feel that Stephen will look back on it, and say that when we dominate the ball against teams like Armenia [in the Nations League], possibly, we need to be more efficient."
See Also: Ireland Player Ratings As Troy Parrott Goal Hands Ireland Last Gasp Lithuania Win
