Following Ireland's soporific goalless draw with Denmark on Saturday night, Gary Breen and Kevin Kilbane - analysing the game on Virgin Media Sport - highlighted the lack of pressure which Ireland put on their opponents when they had possession of the ball.
"Sitting deep like that, it just kills the support, it kills the crowd," said Kilbane.
A press can only be initiated when your back line is 15 or 20 yards further forward.
[You need[ five, six, seven players all going and press together. You can still have your three vs two defensively but everyone else is in position, ready to go and engage them.
I'm not even saying you go and press at the edge of [their] penalty area like we see certain teams do - Man City, Liverpool. I'm that at least you can start press over the half-way line. We were that deep tonight that we were not able to do that.
[We're not working together as a team] out of possession as well as in possession.
Breen added:
"We had Georgia come to Dublin and dominate possession. It's not even a case of a good team like Denmark who get to the last-16 of a World Cup. We're having lesser teams dominating us."
You can watch Gary Breen and Kevin Kilbane analysing Ireland's lack of pressure on the ball below.
Good analysis here from Kevin Kilbane & Gary Breen on:
▪️ Ireland's lack of pressure on Denmark.
▪️ "Lack of understanding."
▪️ "No communication."
▪️ "We're having lesser teams dominate us." pic.twitter.com/iqndJvRgzE— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) October 13, 2018
