After the positivity of Ireland's energetic draw against Belgium on Saturday, expectations were checked somewhat by a 1-0 defeat to Switzerland on Tuesday evening.
The second and - allegedly - final game of John O'Shea's short reign as head coach saw the Swiss take control in Dublin. In truth, they never looked like losing even when Ireland got more of the ball in the second half.
Xherdan Shaqiri's first-half free-kick was ultimately the deciding goal, and allowed Switzerland the comfort to sit back and invite pressure from Ireland in the second period.
Despite spirited performances from several Irish players, O'Shea's side were unable to make a breakthrough. In their post-match analysis on Virgin Media, Mick McCarthy and Damien Delaney identified a tactical mistake which had led to Ireland's inability to gain control of the game after the break.
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Mick McCarthy and Damien Delaney disappointed by Ireland midfield v Switzerland
For this international window, John O'Shea stuck with the five-at-the-back setup favoured by his predecessor Stephen Kenny. O'Shea chose to deploy a variation of 5-2-3 in both games - in the first, Sammie Szmodics sat in behind Evan Ferguson and Chiedozie Ogbene up front, while Szmodics, Ferguson and Mikey Johnston formed something of a front three against Switzerland.
However, Switzerland took complete control of the middle of the park on Tuesday night, leaving Josh Cullen and Jason Knight looking somewhat lost in their efforts to regain possession.
Speaking post-match on Virgin Media's coverage, Damien Delaney said that he was disappointed O'Shea had not recognised the need for Ireland to deploy a third midfielder to deal with Switzerland's dominance in Dublin:
It's difficult for John. He has experience of it, when you're getting an overload in midfield.
He's probably thinking with his staff, 'Could we change? Should we change? Go to a flat midfield three? How do we get to grips with this? How do we plug the holes that they keep finding?'
When you have two in there, there's a lot of gaps and they [Switzerland] kept finding them. At some point, you're going to have to find a way to get an extra body in there.
[In the second-half] we were moving the ball and probing, getting into good areas where we had good possession to get good crosses in the box. But it was all a little bit sporadic...
It felt like they dropped off a little bit, got very, very comfortable. If we could have had an extra player in the middle of the park, we might have been able to dominate the ball and move it into better areas.
The game just meandered in the second-half and we just seemed to let it meander.
Switzerland certainly felt in control for the entire second period, even with Ireland having so much possession.
🗨️ "Ireland are on the back of a real bad qualifying campaign."
🗨️ "Switzerland over the years, to my cost as well, they've always been good teams."
Mick McCarthy believes Switzerland posed a much better threat for Ireland and John O'Shea tonight. #COYBIG pic.twitter.com/PIWDCcv1fD— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) March 26, 2024
Mick McCarthy echoed Delaney's sentiments, saying that the winning and losing of the game had been in midfield.
We all thought he [O'Shea] did so well on Saturday organising them and playing them well.
I think they came up against a much better side tonight - they got overrun in midfield...they had four or five players, we had our two players.
Switzerland were very clever in how they pinned our two wide centre-backs...the centre one couldn't do anything.
We've got an extra player at the back not doing anything. They [Switzerland] were very clever in what they did.
It remains unclear whether John O'Shea will remain in the Ireland job on a permanent basis but, regardless, defeat to Switzerland will certainly be a learning experience on his coaching journey. The issues in midfield will be a crucial area for the permanent boss to address - whoever that coach may be.
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