Prior to the game, Martin O’Neill had warned against a repeat of last year’s home display against Georgia as his side went into Saturday’s World Cup qualifier in Tbilisi.
Seamus Coleman, who is absent for a long time through injury, scored an unorthodox second-half goal secured a fortuitous 1-0 Aviva Stadium win for Ireland in October. Today, in sweltering conditions, Ireland broke the deadlock just four minutes into the game when Shane Duffy headed home a Cryus Christie free-kick, but came away with just one point.
The goal handed Ireland a dream start but O’Neill has been guilty of setting up his team to retreat after taking an early lead. And that is exactly what happened.
Georgia, lacking a cutting edge in the final third for much of the game, bossed the tie in terms of possession. The Boys in Green then set up to hit Vladimir Weiss’ men on the counter-attack, which ultimately backfired.
O’Neill did nothing to change the fact Ireland were being dominated throughout the first half. The Irish lacked cohesion and pressed individually before conceding a deserved equaliser 10 minutes from the interval. Valeri Kazaishvili of San Jose Earthquakes was played in on goal before slotting home.
In front of Darren Randolph, though, were defensive duo Kieran Clark and Duffy, who were put under a significant amount of pressure. Whether it was instructed by the manager to hoof the ball out of possession time and time again, neither did themselves, or the midfield, any favours as Georgia attacked in waves.
Another Ireland set-piece caused Georgia problems on the brink of half time. Duffy, who used his height as an advantage, forced Giorgi Makaridze to make a stunning save. Then, calls for Wes Hoolahan to come on followed to change Ireland’s approach to the game. At least then Ireland would be agiler in attack and play to Shane Long’s strengths.
Another question asked was whether Georgia should be considered a testing encounter for the Republic of Ireland? It has been both times the countries met in Group D, so, yeah. It is - but it shouldn’t be.
Tactically, a lot of what Ireland were attempting to do made little to no sense. If they were looking to play a long ball game with Long (pardon the pun) up front, two strikers would make more sense than one - along with a midfielder or two to drive forward to collect loose balls.
Replacing Harry Arter with Aiden McGeady still saw Ireland lump a lot of balls aimlessly forward, but one of few positives in the second half was how Sunderland winger mixed things up by running directly towards Georgia.
On another note, James McClean was one of few players that can travel home from Georgia with his held high after putting in a good shift. He worked tirelessly to win the ball back whereas others were happy to stick to their positions and watch balls being sent straight to the opposition.
This was a point gained for Ireland given how desperately they played, but the travelling fans will ask themselves ‘what if’ had O’Neill not been so negative in his approach after his team took an early lead.
