Steven Davis backs Professionals

Posted on July 26, 2016 in Conor Mclaughlin

Steven Davis says the professionals are ambitious and it’s not hard to understand their willingness to work at upper levels if there are opportunities. Michael O’Neill’s situation should be seen from the same point of view.

It is understood that the clubs are starting to come to the Federation of Ireland to talk about the procedure for them to acquire O’Neill and according to Davis, the manager’s interest in leaving would only be normal.

Davis was quoted as saying, “The clubs would be coming for sure. If you ask us, yes of course, each and every one of us would want him not to leave, but, he would have his own aspirations and that’s fine.”

On remarks that the Green and White were too circumspect and were all defence in all 4 Euro matches they played, Davis said that the set up the manager forms depends on what he has got to play with. If he is armed with the attackers, the set up and the style would be different.

In Davis’ words, “You see whom were we up against at the group stage? The likes of Bale, Lewandowski, we didn’t let them have much of a say. Germany, with their quality, had the better of us, but, I believe the formation was absolutely right considering our strength.”

“He could easily have a different formation if it suited us, but, with our team, he knew we would be more competitive playing the way we played. I think soccer has never been as popular in Northern Ireland as it currently is and I hope we would have lots of children aspiring to earn the jersey of the national team in future.”

Northern Ireland could win only one group match in Euro, but, that single victory was good enough to push them to Round of 16.