Seamus Coleman has seconded Roy Keane’s call for the Republic of Ireland’s senior players to stand up and be counted.
In the build-up to Monday night’s 2-0 loss to France in Paris, Keane said he was ‘disappointed with the senior players rather than new lads finding their feet.’
“They’re setting the tone,” Keane said.
“Lads who are new you’ve got to give them a bit of a break. It took me 20-25 games to find my feet at international football.”
On monday night, goals from Olivier Giroud and Nabil Fekir gave France a 2-0 win over Ireland at Stade de France. Ireland face USA tomorrow evening in Dublin and Coleman insist Keane was spot on.
“No matter where you look, international or club level, when results aren’t going well you do look, and should look, to the senior pros to lift the standards to make sure everything is done properly,” says the Republic of Ireland captain.
“You can’t be expecting the likes of Seán Maguire or Declan Rice to be dragging us forward, it’s up to us as senior players to do that. I have no problem with that, and to be honest he’s right.”
The Killybegs man has always been one to take responsibility on his own shoulders and the Everton man took a similar tone as he spoke ahead of the game against USA>
He said: “What we are more disappointed with, all of us, was our standard on the ball, I thought we were very poor, we gave the ball away, five/six yard passes, not looking for the ball.
“As players on the pitch we have to take responsibility for that, there’s no instruction to get it at our feet and kick it to Shane Long. Us on the pitch need to take responsibility, step up and show angles and be better on the ball as we were poor on the ball.
“It’s not just always the managers, we are the players on the pitch and in training we can look for the ball and get on the ball. On Saturday we need to do the same, make sure we are brave enough to make them decisions.”
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