By saying how little Martin O’Neill does, Craig Bellamy was trying to praise the Irish manager.
The Welsh man worked under O’Neill at Celtic and, although it was only for a short spell, it was like nothing he’s had before.
At 38, Bellamy is looking at coaching badges and learning more about that side of the game but you might as well rip up the text books when you want to study the Derry native’s style because it’s unconventional now. However, whilst it might well be old school at this stage, it’s still working and, despite this analysis coming across as a criticism of O’Neill, it was meant as a description of what he does so well.
“A lot of the stuff we get taught… throw it out the window. He does the complete opposite,” Bellamy said on Sky Sports’ coverage of the Wales-Ireland game.
“You won’t even see him. There are times he turns up on a Friday. There were times I couldn’t tell you what formation we were playing on a Saturday or who was playing – you’d just read the list and it was basically, I had to look at someone else, Neil Lennon, and ask, ‘what formation are we playing?’
“There was no information whatsoever but, I’ll tell you, he knew his players. You knew where you stood with him and if you played well for him, the confidence he’d give you and the way he’d make you feel, you just want to run even more for him.”
He goes on to describe how, even at set pieces, there was no real plan. O’Neill teams are renowned for being effective from dead balls but Bellamy insists it was just a case of attacking the bloody thing and there was no better man to dig you out after a game if you weren’t giving him your all.
Well, yet again, he has Ireland in the playoffs. Two from two.
