The Republic of Ireland’s Euro 2016 campaign was full of positive developments.
The emergence of Robbie Brady and Jeff Hendrick as key players, Wes Hoolahan finally getting his chance, and excelling, at a big tournament and relatively inexperienced players, such as Shane Duffy and Darren Randolph, showing that they are capable of playing on the international stage.
The future, for the senior team at least, is positive.
However, Martin O’Neill sees problems ahead in the centre-forward position, and expects Ireland to struggle to replace the goals of Robbie Keane, who is expected to announce his retirement from international football.
“When Robbie doesn’t play, and obviously his career is in the latter stages, then we don’t actually have a natural goalscorer in that sense,” the Ireland manager said.
Shane Long is 29-years-old, and struggled at times during Euro 2016 in the lone frontman role, while Jon Walters is 32, and Daryl Murphy is 33. O’Neill conceded that he wishes Ireland had a talismanic forward in the mould of Gareth Bale for Wales, Ireland’s opponents in World Cup qualification.
“It would be nice to have a forward. We don’t have a Gareth Bale in that sense. We don’t have that.”
