Only at the start of this campaign, Martin O’Neill was constantly being asked about Robbie Brady.
Do you think he can play left back?
Do we have any other options to play left back?
Is it heartening that Hull/Norwich have played him there a few times?
Do we get the best out of him there? Is he restricted? Is he defensively sound enough?
Is there anyone else?
Each time, the manager sounded more and more perplexed.
“I don’t have a problem with playing him there. I’ve told you that before.” But, each time, O’Neill would be forced to go over it all again and reassure us all over again.
It didn’t matter how much of a regular Robbie Brady became, it didn’t matter that he was being selected at left back just automatically – only ever moving to cover for midfied absences – it was still an issue for so long. In the media, in the general public, and in a lot of our heads.
But suddenly, Robbie Brady isn’t just looking like a good footballer who’s filling in at left back, he’s looking like a footballer who’s playing his best stuff at left back. He’s looking like a left back.
Against Holland on Friday night, the Dubliner was on another level.
His set pieces were outrageously good. Every time he weaved that left-footed wand at a dead ball, the end product was whipping crosses, frighteningly fast deliveries raining into the box like torpedos, accurate passes relentlessly finding the heads of Irish men. Every time he bent those delicious free kicks and corners into the area, it exhilarated the crowd, it got them off their feet, and it carved enough chances for Ireland to put the Dutch away.
If his set pieces are anything like that in France… God, aren’t we allowed to dream?
Because, let me tell you, the way Brady was putting that ball into the box, opportunities were presenting themselves like nothing normal and nothing but no-one could stop them threatening the goals. Any team’s goals.
Player ratings: Robbie Brady's orgasmic left foot leads the way as Ireland draw 1-1 with Holland https://t.co/2CuyRv5BC0 #IRLNED
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) May 27, 2016
And yet it wasn’t even his dead balls that were most impressive. It wasn’t even his left foot. It’s how you can look on at this 24-year-old now and accept that this man is a left back. A bloody fine left back.
He’s got aggression, real aggression. Every time he takes the field, he seems to find it insulting that a right winger would even have faint notions of putting Brady on the back foot and keeping him in his own half.
He starts these personal battles right from the off. He leaves his shoulder in late, he dishes out hard, mincing challenges and he turns around and orders the opposition off the ground. Total focus. Total application.
He gives the ball and sprints forward and God help you if you’re standing in his way because he’ll barge straight at anything trying to even divert him.
His positioning is on point, so much so that Martin O’Neill isn’t even asked any questions about him playing left back anymore and that is honestly a place we thought we’d never reach. He’s got pace to recover, he darts in and cuts off opponents’ runs and he gets so impatient at not having the ball that his tackling becomes more ferocious as the game wears on.
For that alone, Robbie Brady is worth every inch of his left back slot. But then you have the main reason why he’s there and it just so happens to be one of the most important ingredients of a fine team that the manager has assembled.
Going forward, Robbie Brady and Seamus Coleman are terrorising. Even mentioning him in the same sentence as Coleman shows how far he’s come. Ireland have been playing a narrow midfield for the whole second half of the qualifying campaign. Three central players sit behind a man in the pocket and that leaves the flanks open to all sorts of possibilities. And when you have Brady and Coleman staring into those spaces, those possibilities are mouthwatering.
It’s almost as if the two of them are trying to better each other. Every time a ball even starts to look like it could be rolled wide, the pair spring into action, demand possession and they have one thing on their minds and that is not playing it safe or rolling it back to Randolph. It’s making things happen and that’s what Martin O’Neill wants them doing. And that’s what they’re good at doing.
The system is designed to get the best out of the full backs and, in Robbie Brady and Seamus Coleman, two of Ireland’s best players are occupying those positions. The system is complimenting the players and the players are complimenting the system.
They’re looking more dangerous and comfortable in this formation as the months pass and Robbie Brady is looking for all the world to be just what Martin O’Neill always said he was, a fine left back.
Not restricted, not wasted. Not a man filling in at left back.
Not a good player doing a good job there.
Just a left back. One that is so crucial for Ireland right now. One that could have a very, very bright future in that position. Starting in June.
