Shane Long hasn’t scored a goal for 1,000 minutes.
So who the hell is to blame for this?
Alright, he’s not always the most prolific in front of goals.
He’d tell you that himself.
Should have had a goal & an assist today! Great win, massive 3 points! #WeMarchOn 😇
— Shane Long (@ShaneLong7) September 18, 2016
He’d tell you that too often in fact, as Ronald Koeman revealed after Southampton dismantled Villa last season – a game which even included a Shane Long goal.
“He apologised himself after the game that he wasn’t scoring more goals than one,” Koeman said back in April.
“That’s I think a good mentality because he had some good chances to score. He apologised to the manager. That’s good.”
But Long has scored just once for Southampton since then, and that was the following week. He hasn’t scored for them since the first day of May and he hasn’t scored for anyone since May 27.
The 1-1 friendly draw with the Netherlands at the Aviva was the last time the Tipperary legend hit the net for club or country. That was the same night Mauricio Pochettino was spotted in Dublin with the player’s agent and a move to Spurs was touted as inevitable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS9cKvhwNQY
He scored on the half hour mark that day, got brought off in the 67th minute and hasn’t scored in another game since.
Over four months, 15 games, 963 more minutes, and one assist later and Long is still waiting for a goal.
1,000 minutes of a drought in total.
His heroics throughout the qualification campaign have written his name into Irish legend come what may. His late strike against Poland proved critical. His thumping top corner effort against Germany will be remembered forever as one of the most famous goals in this country’s history.
But with those moments of magic came expectation. Pressure. And the Saints man went into Euro 2016 with big things hoped for him. Massive things.
Then, what happened? Shane Long – yep, that same one who hit the German net and the same one who was constantly said to be “on fire” – he got one shot at Euro 2016. One.
In four games against four different teams, Shane Long got one shot. It didn’t even hit the target.
That wasn’t his fault entirely.
Against Italy and France, he started both games out wide – like he has done most often with Southampton too. He put in a shift, chased back, ran the channels, but not once did his team mates create a chance for him, nor did they really look like they wanted to either.
It’s not like he’s suddenly a bad player. He’s still terrifying at times, he’s still rampant and he’s still got all that pace and energy and, even worse, all that willingness. He’s there to be used and, now with Walters and McClean looking like they’ll take up the wide options, Long should be played through the centre again like he was against Serbia.
But what’s the point if we’re not going to play him the ball? Like what happened against Serbia.
He needs to start scoring more. But we need to start giving him the opportunity to do that.
The GAA Hour pays tribute to the unbeatable Dubs and ask where did it all go wrong for Mayo in the All-Ireland final replay. Listen below or subscribe on iTunes.
