Steady as she goes for O'Shea with straight-forward squad selection
If he were to eventually become the top man, John O’Shea will wish all his Ireland squad selections were this easy.
On top of the 26 players chosen for the friendlies against Belgium and Switzerland, another two in Joe Hodge and Andy Moran will be added in between once they’ve lined out for the U21s in San Marino.
O’Shea was renowned during his playing career for playing safe, perfecting the simple tasks so fundamental to gaining the trust of managers like Alex Ferguson.
Here it was the case again when unveiling his first squad as caretaker; not a contentious call in sight nor the risk of a backlash over favouring one option in a dilemma.
Stephen Kenny was in the middle of justifying his debut squad three-and-a-half years ago when news of Michael Obafemi’s reaction landed.
“Surprised” read his one-word tweet but circumstances and the enlarged squad militated against any surprises being sprung on the long list O’Shea pored over at Abbotstown yesterday.
Alan Browne and Ryan Manning getting added to the injured list occupied by Shane Duffy and John Egan created gaps that had to be filled.
Jeff Hendrick’s exclusion might have prompted a sinew of controversy were it not for the fact he’s graced the pitch for just 30 minutes in the past four months – and that’s on loan at Championship strugglers Sheffield Wednesday.
Fitting then that O’Shea engineered the word straightforward into several of the points he asserted during the hour’s press activity.
Once Sammie Szmodics took fondly to the interim boss’s direct invitation after they’d met last week following a Blackburn Rovers game, a place in the team, not just the squad, was inevitable. Szmodics is out on his own with 27 goals as the highest scorer at a Championship
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