Michael O’Neill wants the Northern Ireland players ‘to put on a show’ against Luxembourg in the Nations League tomorrow night on their return to Windsor Park and has urged the supporters to ‘stick with the team’ if there are times in the game when the going gets tough.
It was ten months ago that O’Neill’s side last played in Belfast, beating Denmark 2-0 in the final match of a poor 2024 Euro qualifying campaign, and then building on that with victories over Scotland and Andorra and a draw in Romania.
The only loss in that period was away to a breath-taking Spanish side who went on to win the Euros.
There is a feeling that, under O’Neill, his exciting, vibrant young Northern Ireland team is on the up. The manager is keen to keep the momentum going and he appreciates the Green and White Army can play their part in that.
“We obviously want to put on a show and want to show the positive side of this team, and hopefully we will get the result that everyone is looking for,” said O’Neill who, at his media briefing on the eve of the contest, revealed Sunderland’s Trai Hume would be captain for the Nations League opener.
“We haven’t played at home for ten months. As I have said to the players, if you play at home to Luxembourg with an energy and a conviction and the way you have approached the games so far, the crowd will come with you and that will make the game much easier and much more enjoyable to be part of.
“The fans play a massive part, particularly with young players. It is massive to stick with the team and the younger players because there will be parts in the game where we may struggle a little bit and there will be situations in the game where we could do better, and they have to learn to play through that.
“Not every player in the team is very young but when we have played over the past ten months our starting line-up in every game has had five or six Under-21s, so that’s a young team when so many of those players are together.
“The most important thing as an international player is that when you come and play at home it is an enjoyable experience and you look forward to it and it’s not something you are anxious or concerned about or how the crowd will be. We have to earn that in how we approach the game and supporters have a huge part to play in that as well.”
Already without the injured Brodie Spencer and Jordan Thompson from the original squad list, O’Neill said he did not anticipate Eoin Toal being fit for the Luxembourg fixture.
The manager added with Jamal Lewis arriving into the camp today from Brazil following his stunning loan move to Sao Paulo, the Newcastle defender would be assessed to see if he would be ready to play at Windsor Park.
On the extraordinary switch from the north east of England to South America for Lewis, O’Neill stated: “This is a very exciting opportunity. Sao Paulo have a lot to play for, I think they’ve got 20-plus games left in their season and there’s a lot of football between now and when the window opens in Europe.
“I have to commend him on making that decision. It would be very easy to sit in Newcastle and not go out but he’s got a real appetite for it and he believes this could open up other opportunities in the world for him if it goes well, so we support him in the decision and we wish him well.”
While Manchester United’s Jonny Evans retired from international football last week, his brother Corry, still hoping to find a new club after leaving Sunderland, has been called into the panel.
“Corry is in a situation where he’s without a club but he still has a lot to offer, and he showed that in the summer (against Spain and Andorra),” said O’Neill.
“I just felt as opposed to taking in another under-21 player to our group, we have enough of those and we’d be weakening Tommy Wright’s (Under-21) group, that Corry is a good body to have around.
“He’s not going to play 90 minutes or be in a position to, but he’s got good experience around the younger players, he’s good in training and, if needed, I’m sure he’d be capable of giving us something off the bench, and hopefully that’s enough for managers who are looking for something to realise that Corry’s still got a lot to offer and he does, not just in terms of what he brings to your dressing room but on the pitch as well.”
Stuart Dallas has also been at training this week but that’s because he is starting his coaching badges and is in camp in an observing role.
What O’Neill wants to see in the Nations League against Luxembourg, as well as Bulgaria and Belarus who are in the same section C, is to add to the progress over the last ten months which, in his mind, translates to promotion.
“We are in the third tier of this competition. Progression in this tournament is to get to the next level. We want to get back to League B which means you have to aspire to win the group. I don’t think that will be an easy task,” said O’Neill.
“We will know if we are improving if we are playing at a higher level the next time the Nations League comes around. I think it is a good indicator for that because you are playing teams around the same level.
“Northern Ireland have always proven they can get results against bigger teams in certain situations. Sometimes it has been against these types of teams where we have let ourselves down.
“When I look back at the 2016 team, that was the biggest change in that side. It was able to get results against teams we were expected to get results against and hopefully that will be the case in this campaign as well.”