Liam Brady believes that Shane Duffy shouldn’t have been dropped from the Ireland side that faced Serbia on Wednesday night.
Stephen Kenny had played the on loan Celtic defender in every minute of international football this season but with the World Cup campaign starting in Belgrade Duffy found himself on the bench.
Ireland played a more expansive game but in-between goals from Alan Browne and James Collins they lost three with Fulham’s Aleksandar Mitrovic coming off the bench to score twice midway through the second half.
Mitrovic’s second goal was from an uncontested header 10 yards from goal with Brady believing that the absence of Duffy in both penalty boxes was a factor in the defeat.
Picking up on his appearance on RTE’s Morning Ireland programme, Pundit Arena reports the former Celtic manager saying:
Team selection, I’d be a little bit critical. I think inexperience let us down badly – one with the goalkeeper. I think he had a bit of a bad game.
Although Stephen Kenny didn’t have a great deal to select from but I’m just wondering whether (Gavin) Bazunu would have been the better choice. Young (goalkeeper, Mark) Travers looked nervous right from the start. (Dusan) Tadic nearly beat him at a corner kick when he was in a bad position.
And I think the leaving of Duffy out of the team had a big bearing on the result. (Ciaran) Clark got done twice on headers. I don’t think Duffy would have lost those and we didn’t have any threat at corner kicks. We had six corner kicks and no Duffy in the team. So on Ireland’s style of play yes, on the team selection I’d be a little bit critical.
Ireland are at home to Luxembourg on Saturday night with Kenny expected to stick with his three man central defence.
Duffy hasn’t played for Celtic since the February 14 win away to St Johnstone when he stood in for the injured Stephen Welsh.