Sunday, 26 June 2022 | 16.7°C Dublin

Subscribe
- My Account
- Log Out

News [1]
Opinion [2]
Business [3]
Sport [4]
Life [5]
Style [7]
Entertainment [8]
Travel [9]

Menu Sections

Independentie

News [1]
Opinion [2]
Business [3]
Sport [4]
Life [5]
Style [7]
Entertainment [8]
Travel [9]

Menu Sections

Close

Premium

It wasn't all lamping the ball forward and closing down - Jack could do tactics with the best of them

Paul McGrath

Jack Charlton talks tactics with Paul McGrath before Ireland's 1994 win over Germany in Stuttgart. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile

July 12 2020 06:54 PM

One thing people often ask me about Jack Charlton is whether I was ever frustrated by his 'put 'em under pressure' tactics.

After all, at that time, Ireland had players like Liam Brady, Mark Lawrenson, Ronnie Whelan, Kevin Sheedy and Ray Houghton. With lads like those, we could have played 'keep ball' against any team in the world.

Instead we hoofed the ball a lot and, while the Irish people loved us, in world football we were feared - but definitely not loved. 'Neanderthal football' was one description of what we were doing back then.

But my answer was always "No, I didn't mind" - because Jack had found a system that the best teams in the world struggled with and that would take us a long way in the game - all the way to a World Cup quarter-final in fact.

But it wasn't just all about lamping the ball forward and closing down teams.

When it was wanted Jack's Ireland team could come up with a bit of sublety, given to us by the boss. Here's two examples.

Ray Houghton leaves Gordon Strachan on the deck during the European Championships qualifier in Hampden Park, Glasgow in 1987

The first was the Euro '88 qualifier in Scotland in 1987, when, in order to get all his best players on the pitch, Jack picked me at right-back and Ronnie Whelan at left-back.

He trusted us as players to get the job done in a strange position. And we won 1-0. However those selections were not ones of a man who was rigid in everything he did.

The second example came much later in Jack's Ireland career, when we went to play the then World Champions Germany, in a friendly in Hannover just before the 1994 World Cup.

By then Jack knew that, with big Quinny out injured for the World Cup, and the heat and humidity of an American summer again us, we'd have to come up with something different than hustling all the time.

So, against Germany, Jack said we should, when the Germans had the ball, just get tight on our men - give them no option for passing the ball.

And it worked brilliantly. Time and time again that afternoon, I saw these superbly technical German players waving their arms about because they had no one available for a pass, to continue with the style of football they wanted to play.

Again, Jack had come up with a little twist that saw a top team baffled by what we were trying to do.

So, when you are talking about Jack as a football manager, don't just see the cloth cap, the gruff manner and Packie Bonner whacking the ball forward.

Jack Charlton could do tactics with the best of them. And he helped us beat the best of them for ten wonderful years.

Read Paul McGrath every week in the Sunday World

Related Content

Paul McGrath and Jack Charlton at the Paul McGrath Testimonial Dinner at the Burlington Hotel, Dublin. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile

International Soccer Premium

Paul McGrath Opinion Jack Charlton would take the players' kids to the beach to play football during a World Cup. He 'got' Ireland

Isn’t it the most lovely tribute to a man that, within minutes of hearing of the death of Jack Charlton, my phone lit up with the numbers of my children.

International Soccer Premium

Paul Kimmage Opinion A man more sensitive than ruthless - there was more to Jack Charlton than you think

The thing that stood out most about his home that morning near the quaint Northumberland village of Dalton was the mayhem. The noise. His daughter, Deborah, had travelled up from Leeds the day before with the kids for the midterm and all hell was being unleashed on the kitchen

Jack Charlton, left, and captain Mick McCarthy as they were brought by open top bus from Dublin Airport to College Green in Dublin city centre on their arrival home for a homecoming reception after the 1990 World Cup Finals in Italy. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile

International Soccer Premium

Eamonn Sweeney Opinion Jack Charlton was very English but you felt he knew what it was like to be Irish

He was our North, our South, our East, our West. Our working week and our Sunday rest. Our noon, our midnight, our talk, our song. We thought Jack Charlton would last forever: we were wrong.

John Aldridge of Republic of Ireland is greeted by manager Jack Charlton on being substituted during the FIFA World Cup 1990 Quarter-Final match between Italy and Republic of Ireland at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile

International Soccer Premium

John Aldridge Opinion It felt like I had lost a member of my family...I'm not ashamed to say I loved Jack Charlton

IT felt like I had lost a member of my family when the news came through that Jack Charlton had passed away.

It wasn't all lamping the ball forward and closing down - Jack could do tactics with the best of them

Read More

The Halfway Line Newsletter

Related Content

Paul McGrath Opinion Jack Charlton would take the players' kids to the beach to play football during a World Cup. He 'got' Ireland

Paul Kimmage Opinion A man more sensitive than ruthless - there was more to Jack Charlton than you think

Eamonn Sweeney Opinion Jack Charlton was very English but you felt he knew what it was like to be Irish

John Aldridge Opinion It felt like I had lost a member of my family...I'm not ashamed to say I loved Jack Charlton

Most Watched

Storm chaser captures incredible rainbow and lightning flash

Australian laughing bird has the last laugh when man tries to feed it in funny video

Kitten stuck between wheels of moving truck is saved by alert driver

Irish TikToker compares watching Love Island in your 20s and 30s in hilarious sketch

Hilarious clip shows crowd member doing dance routine before Harry Styles Dublin concert

Latest Soccer

Most Read

Latest