ATTACKING improvement is still required from Northern Ireland, despite their 5-0 victory over Bulgaria, insists manager Michael O’Neill.
Before that thumping Windsor Park win, including a hat-trick from attacking midfielder Isaac Price, NI had scored just twice in three Nations League games – both of those in the opening win over Luxembourg.
“The area that this team needs to improve in, more than any other area of the pitch, is in the attacking third,” said O’Neill. “We have attacking players who play in League One and we are asking them to step up, score goals, and produce at international level.
“Some of them are still development players but the next phase for us is to be a bit more clinical to get into better areas of the pitch to cross the ball from and get more bodies in the box and these are all things we will continually work on with the group.
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“We have done a lot of work with that, whether video or on the training pitch and we will continue with that.”
Belarus visit Belfast on Friday November 15 having held O’Neill’s side to a frustrating goalless on neutral ground in Hungary in October.
The boss offered an explanation for that, and also lessons which he hopes his team have learned:
“We missed chances against Belarus and I think if we look at Jamie, it was a bit unfortunate because the Jamie Reid that we had in March would have scored.
“He was injured in pre-season and had a blood clot, so he was also getting himself back but he had trained well and I felt he deserved to start.
“Their goalkeeper made a few good saves, we hit the post and it was a learning curve for us. It shows the players you have to take these chances.
“The game in the second half was more difficult as we faced a deeper defence with more bodies behind the ball, a different challenge and we might have to do that here at home, they may come here with a different strategy than they had in the first half in the first game. That is the challenge we must face.
