Clough confident Derby County striker Sammon can prove his worth for Republic of Ireland
REPUBLIC of Ireland boss Giovanni Trapattoni showed plenty of faith in Conor Sammon when he kept the Derby County striker on the pitch for the full game against Poland last month.
Sammon made his senior international debut in the friendly and the 26-year-old has remained in the squad for the World Cup qualifiers in Sweden tonight and against Austria in Dublin on Tuesday.
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Conor Sammon in action for the Republic of Ireland. Left: Jeff Hendrick.
Derby manager Nigel Clough believes Sammon has proved to Trapattoni that he is capable of playing a role in the qualifiers, should he be called on.
"Leaving Conor on for a full game showed an awful lot of faith in him," said Clough ahead of the Republic's game in Stockholm.
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"Is Robbie Keane in the squad? It would be interesting to see Conor up front with Robbie Keane, it would be like what we are doing with Conor and Chris Martin here at Derby," Clough added.
"Chris comes off defenders a little bit looking for the ball and Conor stretches defences with his running.
"Conor could be very dangerous in the away game against Sweden, if Ireland play on the break."
Rams midfielder Jeff Hendrick also kept his place in the squad after he made his debut against Poland.
Hendrick came off the bench with 20 minutes to go and the 21-year-old created Ireland's second goal, scored by Norwich City's Wes Hoolahan.
Clough says both Rams players deserve to be in the squad. He also feels defender Richard Keogh is unlucky not to be included.
"I didn't think Jeff was too good last Saturday against Leicester City," added Clough.
"He had one of his more quiet games but we didn't really get on the ball and so that was understandable in some ways. You saw more of Craig Bryson's energy and closing down in that sort of game.
"Then you look at what Conor did for the team.
"There are still moans from those who are not happy with him but look at his work-rate over the whole game, especially in the last 20 minutes.
"As well as centre-halves Richard Keogh and Jake Buxton did, Conor was as responsible as anybody for getting us the win against Leicester.
"He never gave their centre-halves a second.
"From the 75th minute there must have been six occasions when he forced Leicester to put the ball either out of play or straight through to Frank Fielding.
"That is six times when we didn't have to deal with the ball coming towards our box and that was down to Conor's pure honesty and hard work in putting the opposition under pressure.
"If you give somebody time in this league, they will put a decent ball into your penalty area.
"Conor never stopped working to prevent that happening.
"Our centre-halves absolutely love that and appreciate it."
The five strikers in the Ireland squad are Sammon, Keane, Shane Long, Jon Walters and Simon Cox.
8 Comments
by ibelieveido
Friday, March 22 2013, 4:45PM
“But the quality has NOT been low...???”
by 1977RamRaider
Friday, March 22 2013, 4:29PM
“Im in the wrong job, my ball control isnt that great but i can run at people all day long. Just think i could of been on £5k a week.”
by mayloisback
Friday, March 22 2013, 2:19PM
“He's exactly why the quality of football was so low - clough favors work rate over technique / quality.”
by ibelieveido
Friday, March 22 2013, 12:50PM
“someme people just want to see him score goals and
i can unerstand that BUT ,the sooner they realise scoring
is NOT what he was purely bought for and see EVERYTHING
else he does for the team the sooner they will appreciate him more.”
by sc0tty
Friday, March 22 2013, 10:37AM
“Totally agree HungarianRam, I actually think we would of lost alot more games this season without Sammon and his workrate. His work rate makes defenders tier quicker meaning players like Ward have more of an influence especially in the closing stages. I can see Sammon being one of the front two at he start of next season no matter what critisism hes gets from so called fans.”
by HungarianRam
Friday, March 22 2013, 10:14AM
“I think Clough's analysis of Sammon against Leicester is spot on there.
He's had a lot of flack on the message boards but he was integral to the win last week.
Having Sammon 'run round like a headless chicken' prevented Leicester from passing the ball to Schlupp and having us exposed.
Fans and pundits alike may dwell on his lack of predatory instincts in the box but I don't think we would have won the game last week without that type of performance from our striker.
In the chasing people down capacity Sammon does border on being phenomenal.”
by sc0tty
Friday, March 22 2013, 8:22AM
“I dont think he was purchased to predominantly score goals Dave. When Clough signed him he did state he is not going to be a 20 goal a season striker. I agree with clough in this article, people underestimate what having someone like Sammon in the teams brings. It allows people like Ward to score the goals he has done. I know Ward absolutly loves playing upfront with Sammon. If Ward had been playing upfront with either Tyson or Theo this season I can guarentee he wouldnt have anywhere near as many goals.”
by DavefromDerby
Friday, March 22 2013, 7:59AM
“Erm Nigel was he not purchased to score goals or was it to run around like a headless chicken with no ball control most of the time ? He is out of his depth in the 2 leagues he as been playing in which is mainly the championship.I like him to Derek Hales we got from Charlton years ago he could not hit a barn door either.”