Roy Keane has strongly criticised England’s second-half performance against the Republic of Ireland.
The Three Lions made it a winning start to life without Gareth Southgate in Dublin on Saturday evening, beginning the tenure of interim boss Lee Carsley with a comfortable 2-0 victory at a lively Aviva Stadium to get up and running in Nations League Group B2.
England - playing their first match without Southgate since 2016 following his resignation in the aftermath of July’s Euro 2024 final defeat by Spain - were impressive in the first half against a Republic of Ireland side also beginning a fresh chapter under new boss Heimir Hallgrimsson, the surprise long-term successor to Stephen Kenny who masterminded Iceland’s famous upset of England in the last 16 of Euro 2016.
The visitors dominated proceedings and created plenty of chances, going in at the break with a deserved 2-0 lead after Declan Rice and Jack Grealish - two players who previously represented the Republic of Ireland before later switching their respective international allegiance to England - defied the boos from home fans to both net.
While England largely remained in control after the break, they did not press home their advantage any further, with Keane describing their second-half performance as “awful” and accusing certain players of showing arrogance.
“The frustrating thing for today was Ireland were there for the taking,” the former Republic of Ireland captain said in his role as a pundit in Dublin for ITV.
“England dominated the first half. We praised them, their decision-making, their quality, their movement.
“That was the opposite for the second half. I thought they were awful in the second half, players playing for themselves, taking too many touches, trying to play Roy of the Rovers passes.
“Keep doing the basics and suck Ireland out. But Ireland played with a lot of pride obviously in the second half.
“But as good as England were in the first half, I thought they were just as bad in the second half. Players playing for themselves. Even the substitutions - players strolling off, showing a bit of arrogance.
“There’s a team there for the taking, especially the attacking players… if you’re on that pitch you’re thinking, ‘I’ve got chances there to go and score a goal’.”
England - who were relegated from the top tier of the Nations League under Southgate back in 2022 - will hope to replicate their first-half performance from Dublin and deliver a strong display across the full 90 minutes on Tuesday night, when Carsley takes charge at Wembley for the first time in a home match against Finland.
That game will see the Three Lions pay tribute to the late Sven-Goran Eriksson, their former manager who died last month at the age of 76 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
