Michael O'Neill to continue experimenting with formations in Euro 2016 warm-ups
Sunday 27 March 2016 16:28, UK
Northern Ireland boss Michael O'Neill is happy to keep on tinkering with his formation as he looks for a perfect Euro 2016 playing system.
O'Neill played 45 minutes each in the 1-1 draw with Wales on Thursday with 3-5-2 and 4-3-3 formations, the latter having been his preference for much of their successful qualifying campaign.
Northern Ireland will play three more friendlies, against Slovenia on Monday and then Belarus and Slovakia, before their first game in the tournament against Poland on June 12, and O'Neill will continue to experiment with his team's shape on an ad hoc basis.
When asked about his switch to 3-5-2, O'Neill said: "We were a little bit disappointed that maybe we didn't have more of an attacking threat with that system.
"I think the two lads up front worked very hard. It's the first time they've played together and Kyle (Lafferty) hasn't played much football. There are mitigating factors in that.
"There's always comfort as a coach and a manager when you say you're going to change to four. We threw Jonny (Evans) in at left-back and he doesn't bat an eyelid and we played in the 4-3-3 and are able to deal with it.
"It's exactly what we want. In the summer we are going to have to be flexible. Either system has strengths or weaknesses depending on how the game's going.
"The most important thing between now and the end of the summer is the players are able to adapt it and understand it very quickly, and the game on Thursday night gave me a lot more confidence that that's the case."
Norwich striker Lafferty played 81 minutes against Wales, hours after completing a loan move to Birmingham, and O'Neill hopes his drop down to the Sky Bet Championship for playing time will be to his country's advantage.
"It's up to him now to have an impact as well," O'Neill added.
"Birmingham have ambitions and something to play for. That being the case, if he is a contributing factor to them having a good finish to the season then he'll be in a better frame of mind when he comes away with us in the summer."
One man O'Neill will not be considering is Watford's Troy Deeney.
Deeney had hoped be might be eligible to play for Northern Ireland, but he misses out by a generation - a great grandparent has Northern Irish roots, not, as is required, a grandparent.
O'Neill told Sky Sports News HQ: "I did explore the possibility of Troy representing Northern Ireland - but that was four years ago.
"The eligibility, that he believed was available, wasn't. He is a generation out in terms of his bloodline to Northern Ireland. That's all I can say about it. He's a player we would have loved to have involved. But unfortunately we won't be able to take it further."
