Michael O’Neill insisted Slovakia star Stanislav Lobotka’s description of Northern Ireland as “annoying” should be seen as a compliment ahead of their crunch World Cup qualifier in Kosice.
Napoli midfielder Lobotka, who missed Slovakia’s 2-0 defeat in Belfast last month through injury, will be back on Friday night, and set the scene for the game this week when he said O’Neill’s team are “annoying to play against, whether home or away”, play fast breaks and “are not a team that wants to create anything extra”.
Having already listened to Germany boss Julian Nagelsmann say Northern Ireland’s style “isn’t particularly easy on the eyes” earlier in this campaign, O’Neill could afford a wry smile when asked about Lobotka’s remarks – particularly given Northern Ireland dominated their contest last month.
“My wife says I’m annoying all the time, so it’s not something that’s alien to me,” O’Neill said. “We take that as a compliment and it won’t upset us.”
Friday’s game will determine if Northern Ireland still have a route out of Group A. A win or draw keeps them in the hunt for a top-two finish but defeat would end their hopes before Monday’s final fixture against Luxembourg.
Results elsewhere on the night could secure Northern Ireland a play-off place via the Nations League but O’Neill said he would pay no attention to that, his hands are already full preparing an injury-hit squad to face Slovakia, who welcome back Lobotka and Atletico Madrid defender David Hancko.
“It won’t change the way Slovakia try and play,” O’Neill said. “As a six, in the position he plays, (Lobotka) is one of the best in Europe.
“We have to deal with that as a team, it’s not one individual player. We don’t envisage any dramatic change in their strategy or how they look to play tactically.”
Conor Bradley will not fear facing players of that calibre after a week in which he all but marked Vinicius Junior out of Liverpool’s 1-0 Champions League win over Real Madrid before a tougher afternoon against Jeremy Doku in a 3-0 Premier League loss to Manchester City.
“It’s been a difficult week!” Bradley said. “Two completely different players. Vinicius was tough because of his speed and his skill. Doku was more speed and skill as well but also really strong.
“But I think playing against top players really stands you in good stead for the future. I love coming up against the best.”
Bradley’s performance against Madrid led Teddy Sheringham to compare the 22-year-old to Steven Gerrard.
“I’ll take that every day of the week!” Bradley said. “Whenever you play for a club like Liverpool, there’s pressure and there’s eyes on you all the time. I’ve started to realise that over the last two years.
“You’ve just got to try and be as consistent as you can every time you go out there and play.
“For Teddy to say that, being compared to Gerrard, I don’t know if I completely agree with him. Watching Gerrard when I was younger was unbelievable, but it’s obviously nice to hear from people who’ve played the game.”
The comparison also caught the ear of O’Neill, who joked, I wish he was Steven Gerrard to start with. That would help immensely in this game.”
