Northern Ireland v Germany: Centurion Michael O’Neill has been ‘great for the country’

Although O’Neill resigned in April 2020 to take charge of Stoke, his absence lasted only 28 internationals and he returned to the post in December 2022.

The group to which he returned, however, was radically different to the one he left.

Injury ended the international careers of Steven Davis and Dallas earlier than expected, while the retirements of Jonny Evans and Craig Cathcart robbed the group of yet more experienced campaigners.

Leading such a young group presented a different challenge to his first spell, but the impact of O’Neill’s previous time in charge still counted in his favour.

“You saw the success that he had before and he’s a massive name back home,” said Liverpool’s Conor Bradley who has been given a leadership role in the team by O’Neill.

“He’s a special manager. He gives you confidence going into games, and it’s a big part of management to be able to do that, but tactically as well he’s top notch.”

Bingham gave O’Neill his international debut in February 1988 when he was still just 18-years-old and only four months after Newcastle United had signed him from Irish League side Coleraine.

With his new-look Northern Ireland side built around young talents like Bradley, Isaac Price, Shea Charles and Justin Devenny, O’Neill feels the belief shown in him as a teenager has proven instructive to his approach to international management.

“Billy put a lot of faith in me and maybe the fact that he put that faith in me has influenced me to put faith in young players as well,” he said.

One such player is Isaac Price who was given his international debut as a 19-year-old who had played just 13 senior minutes for Everton.

“He’s been perfect for me. He brought me in at a time he didn’t have to,” said Price, who later moved to Standard Liege and is now with West Brom.

“I was playing under-23s football at Everton and he saw something in me he thought he could use and develop.”

Price became the youngest player to score 10 times for Northern Ireland when he netted against Germany in the 3-1 defeat last month.

The 22-year-old had missed a penalty against Luxembourg three days prior to scoring in Cologne and credits a brief exchange with O’Neill as vital in quickly moving on from his poor performance.

“You’ve missed a penalty, didn’t play very well, and it’s a bit of a low point. You feel like everything’s coming down and then you’re going to play Germany,” he added.

“The night before the game Michael comes over to me and just says ‘forget about what happened the other night, you’ll go out and do something’ and then it happens.

“That’s his experience. Michael has been around football so long, he’d have seen it with so many players. He just managed me really well.”

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