Ian Baraclough: Why in-house appointment never got to grips with tough NI assignment

Baraclough took over from Michael O'Neill in June 2020

So, the internal one is no longer the current one.

After 28 months and 28 games - seven wins, seven draws and 14 defeats - Ian Baraclough's time as Northern Ireland manager is over. Stepping up from the Under 21s, it was a job he just never seemed to get on top of.

That insipid 3-1 defeat by Greece in Athens in September, which brought the curtain down on a dismal Nations League campaign that saw Northern Ireland only narrowly avoid relegation to the fourth tier, would prove to be the final game in charge for the former Motherwell and Sligo Rovers boss.

His appointment in June 2020 was not exactly heralded with a fanfare of excitement, but neither was it met with a strong degree of criticism.

It was middle of the road, really. The mood music was more Sunday afternoon drive than weekend party anthem.

The rationale was that the Irish FA knew what they were getting by promoting a man who had earned well-deserved plaudits during his three-year spell as Under-21 boss, the highlight of which was an eye-catching victory over Spain.

Baraclough's time in charge of the senior team failed to replicate any such highs, but what were the key factors in the IFA sacking him less than a year after handing him a new contract that was supposed to run until the end of next year's Euro 2024 qualifying campaign?

Unpalatable platitudes amid Nations League hoodoo

A Nations League quadruple-header of four games in 10 days during early June would test most international squads, but morale seemed high as NI set out to end their long-running Nations League hoodoo.

Baraclough - naively as it transpired - predicted 12 points from 12 ahead of a fixture list that read: home to Greece (ranked 55th in the world, one behind NI) away to Cyprus (ranked 105th), away to Kosovo (ranked 107th) and home to Cyprus.

However, it was a series of games, along with the double header that followed in September, that turned into a nightmare. Five points from 18 was all Northern Ireland were able to garner but, perhaps more tellingly, a rumbling of discontent among large sections of supporters became vocal displays of anger by some.

A combination of boos, ironic cries of "cheerio, cheerio" and chants of "We want Bara out" perhaps sent a message that the IFA felt could not be ignored.

Frustrations with poor results were added to by Baraclough's pre and post-match media offerings being mostly a series of repeated platitudes for what his team was delivering.

Most supporters accept that the pool of players any Northern Ireland manager has to choose from is small, but Baraclough continually pointing to the need to rebuild, the lack of experience, the players he was missing, the scheduling of the matches - and even the temperature at away games - was waring thinner with each passing press conference.

Euros heartache as 'the Windsor effect' is lost

Continuity was the buzzword filtering out of the National Stadium when the IFA chose Baraclough from a shortlist that featured former internationals Stephen Robinson, Tommy Wright and Jim Magilton along with NI women's boss Kenny Shiels.

Having taken first-team training sessions for predecessor Michael O'Neill, there was a familiarity with the players that was felt would be important with a Euros play-off semi-final away to Bosnia on the horizon so early in his reign.

That was a mission that was accomplished successfully. And it was one which earned the new manager some early kudos as he brought on Liam Boyce and Conor Washington in the final minute of extra-time, with both scoring the final two penalties in a successful shootout victory.

That led to a play-off final at home to Slovakia but it was a very different Windsor Park that greeted the visitors, with Covid-19 restrictions dictating that just 1,000 home supporters were allowed to attend, meaning NI missed the backing of a passionate 18,500 crowd that undoubtedly would have helped their cause on a night when they suffered an extra-time defeat.

And the whole dynamic of Barclough's reign could have received a major shot-in-the-arm had a Kyle Lafferty shot from the edge of the box in the dying minutes that night found the net instead of grazing the outside of the post.

While luck eluded Baraclough in that instance, it is hard too not to have sympathy for a manager who had to play the early home games of his tenure in an empty or near-empty stadium, devoid of the atmosphere many of his predecessors were afforded.

It also made it more difficult for the new manager to build a rapport with the Green and White Army - something that he, more than most, probably needed to do given he had no international playing career as a platform to work from. It felt like this lack of affinity between manager and supporter just never got going.

Player pull-outs, coach cuts and perennial problems

A feature of Baraclough's reign has been the collection of coaches and assistant managers that have come and gone from his staff, with Damien Johnson, Austin MacPhee and Adam Sadler among those whose departures will not have helped build continuity from one international camp to another.

There have also been notable player absentees at various stages, with Liam Boyce and Michael Smith making themselves unavailable from last September and a significant number of senior players choosing not to play in the recent Nations League campaign, leaving a very inexperienced squad for June especially.

And there was also the perennial problem Baraclough inherited from O'Neill of finding a way to score goals on a regular basis. From the outset he looked wedded to a 3-5-2 formation but, while Shayne Lavery showed flashes at times, he was not able to find a settled strike partnership that worked.

Whether he would have solved that goalscoring problem will now never be known, of course.

'Judge me on the Euro qualifiers' became a regular Baraclough mantra over the last year. Ironically, a Euro qualifying group that offers a glimpse of hope of progression could well have been a factor in the IFA deciding to part company with him.

Having looked internally for their last appointment, could they look to their former payroll for their next? Michael O'Neill is out of a job and would be welcomed back by a lot of supporters. Watch this space.