Phil Babb has picked fault with Newcastle United defender Ciaran Clark after Ireland lost 3-2 to Serbia last night, in his comments live on Sky Sports.
Clark didn’t cover himself in glory for Serbia’s third goal of the night, as Aleksandar Mitrovic clambered all over the Newcastle defender to head home.
Babb felt that Clark simply didn’t do enough to stop the striker, and he feels that Celtic’s Shane Duffy would have put up a better fight.
“It’s that defensive unit. He bullies Ciaran Clark. I’m not picking on him, but if that’s a Shane Duffy that doesn’t happen,” Babb said.
“He gets his loaf on it and heads it 30 yards, so that leads me to believe there might be changes to that defensive unit at the weekend.”
Duffy was actually axed from Ireland’s starting line-up, largely due to his form at Celtic.
The experienced central defender has badly struggled for the Bhoys this season, and has looked out of sorts.
That being said he is usually a solid option for Ireland, and the Celtic loanee may come back into contention for their next two clashes.
Ireland still have games against Luxembourg and Qatar to play, and they will be favourites to pick up victories in both those contests.
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