This seems harsh on Glenn Whelan.
The Guardian have named two Irish players in their team of Euro 2016 flops.
The British broadsheet rated every individual display at the tournament, and deemed Glenn Whelan and Ciaran Clark to be amongst the 11 worst performers in France.
For a player to be in contention to feature in the team, they needed to have played at least two games at Euro 2016. Whelan and Clark both played in the Republic of Ireland’s games against Sweden and Belgium, but were dropped for the win over Italy and the team’s exit to France in the last-16.
While it’s difficult to argue against Clark’s inclusion – the Aston Villa defender scored an own-goal against Sweden and was particularly poor against Belgium – the rating seems harsh on Whelan.
The Stoke City midfielder struggled against Belgium, but had one of his best games in an Ireland shirt in the team’s opening tie.
#IRL will need a big performance from Glenn Whelan today. Here's a look at how he nullified the threat of Zlatan https://t.co/l6dy5PP807
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) June 18, 2016
Joe Hart and his rubber wrists start in goal. Albania captain Lorik Cana is alongside Clark in central defence, Aleksandar Dragovic of Austria is at right-back and Russia’s Georgi Shchennikov is at left-back.
In midfield, Belgium’s Marouane Fellaini is alongside Whelan and Russia’s Pavel Mamayev.
While, up front, Raheem Sterling is joined by Tomas Necid of the Czech Republic and Switzerland’s Haris Seferovic.
The newspaper’s team of the tournament is quite an upgrade.
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