[ad_1]
For a Dubliner, playing for Emirates was part of the plan hatched as a teenager, but with the Liverpool jersey.
Ine years after he left home, Daniel Cleary will jog across the lawn of that London football theater on Thursday, but wearing the jersey of his adopted home, Dundalk FC.
The career path did not lead him where he thought, but the fate ended up being the same: facing the Gunners in a game with a lot at stake: Dundalk against Arsenal, and against him in general, in Europe. League on Thursday.
“Yes, the plan was to play in a place like Emirates, for Liverpool. But you soon learn that football works in strange ways, I’ve had a different kind of journey to get here, ”says Cleary, who had an instructive but unsuccessful five-year stint with the Anfield club but has managed to change. a possible dead end in his career with a medal-laden season at Dundalk.
Close
Dan Cleary in his Liverpool days. Photo by Nick Taylor / Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Last week’s Europa League home game against Molde was a dose of harsh reality for Dundalk, who led 1-0 at halftime but lost 2-1.
The coaching staff and players have looked back as a missed opportunity and the camp’s mantra this week is that while the adventure of playing away from Arsenal in a competitive game can be a career highlight on a personal level, it too it’s serious. business for the club.
Shane Keegan of the Dundalk staff delved into online resources to provide players with information on opponents from Andorra, Moldova, Faroe Islands and Norway in European games to date, but everything they need to know about Arsenal is available. in Sky. Sports news 24/7.
This is why Cleary is determined not to be overwhelmed by the size of the assignment, or the questions on his mind as he went to bed last night: Will I be dialing Alexandre Lazazette or Nicolas Pepe? – instead, emphasize the need to treat the match as a soccer game and not as an occasion.
“They are a huge club on a global scale and of course we will respect them, but we cannot think too much about that. If we worry too much about them, we will get caught up in all of that, we just have to focus on ourselves and what our game plan is, ”he says.
“We want to enjoy the occasion and participating in the Europa League on any field is great. It’s a bit more special to play in a place like the Emirates, but we can’t go thinking it’s a friendly.
“We do a lot of analysis on the teams we play in Europe, but we see Arsenal much more than the Sheriff of Moldova. We have been looking at them all week and we hope that the task we have done will work for us.
“It is difficult to know which team they will serve because they have a great game on the weekend. We just have to be prepared for what happens when that team sheet arrives, prepared for whoever we face. No matter who the coach chooses, his players will be of the highest level. “
Close
Daniel Cleary shoots to score Dundalk’s second goal during the Europa League play-off match against KI Klaksvik at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium. Photo by Eóin Noonan / Sportsfile
SPORTS ARCHIVE
Dundalk knows they can’t think of being here as a gift, but for Cleary, being able to play on a Premier League pitch, in a game of importance, seemed a long way off when he left Liverpool in 2016, after five games. A year’s stay, as a post-Anfield spell at Birmingham City didn’t work and he was on a loose end before joining Dundalk.
“I was at a crossroads in my career, it was swim or sink. My back was against the wall, I was in a place where I did not know if I was going to continue with football, I had the opportunity at Dundalk and I have not looked back since. I’ve been there for three years, I have two Leagues, two Cups and I have reached the group stage of the Europa League ”, he says.
“I had a break from football for a month or two when I first came to Ireland. It was in my mind that I might have to walk away from this, but I believed in my own ability and that if I got the right opportunity from the right manager, I could demonstrate that ability, and thankfully Stephen Kenny gave me that opportunity. He believed in me.
“I always supported myself and my ability, but you need luck and you need to be in the right place at the right time.
“I think I can play at a high level. I can’t say that I wasn’t good enough to play for Liverpool, but I never had a chance to prove it, so we will never know. You need games behind you before someone takes you seriously. You reach an age where you have played a lot of reserve games but need games.
“I learned a lot in Liverpool, I was coached by very good coaches and I enjoyed my time there, but when I got to Dundalk I had only played one first team game and it was in the Conference.
“I started it right away. Shamrock Rovers was my first match and I loved it from the start, I was a perfect fit. “
Europe was hard work for Dundalk last year, but 2020 has brought breakthroughs, although it was the wake-up call at home for Molde, a game that Dundalk could have won.
“Little mistakes cost you at this level and we give away two soft goals, those are the demands at this level, you can’t disconnect for a second,” says Cleary.
“You may get away with it in the league or the cup, but not in the Europa League. We saw the quality that Molde had, we handled it well at times but then two lapses of concentration and we gave away two goals.
“We can get confidence out of a lot of our game, but then, in the last half hour, they activated it and we didn’t fix it. Every team you come up against at this level will have real quality and we have to deal with that better. “
But how do you deal with an Arsenal team that might decide to remove a € 75 million man like Pepe from the bank?
“It will take one of the best performances we’ve had as a team since I’ve been here, we have to stick together,” says the former Crumlin United man.
“We know they will have stages where they will look really good and, as with Molde, we need to be able to ride out the storm when they have possession. We also have a lot of quality and we need to take advantage of our opportunities, see their weaknesses and try to exploit them ”.
[ad_2]