Stephen Bradley: 'A lot of people said we played weakened teams in Europe, I think that’s disrespectful to our group. We feel whatever team we put out is very strong, but we have to accept criticism.'

Ahead of Shamrock Rovers’ upcoming European campaign, Hoops Head Coach Stephen Bradley has acknowledged that his side suffered in Europe last season with too much team tinkering.

Rovers prioritised their team selection for league games towards the end of their 54 game season as they successfully managed to win their third successive title and entry back into the Champions League qualifiers next month.

The Hoops drew two of their six Europa Conference League group game – earning €166,000 for each draw – but there is an opinion that the Hoops should have done better in their lengthy 14 game European campaign across 17 weeks that earned them over €4m.

Speaking in Rovers’ match day programme Hoops Scene for Monday’s match against Derry City, Bradley said: “I made a lot of changes for the European games from the league games, too many and we knew that was the case at the time.

“Our priority was our league campaign but I think it showed, if you make six or seven changes to any team in any competition, it will upset the rhythm of the team and that proved to be the case.”

There was particular criticism with the five changes made for their third group game away to Molde that Rovers lost 3-0 with Aaron Greene and Aidomo Emakhu starting up front with Rovers’ record European goalscorer Graham Burke and last season’s top scorer Rory Gaffney on the bench.

However Gaffney then started against Shelbourne three days later with the Galwegian scoring a 94^th minute winner in a pivotal result for Rovers in retaining the league.

“I don’t think it was a case we put out a weakened team. It was more we made too many changes all at once,” said Bradley.

Unlike in 2011 when Rovers lost all six group games in the Europa League, this time around in the Conference League they picked up two points - both at home with draws against group winners Djurgardens and runners up Gent who reached the quarter-final stage where they were eliminated by eventual winners West Ham United.  

Overall the Hoops won five, drew three and lost six games in Europe in a campaign when they played a record number of European games for a League of Ireland side.

It was also a concentrated season due to the World Cup in Qatar with the group stages played in period six weeks shorter than normal.

From the busy July period to the end of the season in the first week of November, the Hoops played 31 matches in 128 days – an average of a game every 4.1 days.

They played their last group game three days before their final league match. Should they make group stages this year, three group games would take place after the last League of Ireland game.

Hoops heavy defeats away from home

Last season, it was Rovers’ results against higher quality opposition away from home that were a concern. They shipped heavy defeats on their travels – 3-0 against Ludogorets (Champions League second qualifying round), 4-0 to Ferencvaros (Europa League play-off) and 3-0 away to both Gent and Molde in the Europa Conference League group stage.

Rovers’ home record was remarkable though, winning five and drawing two of their seven European games in Tallaght. Their only defeat at home was against Molde (2-0) and that was the club’s only loss in Dublin 24 last year.

While Bradley said it was “a fair criticism” to say by prioritising the league it led to some disappointing European results, he said “you have to be very careful, a lot of people said we played weakened teams in Europe, I think that’s disrespectful to our group. We feel whatever team we put out is very strong, but we have to accept criticism.”

The Hoops were punished for defensive errors away from home against higher quality opposition but Bradley noted that goes with the way he sets his team out to play.

“We ask our players to play a certain way, we don’t change that but we have to tweak certain technical aspects when you play different calibre opposition. We have a philosophy and a way of playing and we stick to that. You have to understand that there’s risk and reward with that.

"Players are human and they’re going to make mistakes and unfortunately when you make them at the top level, you get punished.”

2024 European campaign

Both Bradley and Rovers’ Sporting Director Stephen McPhail travelled to Iceland earlier in the week to watch the one legged semi-finals of the Champions League preliminary round as Rovers will play the winners of that mini-tournament in the first qualifying round.

Budućnost Podgorica defeated Andorran champions Atlètic Club d'Escaldes 3-0 in the afternoon game on Tuesday with Icelandic champions Breidablik thumping San Marino side Tre 7-1 later that day.

Speaking to the Rovers media team ahead of Friday’s game with Dundalk, Bradley said that "it was really good to see all the teams up close and get a feel for them. There were some high-quality teams. The Icelandic team  are a good side so it was good to see them up close."

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— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) June 29, 2023