Michael O’Neill admits ‘there is no short-term answer’ to Northern Ireland woes

An encouraging display in the first 40 minutes in Helsinki unravelled after Isaac Price conceded a penalty shortly before the break, dispatched by Joel Pohjanpalo, with Daniel Hakans adding another just three minutes into the second half.

Late goals from substitutes Teemu Pukki and Robin Lod added to the misery as Northern Ireland suffered the heaviest defeat of what has already been an arduous campaign, ruined by a crippling injury list, in which the only respite has come with home and away wins over minnows San Marino.

“We came into the group as a pot five team and we will finish as a pot five team,” O’Neill said. “We are in the third tier of European football now in terms of where we are in the Nations League as well, and that is where we are.

“We are going to have to build a team from this point and try and build it forward. We have slipped from where we were previously, that is pretty evident to see.

“We have lost a lot of experienced players over the last three years but also we have lost a lot of experienced players specific to this campaign and that is really damaging. We just have to try and build a team.

“It is not going to be easy, we don’t have players on the outside. We need some of the experienced players back to give us a hand, but there is no short-term answer to that, there is no short-term fix for where we are.”

Ross McCausland made his debut from the start in Helsinki with Michael Forbes coming on as a late substitute to earn his first cap, taking the number of players to have featured for Northern Ireland in this campaign to 33.

In that context O’Neill insisted Northern Ireland had not underperformed, but admitted he needed to reflect on some of his own decisions when it came to the number of young players he had used.

“I think we have to be realistic with the age of some of these players, their club experience as well,” he said. “And probably the most difficult thing is that on the field we have maybe not had enough experience around those players.

“If I have been guilty, maybe I have to look at myself and think: ‘Have I put too many of the younger players in together too often?’ Possibly that has been the case, so I will evaluate that as well.

“But I have said from the outset I believe we have to build a team out of this group of players. That is the objective.”

With San Marino ranked last in FIFA’s rankings there is only so much credit that can be taken for those two victories, and O’Neill had said before Friday’s match that it was important for his side to take something from at least one of their other group fixtures.

The final chance comes at Windsor Park on Monday against Denmark, who booked their Euro 2024 place with victory over Slovenia on Friday night.

“You have to go in with the belief that we can take something at home,” O’Neill said. “We have just got to continue to try to prepare the team as best we can, to try and give them a chance to take something in any game they go into and that is what we will do between now and Monday.

“We will not just throw a team out on the pitch and think: ‘Hopefully it will go our way’.”