Shea Charles, the summer signing for Southampton, is facing criticism for a significant error he made while representing his national team.
During the international break, the promising 19-year-old Northern Ireland midfielder, Shea Charles, experienced a setback. He was shown a red card in Tuesday night’s Euro 2024 qualifying match against Slovenia.
In what has otherwise been a disappointing campaign for Michael O’Neill’s team, Charles had stood out as one of the few bright spots. However, his fortunes took a turn for the worse when he was initially booked for dissent early in the first half. Then, in the 58th minute, he received a second yellow card for a challenge on Andraz Sporar, resulting in an early dismissal from the game.
The match took a decisive turn as Slovenia scored from the subsequent free-kick, ultimately making the difference in the scoreline at Windsor Park.
Regarding Shea Charles’ red card for Northern Ireland, Michael O’Neill’s comments have not been provided in the paraphrased article.
O’Neill refused to be too critical of the Saints player, highlighting that experience will prevent him from making similar mistakes in the future.
The former Stoke City boss was unhappy with the yellow for dissent but believes that Slovenia played the occasion to get Charles sent off, which he can learn from.
“This is a learning curve for young players,” said O’Neill, via News Letter.
“[Slovenia] are a much more experienced international team than we are.
“You can see that in the way they managed the situation and played the referee a little bit.
“The emotion in the stadium obviously transferred to the players a little bit, everyone gets a bit frustrated with some of the decisions…If you’re booked for dissent, that’s poor.
“You put yourself under pressure so we have to learn from that.
“We’ve probably seen a little combination of inexperience in a number of players and also just the nature of the emotion in the game when you’re chasing the game against a team that are a little bit more experienced and that can spill over a little bit.”
Where are Southampton in the Championship table?
| Championship Table (As it stands w/c October 9th) | ||||
| Team | P | GD | Pts | |
| 9 | Hull City | 11 | 2 | 17 |
| 10 | Southampton | 11 | -4 | 17 |
| 11 | West Brom | 11 | 4 | 16 |
| 12 | Swansea City | 11 | 4 | 16 |
| 13 | Coventry City | 11 | 4 | 15 |
| 14 | Bristol City | 11 | 1 | 15 |
| 15 | Millwall | 11 | -2 | 15 |
| 16 | Middlesbrough | 11 | -1 | 14 |
Charles has played in each of Northern Ireland’s qualifying games so far in this international season, but he will miss next month’s clash with Finland.
The defeat left O’Neill’s side fifth in a six-team group and mathematically out of qualification for Euro 2024 in Germany.
The midfielder signed for Russell Martin’s side from Manchester City in a deal worth a reported £10.5 million.
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