Players’ club successes can help NI careers – Davis

Steven Davis, head coach of the Northern Ireland first team, believes that Michael O’Neill’s squad’s recent successes at the club level should encourage their development abroad.

In recent weeks, a number of players participated in important events for their teams in preparation for Denmark’s upcoming friendlies on June 7 and Iceland’s upcoming home games on June 10.

From the Irish FA’s coach education course in Belfast, Davis explained, “You just have to look at some of the individual seasons the players have had,” Davis explained to BBC Sport NI. “Obviously, Conor]Bradley] won the Premier League with Liverpool [with Chelsea], Justin Devenny won the FA Cup with Crystal Palace [with] and Trai Hume and Dan Ballard were promoted to the Premier League with Sunderland.

The players need to continue to advance at their clubs, according to the coach, and that’s what they’re doing. They just need to do so.

If that’s the case, they will ultimately be better positioned to fit into the international order.

The 140-time world champion international remarked that the group had experienced “a lot of progress over the past 12 or 18 months,” with a slew of encouraging results and the team leading their Nations League group.

The upcoming friendly double-header serves as a prelude to World Cup qualifying starting in September.

Because of how limited time you can spend with the players in international football, these games are crucial because they help you maximize that time, reinforce your ideas, and add layers to them whenever you do.

“We will be tested as well by the intensity of the opposition in the two games.”

Davis claims that O’Neill’s backroom team is a good place to work.

He is demanding, which you must be. He is very thorough. He said, “I thought that as a player as well.”

As members of the coaching staff, it’s obvious that you can see a small portion of a different side, and we spend a lot of time analyzing problems together.

He’s a great coach, and he’s very open to our thoughts as coaches. You can express your views, but he ultimately decides the matters.

The former Rangers midfielder claims he has ambitions to become a manager while pursuing his Uefa Pro Licence.

You only learn [coaching ability] by gaining experience and being inside and around it. That’s the best learning curve, which includes both time spent on the grass and real-world scenarios. That is how you develop.