Monday 13 June 2016 06:27, UK
Michael O'Neill defended his negative tactics after Northern Ireland lost their Euro 2016 opener to Poland.
Arkadiusz Milik's 51st-minute goal settled Sunday's Group C clash in Nice, but Northern Ireland managed only two attempts in the game with neither of those on target.
And when asked if they should "go for it", O'Neill insisted it's hard to achieve when he's pitting Fleetwood Town's Conor McLaughlin and Millwall's Shane Ferguson against Bayern Munich superstar Robert Lewandowski.
"You can only go for it if you've got the ball," he said.
"We'll have to play sensibly and recognise that. I thought the three centre-backs did defend really well and [goalkeeper] Michael McGovern gave a good performance.
"Possibly in the wing-back areas we could have been a little bit more positive in terms of being an outlet going forward.
"You've got to recognise that we have a number of players that this is the biggest game they've played in in their career.
"They are coming up from League One football and not having played a lot of club football this season and playing against players who are playing at the highest level of European club football.
"It's a massive step to ask players to do that and we have to have a system which gives us a chance to take something from the game.
"To be fair, we did that. At the end of the day the game was 0-0 at half-time and 1-0 right up to the death."
Northern Ireland came into their first major tournament in 30 years on the back of a 12-game unbeaten run, having topped their qualifying group.
And O'Neill said the team must take their opportunities from set pieces if they are to recapture that form in Thursday's second match against Ukraine.
He added: "The disappointment for us is that maybe through qualification that might have been a game where we'd find a way to take something, maybe off a set piece or a corner.
"Our opportunities and deliveries weren't as good as they could have been. We will analyse the game and see where we could be better.
"In the dressing room, there's a sense of disappointment that at times in possession we weren't as good as we could have been.
"But Poland are a strong team. Grzegorz Krychowiak is a top, top player and I thought they got on top of us when we tried to possess the ball.
"We'll have to look at that and I imagine we'll face every bit as stiff a test on Thursday."
A win against Poland could be enough to steer Northern Ireland into the last 16 ahead of their final group match with Germany.
But O'Neill warned his players will need to start better than they did against Poland, who had more than 60 per cent possession during the first half.
"Maybe there was an aspect that it did take us a while to settle into the game," he added.
"We found it difficult to get a foothold into the game and I think that was partly down to that physicality. I don't think we won enough second balls.
"They were very, very powerful in every area of the team and that's something we're going to have to adapt to very quickly, because I don't envisage Ukraine will be any different prospect in that respect.
"Having got the opening game out of the way, we have to do better and see what we can take out of the second game."
