Shamrock Rovers need to have less chopping and changing if they're to make a real mark in Europe next season, according to their manager Stephen Bradley.
After starting their Europa Conference League campaign with an encouraging performance in a scoreless draw with Djurgardens, it took until last night for Rovers to add to their points tally with another draw, this time against Gent.
In the intervening three games, the Hoops shipped eight goals as their hopes of making a real tilt at progressing out of the Group F vanished with two group fixtures left to play.
For Rovers to take the next step it will be a case of getting a few of their ducks in a row, with a more settled team top of Bradley's agenda.
"We made too many changes in games," he says of the lessons they need to take into Europe in 2023.
"We knew that at the time. If you make five changes to your team it takes your rhythm away. You'd like to make only one or two.
"But you have to make those changes because the players you're changing are carrying knocks and they can only play one game in a week.
"You've got to decide what game are they going to play for you. People look at it and say you've made a lot of changes, but there's so many factors that go into that.
"Players' load over the course of a season - are they in the red zone, are they going to get injured? There's so much that goes into making them decisions.
"A lot of players we changed were carrying knocks and the physios and doctors are saying, 'of the three games this week they can only play in one'.
"It's not ideal, we know it's not ideal. Hopefully if we get to this stage next year, we haven't got the knocks to those key players and you make or two changes, not five.
"Five doesn't help anybody."
The Hoops wrapped up a third SSE Airtricity League title on the bounce on Monday after Derry City failed to beat Sligo Rovers. It was the first time the club had achieved the feat since those heady days of Glenmalure Park and Milltown Road in the 1980s.
Bradley was scathing in his programme notes last night, writing that, "sections of Irish football may never be free of bitterness or a cynical agenda" in response to some of what has been written about the club's 2022 season - both at home and in Europe.
With such a talented squad, it seems natural for followers of the League of Ireland to believe Rovers could be doing better in Europe. Granted, the likes of Aaron Greene, Jack Byrne, Graham Burke and Gary O'Neill were all unavailable last night, with Dylan Watts and Chris McCann joining them on the injured list inside 35 minutes of kick-off.
But if it's an unrealistic thought that such an exceptional group should be able to mix it with the sides in Europe's third tier competition, then - and some followers of other clubs won't like to read this - it reflects poorly on the entire league.
A discussion for another time, but European success is clearly critical if the League of Ireland is to properly move to another level, in terms of followers and finance, in the coming years and decades.
All of that being said, having already shown themselves to be the best team in the land once again, a victory against the Swedes next week - who have already wrapped up top spot - would make Rovers' campaign the most successful, in terms of points, of any Irish side in the group stages of a European competition.
It's a big ask, but if it was to happen then they would surpass the four points achieved by Dundalk in their 2016/17 Europa League run, and it would be a clear sign of the Hoops upping the high watermark for Irish clubs on the continent.
Whether that comes to pass remains to be seen, but for Bradley, Ireland's most successful club will only be able to achieve something bigger in Europe if they become even more dominant in the SSE Airtricity League.
"It's a bit of everything," he says of trying to progress to the knockout stages in 2023.
"You need to be further ahead in the league. We need to add one or two to the group. But people have reacted to the results - and I'm sick of saying this - rather than performances.
"Djurgardens at home we were very, very good. Molde at home we were very good. The results and the points tell you something different to what the performances tell you.
"Gent away, we were poor. Molde [away] we approached the game completely differently because of what we had on the Sunday [a late, comeback, 3-2 victory over Shelbourne] - it was a poor performance.
"Our home performances have been right there. If we bring that to the table more often than not - hopefully we're back here next year - we'll be ok. People react to results, and I understand that, but our home performances have been just there."
Watch Shamrock Rovers v Derry City in the SSE Airtricity League live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player on Sunday from 6.45pm
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