‘Like a movie script’: Michael McArdle backs Northern Ireland to make history

For seven and a half years, Michael McArdle worked in the construction industry while playing semi-professional football, studying for a degree in building services engineering and raising three young children together with his wife. Any leftover earnings he put into funding his football coaching badges.

Eventually he took a big risk and decided to take “probably a 300% drop in salary” and commit to coaching, a life-changing moment that now may be leading towards a World Cup in Brazil next summer as the Northern Ireland Women’s manager.

After laying the foundations at Falkirk, St Mirren and Ayr United, a spell coaching Scotland Women’s Under-23 side and a role with the Scottish FA as the head of elite women’s football led to his appointment by Northern Ireland in March.

Related: Too nice: do Arsenal lack the grit and tenacity to end WSL title drought?

Starting his reign with back-to-back victories against Malta in April helped secure a place in the playoffs for the 2027 World Cup, and McArdle’s team host Portugal on Friday at Inver Park in the first leg of their first-round playoff. He says his career experiences to date have aligned towards this “special moment in time” with Northern Ireland.

The 46-year-old and his wife, Tammy, were both born, raised in and have never left the North Lanarkshire village of Moodiesburn near Glasgow. “My wife is now a social carer in the village, looking after the old buddies that raised us – we’ve always been from families that give for others and I think coaching aligns with that easily, because ultimately that’s what coaching is,” McArdle tells Moving the Goalposts.

“I’m a servant leader. I’m very comfortable that way, as an experienced coach, being vulnerable and open. That servant leadership style, I wanted to make sure that the [Northern Ireland] players are aware of that right away.”

Now a Uefa Pro licence holder, McArdle was influenced by watching videos of the former Milan and Italy coach Arrigo Sacchi carrying out drills around a 4-4-2 formation. McArdle believes a more flexible approach is needed with Northern Ireland, which is why his team deployed a variety of tactics across his first four games in charge: April’s wins over Malta and June’s narrow 2-1 defeats by Switzerland and Turkey.

“I deliberately didn’t go with one strict formation or style. For a nation such as ourselves, from a population perspective, we’re the 150th nation in the world and we’re sitting 50th [in the Fifa women’s world rankings] because we do punch above our weight for passion for the sport.

“We could easily just sit behind the ball and try to get through and finish with the most points in League B and then just go to the playoffs and sit behind the ball again and just try and stay in the game. For me, though, and for us as a nation, we’re trying to go: ‘Let’s take a step beyond this, let’s sustainably now move towards competing on a regular basis at a higher level.’

“To take that step, sometimes you need to take a step backwards and take a few hits as well. I wanted us to be exposed and embrace [being uncomfortable]. I kept referencing ‘playoff ready’, because ‘playoff ready’ is where we’ll be tested at the highest level. We learned so much about ourselves.

“The game of football is a living organism – you can’t predict what happens. We need to be ready for everything as a small nation. If we stick to one strict style of play, we won’t be adaptable when it comes to those moments.”

McArdle, a former goalkeeper, is eager to develop many of Northern Ireland’s younger players, having done so in Scotland. He says he had opportunities to leave the Scottish game before but the timing had not felt right. This time, conversations with senior figures at the Irish FA such as Angela Platt, the director of women’s football, Aaron Hughes, technical director, and Conrad Kirkwood, the now former president, made him realise “at every meeting everything was just so aligned with my passion and my skill set”. He also felt a bond between Glasgow and Belfast that “just felt like family”.

Northern Ireland reached Euro 2022 but have never played at a Women’s World Cup. McArdle is under no illusions about the size of the obstacles standing between his team and next summer’s tournament in Brazil. Even if they can overcome Portugal – a huge task in itself – then either Croatia or Iceland would await in the second round of playoffs in December. If Northern Ireland were to progress, they could still be the lowest-ranked of the eight European playoff winners.

If so – because only the seven highest-ranked of the eight round-two playoff winners are guaranteed places in Brazil – it would require Northern Ireland to contest a further round, in the inter-confederation playoffs in February. That potential three-stage path is something akin to a “movie script”, he says, but adds: “There are six probably history-making results to go and get.

“Going toe-to-toe with Portugal is a great opportunity for us to test ourselves. When I first came into the post, I was very bullish to say ‘six points against Malta was a necessity’ and we had to put ourselves under that pressure – now the opportunity to do something special, that’s the piece we’re all excited about.”

Get in touch If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email moving.goalposts@theguardian.com.

This is an extract from our free email about women’s football, Moving the Goalposts. To get the full edition, visit this page and follow the instructions. Moving the Goalposts is delivered to your inboxes every Tuesday and Thursday.