Former international Keith Gillespie believes the drab nature of Northern Ireland's recent performances will heap more pressure on manager Ian Baraclough.
A 3-1 loss in Athens on Tuesday night brought down the curtain on a demoralising Nations League campaign, one that saw Northern Ireland win just one of their six games in the competition.
Gillespie believes the manner of Tuesday's defeat will sit uncomfortably with the Green and White Army, but he isn't convinced the Irish FA will wield the axe before the next Euro qualifying campaign.
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“I would suggest the manager is under pressure because results and performances have not been good,” Gillespie told BBC Sportsound.
"It is always difficult replacing a manager who had success. Look at Man Utd trying to replace Alex Ferguson, and Arsenal trying to replace Arsene Wenger.
"It is difficult to replace successful managers and Michael (O'Neill) was that. But the performances, there is nothing to get excited about whatsoever."
He added: “If there was a change it would have made more sense to do that before these two games.
"The fact we don't have any games until March, maybe they are going to stick by him. It will be a big campaign for him and there will need to be a lot of improvements."
Gillespie was left deflated by another drab performance from Baraclough's side in Greece.
Shayne Lavery's goal was a rare bright spark in a game that saw Northern Ireland under-perform once again.
"So many of the performances in this were going through the motions," Gillespie said.
"We get ourselves back in the game tonight and you think Greece are there for the taking in the second half. But we go through the motions.
"Nothing there to even excite you, one little bit.
"Now we don't have a game for six or seventh months and we are coming off the back of a demoralising campaign.
"Are there countries playing at the World Cup who might want to play Northern Ireland? It is a long time for the Northern Ireland manager not to get the players together."
Meanwhile, former Northern Ireland defender John O'Neill says he "can't see" the IFA wielding the axe on Baraclough.
“This Nations League has been an awful competition for us,” he said.
“Obviously you’re glad we’ve got the win (against Kosovo) at last but the performances haven’t been great.
“Our side is ageing a bit and we don’t want to lose all our experienced players at one time.
“I think we will now have a difficult group for the Euro qualifiers no matter who we get.
“On Baraclough’s future, I can’t see the Irish FA making a major move on that.”
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