How can Ireland go forward? (August 2012)

When a team moves up to a higher level of competition, sometimes disappointment is inevitable. A good, technical Serbian team went into the 2006 World Cup with a core of excellent players such as Vidic, Kezman and Stankovic, boasting an unbeaten record in qualifying from a group containing Spain, Bosnia and Belgium. In the World Cup itself, Serbia lost 6-0 to Argentina and exited from their group without a point, a dismal record only equalled by Costa Rica. Tournament football at the highest level is punishing and immensely cruel at times. Ireland found that out in the summer of 2012.

There has been a great deal of criticism directed at the management from Irish fans and media in the wake of the disappointing tournament. This soul-searching is not borne out of an expectation to conquer at the highest level – only a fool would think a country of Ireland’s standing should be demanding consistent victories against Europe’s elite. However, Ireland now face into a difficult qualifying campaign, a group with a different dynamic to the previous campaigns under Trapattoni. Germany, Sweden and Austria provide the competition, with the Kazakhs and Faroes making up the numbers – and second place cannot even guarantee a playoff. The performances that got Ireland through the last two campaigns will simply not be good enough this time. With a generation of players seemingly in need of replacement, and promising youngsters in need of experience, Ireland face into a time of transition and uncertainty. Trapattoni faces his toughest challenge to date, and many fans are not convinced he’s up to the job, despite good results in previous campaigns.

The main concerns are rooted not just in previous results against better sides, but performances and team/squad selections – it’s difficult to quantify the strength of Ireland’s playing resources if they are not being utilised to the full, and many fans are not convinced this is the case. The repeated selections of Championship players like Paul McShane, Paul Green, Darren O’Dea and Andy Keogh in the squad have caused considerable disillusionment with the manager’s judgement, as there are in-form alternatives playing at a higher level, making compelling cases for inclusion. Every good performance from the likes of Wes Hoolahan, Anthony Pilkington and Ciaran Clark in the EPL will serve to put further pressure on the Irish manager and those he picks in their stead – pressure which could be easily avoided. Keogh, O’Dea, McShane and particularly Green have often looked uncomfortable and ineffective at international level, and could easily be discarded without weakening the squad. Their retention seems more borne of stubbornness than pragmatism, as they have done little on the pitch to warrant a place in the squad.

Also, the rigidity of Ireland’s 4-4-2 formation has been exposed time and again, with even lowly opponents dominating possession in games, and Ireland seemingly handing the initiative to beatable teams at home, as was evident against Bulgaria and Slovakia. This policy was punished ruthlessly in Poland, and will be against Germany and Sweden unless something changes. The problem for Ireland lies in the technical ability of the full-backs and central midfielders; for a 4-4-2 system to work, the central midfielders should have enough technical ability to receive the ball and pick out forward passes even when outnumbered. Neither Whelan nor Andrews have this kind of ability, and are picked on the basis of defensive strength and attrition – a factor rendered increasingly meaningless given FIFA and UEFA’s continued efforts to remove physical contact from the game. The full-backs – vital for building possession in the modern game – also seem unable to pick out accurate passes, leading to hopeful balls into the channels, where Ireland’s physical strikers usually tend to fall foul of international referees who lack the leniency of their EPL counterparts.

Another complaint with the flat 4-4-2 is the isolation of the strikers in general play. Robbie Keane’s spell on loan at Aston Villa showed that the top scorer does have the ability to drop deep and help out in midfield if needed, but he has not done this for Ireland, apparently being under instruction to play close to his strike partner, on the shoulder of the opposing centre-backs. A small adjustment to the striker’s role could have borne fruit at times when more numbers were needed in midfield, but it hasn’t happened, and it seems clear that opposing teams have cottoned on to the deficiencies of Ireland’s undermanned engine-room.

Trapattoni has been accused of deliberately employing the more attritional, direct tactics to compensate for the lack of technical ability at his disposal, essentially surrendering possession. However, Ireland have not always played like this under the Italian. With Steve Finnan and Steven Reid in the side, Ireland played a much more measured game at the start of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers. The injury and subsequent international retirement of both players was a blow to Ireland, immediately felt in the following performances, and neither player has been effectively replaced.

These problems could be eliminated with just a little bit of tweaking. Between Coleman, Wilson, McCarthy, Gibson, McClean, McGeady and Long, there is enough young talent available to build an effective, competitive side, and to slowly phase out the players who can’t compete effectively at this level. The big fear for Ireland is that the manager’s often eccentric faith in the old guard of Whelan, Andrews, Ward, McShane, et al, will not allow that to happen, and that the stagnation in the current side could become something terminal, leaving any future manager with an unfavourable seeding position and a huge rebuilding job. Trapattoni is contracted for another two years, and is going nowhere, so the critics will just have to put up with it – but we can only hope that he has learned a few lessons from the painful Euro 2012 experience, and that he shows a willingness to change the current personnel and tactics. However, the young players also need to step up and prove that they are worthy of the hype. Many of these players – particularly Gibson, Wilson and McCarthy – have only themselves to blame for not yet cementing their places in the Irish starting XI. They need to make a case for inclusion that Trapattoni cannot resist.