Wednesday, June 20, 2012
As the dust settles on Ireland’s European championship flop Miguel Delaney looks at the successes and failures in Poland and where Giovanni Trapattoni can go from here.
Irish Hits
Keith Andrews: The single moment of frustration and anger at the end of the tournament shouldn’t overshadow the many more moments of fine play and effort. Andrews was Ireland’s best performer over the three games by some distance. Really, he was the only player who applied the spirit of Paris, regularly performing at optimum level. That, in effect, ensured that he was able to almost play two positions at once and, as such, wasn’t as overrun as his midfield partner Glenn Whelan. A classic example came in the first half of the Croatia game. In one minute, Andrews was trying to push things on by driving play forward. In the next, he was successfully hounding Luka Modric.
Shane Long: Increasingly becoming the most complete forward in the team. With Robbie Keane fading, he offers the industry of Jon Walters but better finishing than Kevin Doyle. Just look at his immediate impact on coming on against Italy: he instantly exchanged a defence-opening one-two with Doyle to force Daniele De Rossi into a necessary tactical foul when the score was at 1-0. It beggars belief that Trapattoni didn’t play him as the lone front man against Spain, a position in which he has excelled for West Brom.
Jon Walters: The easy option here would be to include James McClean given that he provided the campaign’s biggest cheer beyond Sean St Ledger’s goal by coming on against Spain. What’s more, he once again became a better player by not really appearing. Walters, however, did appear a lot and did always cause problems and occupy defenders’ minds when he was brought on. With the two substitute forwards, there is of course an element of having a better opportunity to impress because the game is more open by then but, like Long, Walters did his best with that opportunity.
Irish Misses
Stephen Ward: You’ll rarely find a more honest and down-to-earth player as Ward. But the honest assessment is that, as many feared beforehand, he’s simply not good enough for the level.
Indeed, that harsh truth set the tone for Ireland’s tournament. It was down his flank that Darijo Srna drove to send in the cross for Mario Mandzukic to score that first goal and immediately send the squad’s campaign into a tailspin. Of course, that only came about because Slaven Bilic specifically targeted the Wolves full-back. Sadly, Ward was repeatedly exposed.
Glenn Whelan: For so long, Whelan has been unfairly maligned because of the specific role Trapattoni has demanded of him. In this tournament though, that reached tipping point. First, the manner in which he was repeatedly outmanoeuvred became a symbol of how out of date Trapattoni’s system is in the modern international game. Second, he made errors that the system couldn’t really account for beyond exhaustion: a pointed example was the manner in which he turned his back for the Italian corner that led to Antonio Cassano’s game-changing goal.
Robbie Keane, pictured: There can be no denying that Keane is Ireland’s greatest ever striker. But, equally, there can be no denying that the currency of his goalscoring record is starting to fall. In many ways, Keane has become Ireland’s version of Raul for Spain in 2006. His previous feats mean it’s very difficult to drop him but, the more he plays and the less mobile he becomes, the more he compromises the system. Worse, it seems he will next become the squad’s David Beckham: not knowing when to call it a day. We’re not quite at that stage yet but the evidence of this tournament suggests we’re getting there.
Formation
Giovanni Trapattoni is rarely for turning. Indeed, we’ve now become used to him suggesting far-reaching changes in the immediate aftermath of troubling games only to then revert to form the following morning. Take his talk about three in the middle after the Hungary match. Euro 2012 though, might well have provided a reality check a little too stark.
If Ireland are to make any serious inroads in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, it seems he will have to at least switch to three in the centre of midfield. And, if there are a few expected retirements and steps back from certain players, there is at least the possibility of intrigue.
Here, we’ve set the team out in a 4-2-3-1. The most obvious change is James McCarthy’s superior positional sense and intelligent range of passing replacing Glenn Whelan.
The most potentially interesting change, however, comes in front of McCarthy. Here, there are actually more options than are immediately apparent. Directly ahead of the more defensive midfield two, for example, you can have the range of shooting and passing that Darron Gibson provides or the potentially riotous movement of Aiden McGeady. The Spartak Moscow attacker, after all, is a player whose energy is sapped by defensive responsibility... so why not absolve him of it completely? That generally marks a transformation in his game. Unless that proves a little too radical and McGeady remains on the wing, Damien Duff’s expected absence could finally provide an opportunity for a hopefully revitalised Seamus Coleman.
Ahead of all that, either Shane Long or Jon Walters would appear the most appropriate choices for the role of foraging lone front man, with Ciaran Clark maybe taking Stephen Ward’s place at left-back.