SOCCER REPUBLIC OF IRELAND 4 OMAN 1:THERE WAS clearly plenty for Giovanni Trapattoni to be pleased about after his side's performance at Craven Cottage last night but if any of Ireland's understudies left for home believing that they had played their way into the manager's plans for the German game next month they should probably start preparing to be disappointed.
The Italian singled out quite a few of last night’s starting line-up, as well as one or two that came on during the course of the second half, for praise but still suggested that the only change he is seriously considering in the run up to October 12th is to use James McCarthy as part of a three-man midfield.
He was, he made clear, especially pleased with the performances of Séamus Coleman and Marc Wilson here, with the pair, he said, producing the sort of attacking displays that he wants to see from his full backs.
After mentioning Robbie Brady and David Meyler positively at one point or another, though, he was asked specifically about whether James McClean is likely to be involved in the next World Cup qualifier. “Probably not,” he said with a hint of surprise, it seemed, that the question was even being put to him. The team next month, he suggested, will be as it was in Astana.
Perhaps not precisely the same team it seems however: “It depends,” he said, “the tactical approach against Germany will depend. We will have to sit down and decide whether we are strong enough to attack them or whether we will have to sit back and defend more against them.
“I have to think now about it. I will watch their game tonight against Austria but I know the Germans very well and I think it’s possible that we have to play against them with a very strong midfield and just one striker.”
That, he hinted, will pave the way for McCarthy to come in alongside Glenn Whelan and Keith Andrews. He went on to raise the possibility, however, that he might also opt for asking one of his usual strikers to drop back into midfield, an approach that didn’t go especially well for him in Poland.
Overall, though, he walked away from this game believing that some confidence and momentum had been restored, both by the win and the standard of the display.
“The victory is important,” he said, “but what’s more important is the quality of the performance. In the first half we played well and scored three goals. It was good, we had a better shape and were technically better than in Kazakhstan for example.
“After we changed things we lost a little bit of our shape on the pitch but it’s normal when you change three, four, five of the players. That’s normal. We changed six players and perhaps if we had stayed with the original 11 then we could have continued being stronger.”
As it was, despite this, there were quite a few strong individual performances for the manager to reflect on.
“It was good to see Coleman play well in this position, also Wilson and Brady. Coleman was good at full back and that was important.
“We also have James McClean, who played well tonight for 30 minutes. They can all be in the squad but to play? I think we will play the team, with just one change for the Germans, that played in Kazakhstan.
“McCarthy can perhaps be a little more offensive for us in midfield and Andrews a little more physical. But we will see and I don’t want to talk too much about the squad now because every minute we seem to have a new injury.”
Brady, he acknowledged had done enough to merit further attention but, he suggested, the player has the potential to do even better. Similarly, though, it seems that the 20-year-old will have to be patient as he looks to make inroads at this level.
Paul Le Guen, meanwhile, didn’t seem overly downcast about his side’s performance, observing that with Oman’s league not yet started and Ramadan only just finished, his players were not quite as fit as he would have liked.
More pointedly, he admitted, they simply weren’t tall enough to compete at set pieces; a weakness the Irish certainly made the most of but one they are unlikely to encounter when the Germans come to town.
