ON SOCCER:The fact Andy Reid has not had a minute of football in seven games seems a little harsh

SAY WHAT you like about Giovanni Trapattoni but all the early indications are that he knows what he likes. More pertinently, of course, it seems he knows who he doesn't with the omission of Andy Reid from the starting line-up for last week's win over Cyprus dominating the post-match analysis to a pretty remarkable extent.

Reid is a decent player whose ability at set-pieces, on the evidence of the last few outings, would be a most welcome addition to the range of talents possessed by this Republic of Ireland team. The 26-year-old's merits may have been overstated a little, however, by some of those who have criticised the veteran Italian for his approach to Wednesday's game.

Sure, the scale of the Sunderland midfielder's exclusion is a little puzzling. Trapattoni has said more than once Reid's absence from the team is in no small part down to the fact the player failed to travel to Portugal and there is a lingering suspicion the new manager was not entirely convinced by the account of the injury that was supplied at the time by his club.

But whatever the reason that he does not feature prominently in the manager's plans, the fact he has not had a minute of football in seven games seems more than a little harsh.

Trapattoni, though, is entitled to bring his own game plan with him and he had repeatedly made it clear he wishes to have a defensively solid central midfield providing a licence for those on the wings to attack more freely.

In the qualifying campaign to date none of the team's three performances has been outstanding but all have been broadly in line with what the manager set out to achieve and at this early stage, before either of the group's big boys have been encountered, Ireland have the best record of a second-placed team in any group.

Bulgaria, meanwhile, have about the worst of any second seed and the brightest thing from an Irish point of view about last week's international dates was not the battling win over Cyprus, which we can only hope was but one step on a longer journey, but the utter mediocrity displayed by the Bulgarian side who must be leapfrogged if even a place in the play-offs is to be achieved.

Against a significantly depleted Italian side, Plamen Markov's men showed an astonishing lack of ambition in Sofia. Perhaps we should have seen it coming when Dimitar Berbatov suggested ahead of the game that a draw would be a good result as the hosts were "no Brazil". However, even their lack of initiative at home could scarcely prepare a distant neutral for their lack of quality or composure against Georgia in Tbilisi where the Manchester United striker was moved to observe that the group's second seeds had been "completely outplayed" for spells.

Trapattoni has repeatedly insisted Ireland's interests would be best served by the Italians beating everyone bar us in the group, a fairly clear admission he sees second place as the best-case scenario. It's not, in the circumstances, an unreasonable outlook but his ambitions may have to be revised upwards if his side can beat Georgia and then Bulgaria at home in the New Year before the trip to play the world champions - a clash between the sides destined to be the group's top two.

In that instance Ireland would travel with a great deal to play for and Italy's goalless draw last Saturday week would look a very good result indeed from an Irish perspective.

Admittedly, it requires quite a leap to start speculating now on how Trapattoni might look to play against the Italians in the event that the scenario comes to pass. Without trying to tempt fate too much, however, it seems hard to imagine that a central midfield involving Glenn Whelan and either Reid or Darron Gibson could be selected.

Assuming Steven Reid is not back by then, the options are not great but to judge by last Wednesday Whelan looks like he needs a player possessing strength and authority beside him to take on the lead role, particularly when things get tough.

Gibson was picked for the former against Cyprus but barring some dramatic progress during the next few months he would surely fall a little short of what is required for an outing in venues like Rome, Turin, or Milan. Reid, meanwhile, would look quite a luxury in those sortof surroundings too.

The problem is not a new one. Kevin Kilbane, for instance, had a cracking night in central midfield against France in Paris in a previous campaign when he was playing alongside Roy Keane but when given the leading role at the heart of the team with the gifted but indisputably lightweight Stephen Ireland beside him in Cyprus, the results were pretty disastrous.

What is perplexing, in the circumstances, however, is Trapattoni's aversion to Lee Carsley who is seen at Birmingham as their signing of the summer and at Everton as someone whose departure has deprived a decidedly average defence of the protection it badly requires to get by.

At 34, Carsley may not have too much time left at this level but he surely fits into the new manager's tactical approach and just now he looks a better bet than the alternatives. Yet when his name was brought up in advance of the Cyprus game, Trapattoni clearly implied he had sought to call the midfielder up only to discover that, having come off early the Saturday before, he had undergone a minor operation.

The injury, in fact, was far less serious than that and it remains unclear what led the Italian to suggest the player had undergone surgery.

Carsley has since emphasised his availability and it will be interesting to see whether he is brought in for the Poland friendly on November 19th. Reid might even get a run-out next month too while Trapattoni could probably do worse than call up Rory Delap whose form at Stoke City would appear to merit inclusion.

An attempt to get Trapattoni to comment on the midfielder last week prompted considerable confusion. So far, though, the evidence suggests that such bouts of uncertainty are restricted to Trapattoni's press conferences and as long as the players look as though they want to play for the 69-year-old and know how he wants them to do it, it's hard to imagine how he could have too much to fear from his critics.