EURO 2012 GROUP C:AS HE seeks to engineer the extraordinary combination of results now required to extend Ireland's stay at these European Championships beyond the group stages, Giovanni Trapattoni strongly suggested yesterday that he will bring Jonathan Walters into his starting line-up for the game on Thursday evening.
The 73-year-old was predictably upbeat despite the tight corner in which his team now finds itself, seeking to convey a positive outlook by insisting that Ireland’s two remaining group games represent “a lot of time” in which to turn around an unpromising situation. He conceded, however, that with at least a point required against Spain if there is anything to be at stake in the final group game back in Poznan: “I have to think about what is better for the team.”
That, it seems, is to involve starting Walters, who has generally impressed in his eight games for Ireland, with Kevin Doyle set to lose out despite the industry and occasional enterprise he showed against the Croats in what often were challenging circumstances.
“Jonathan has shown us that with his physical strength the way he can help both the strikers and the midfield,” he said. “Spain are technically superior on the pitch and maybe I can change things to react to them, not because of the performances in the first game.”
Trapattoni admitted Ireland have tended to struggle with the sort of individual player who can “get between the lines”. “Either,” he said, “we can adapt ourselves with the players we have or change. But we have to correct the situation with Spain.”
In the event that the Italian goes through with the change, it seems likely to be the only one.
The Irish were disappointing in several areas the other night but with injuries unlikely at this stage to be a factor (Richard Dunne did very little at training yesterday but is said to be okay, Shay Given did light training and Darron Gibson rested with what seemed to be a thigh strain) Trapattoni strongly suggested he would not start upsetting such a settled line-up at this late stage on the basis of what he has sought to portray as little more than a slightly off night in which Croatia’s superiority was ultimately exacerbated by two key refereeing decisions.
“They were superior to us but I thought our performance was positive,” he said. “We knew we were a little bit inferior but without two or three situations it would have been 1-1.”
Instead, he says he wants to see his regulars go out in Gdansk and seek “redemption” for the manner of the defeat on Sunday night. They have to remember, as he does, he said, “that they are a good team.”
“I remember why we achieved this qualification,” he observed. “I remember that we deserved it. We don’t have the great creative players but we have our own qualities and we have to keep believing in those. The players have to show their worth.”
Asked about the decision to replace Aiden McGeady with Simon Cox rather than another winger, he was unapologetic, insisting, in essence, that the team needed his goals and that his natural wingers don’t score enough of them. When the questioning came to centre on James McClean he appeared rather dismissive of the idea that the Sunderland player might have been introduced into such a big game at such a key time for Ireland, regardless of what he has achieved in the Premier League this year.
“There was a lot of tension in the opening minutes. When the experienced players experienced such tension,” as he acknowledged they had, “then you can understand how much more it would have been for James. It’s important that we give him opportunities when we are not under such pressure.”
His Spanish counterpart, meanwhile, has trust issues of his own to contend with, Vicente Del Bosque having to decide whether to add the likes of Fernando Torres to a team that lined out against Italy without a single natural striker in the side.
“Spain can play with Torres or without him,” said Trapattoni. “They can play with Fernando Llorente or without him. That’s not my problem.”
Although in a very real sense, of course, it probably is.
