CLAP-TRAP(ATTONI)

 by BRIAN P FARRELL
                                                     
With an almost impeccable sense of mis-timing, Our Beloved Leader, Signor Trapattoni, announced on October 16th, (the day after Croke Park had hosted another episode of ‘The Great Escape‘) that there was no place now, nor even in the foreseeable future, for Sunderland’s Andy Reid, as one of his midfield options. That same day, it was revealed that Blackburn’s Steven Reid is out for the rest of the season.

The statement from the great man, as reported in the media, is enough to make the hairs stand out on the back of my neck.

Andy Reid’s future role with Ireland is, apparently, to be confined to skirmishes with ‘lesser’ opposition…..which, translated into meaningful English, says Andy can look forward to a very long rest, collecting splinters and warming his arse on the bench for the duration of this World Cup campaign.

If we ever have the good fortune to cross swords with The Aleutian Islands, Mongolia or The Outer Hebrides, however, his name will be the first one on the team-sheet!

Unlike you doubting Thomases, I can well understand Trapattoni’s stance: the man is convinced we are positively choking on a plethora of top-class midfielders: Glenn Whelan (‘I will make him my Gattuso’)  was spotted sporadically running around willingly, but to no positive effect;  Darron Gibson (still serving his apprenticeship at Old Trafford)  got the sharp end of the stick by being hurled (a veritable tyro) into a match we had to win; Stephen Hunt and Liam Miller were left sitting twiddling their thumbs while our midfield was being obliterated in the second half .

It is patently unfair to ask two wide players (Duff and McGeady) to multi-task and carry midfield, when the two players picked for the job are not cutting the mustard.

Meanwhile, poacher-turned-gamekeeper (Brady) sat stoically watching this tableau unfold, but if he had any misgivings about our tactics, he kept them to himself. Trapattoni’s final stroke of genius was to put on Caleb Folan (in the 90th minute) to replace the gallant but exhausted Kevin Doyle, who had run himself to a standstill. The boss doesn’t like using subs.

It says a lot about the current state of our game when we have trouble at home putting away a team (Cyprus) ranked 80th by FIFA, and couldn’t beat a team ranked 117th (Montenegro).
Not so long ago on these pages, I voiced serious doubts over the manager’s whole approach to how a team should play. I made the point that creativity and adventurous attacking  play were likely to be sacrificed on the altar of pragmatism, and so it has come to pass.

Trapattoni can waffle on all he likes about ‘wardrobes‘ (Richard Dunne), and placing an imposing physical presence in midfield, but if he continues to eschew skilful creativity, it is not going to be pretty to watch, and, somewhere down the line, we will be found out.

Bulgaria and Italy are not likely to be half as profligate as the Cypriots were, in front of goal.

The Irish manager’s stated philosophy of Play the Odds, depend on free-kicks, set-pieces and corners, snatch a goal and defend like demons is, to me, a reincarnation of the worst excesses of catenaccio,  a system of playing in the 50s and 60s which endeared the Italian clubs, and the Azzuri, to no-one.

It is negativity taken to the limit, (football nihilism, if you like) and is an insult to those of us who like to watch and appreciate the game as it should be played.

We are rapidly approaching  a scenario which will not make for pleasant viewing: Stephen Ireland (playing consistently well, week in, week out, for Manchester City) prefers to remain in  self-imposed exile; there is the very likely prospect of Andy Reid’s patience wearing thin (with the same outcome) and Steven Reid, the bedrock of Trapattoni’s master-plan, is out for the next six months.

Damien Duff and Aiden McGeady, two of the genuinely creative players we possess, will need the stamina of marathon runners, flogging themselves ragged out wide, to camouflage the lack of imagination in central midfield.

Keep saying the prayers that the mainstays of the team, Given, Dunne, Doyle, Keane, Duff and McGeady stay injury-free between now and next February.  Steve Finnan should be welcomed back with open arms.