Duff to miss out on fearless assault

THE TALK in Malahide yesterday was of how the Republic of Ireland will fearlessly take the game to Italy at Croke Park on Saturday. However, if the home side are to go one better than they did in Bari and get the win they need to maintain their hopes of snatching automatic qualification from under the noses of the World champions, then they’ll have to do it without Damien Duff, who will not now be travelling to Dublin ahead of the game.

Giovanni Trapattoni is hopeful the Fulham winger may return to take some part in next Wednesday’s game against Montenegro, but on the Craven Cottage club’s website yesterday it was stated: “Damien Duff misses out through injury. The winger will remain at Fulham’s Training Ground during the international break.”

Whatever about next Wednesday’s game, what is certain is Duff, like Steven Reid, Darron Gibson and Caleb Folan, will miss the weekend’s clash with the group leaders and all look set to stay with their clubs next week too. Unlike the others, it seems Duff will not be replaced, with Andy Reid’s somewhat free-spirited approach to the wide role still not to the manager’s taste.

Asked yesterday about his decision to bring in Martin Rowlands instead of Reid, Trapattoni insisted he had been in the market for a midfielder to replace Gibson and Steven Reid, not “an offensive player”. We took this to mean one of the attacking variety.

He has, he insists, kept close tabs on the Sunderland player’s improvement this year and might look at him again in the event that Ireland do qualify for the World Cup but for the moment, he signalled, the system is everything and Reid’s approach simply doesn’t fit into that.

“We already have (Aiden) McGeady, (Stephen) Hunt and (Liam) Lawrence,” said the manager, “players who play on the line with very specific characteristics, he (Reid) does not have them. He’s different. He’s a good player. Against United he was good but he plays differently to what we want now.”

Pressed on whether he was suggesting that, far from looking to bring something different to the squad, his 11 replacements should, ideally, simply mirror the talents of players he starts so that one can slot perfectly into precisely the same role as another, he replied: “That’s a fair assumption. If I was already qualified I would give them another chance, I could experiment, in the future I’m not excluding anything but for the moment, it’s a fair assumption.”

With some basis, perhaps, for arguing that the media don’t seem to tire of revisiting the Reid question, Trapattoni decided to run through the historical facts of his exclusion too, recalling that the player was absent from the training camp in Portugal (amid suspicions that he was not really injured) where, he insists, he started to settle on his tactics.

At that stage, he said, he viewed both Stephen Ireland and Reid as players who could play off a single striker but quickly had to consider alternatives and with Kevin Doyle and Robbie Keane a viable partnership and Caleb Folan then emerging as potential cover, the Sunderland man’s boat simply sailed without him.

As things stand, the midfield for Saturday’s game looks to pick itself with Glenn Whelan and Keith Andrews set to be flanked by McGeady and Hunt which is not, on the face of it, a combination that should really strike terror into capable visitors requiring no more than a draw.

Trapattoni, though, is adamant that in front of a crowd of around 70,000 we can take the game to the world champions. “It’s important that we play without fear,” he said. “Over 90 minutes we will play to win, for sure.”

There is still a sense that the Irish would take a point although with the game between Cyprus and Bulgaria due to finish before the one in Dublin begins, they may take the field knowing that they have little to lose as a draw or better for the hosts in Larnaca would guarantee Trapattoni’s second place in the group.

Failing that, an added incentive to go for the extra two points was probably provided last Tuesday when Fifa belatedly decided the play-offs would be seeded, something that leaves Trapattoni and his men facing the prospect of a two-legged showdown with, as things stand now, the likes of France, Croatia or Russia in the event they finish as runners-up.

A couple of his players were still angry about what they regarded as moving the goal posts but the Italian sought to play down its significance.

“For me it’s not important because we can play against any of these teams and we will show that on Saturday against the world champions. We have to realise that business is business and so it is not such a surprise that it happens this way when the big teams are not all at the top of the table.

“But if they are going to change things then they should do it when all of the teams are equal. They have to think about this in the future if they are going to change the ranking system again.

“Four or five years ago, the big teams, the clubs, they wanted to set up a European Super League but too many people thought it was dangerous and they gave up. Every country has the right to play against Germany, England or the other famous teams and they should have the same chance to qualify.”

At times over the course of the press conference he had become animated and the task of getting the finer points of his replies was not made any easier by the cavernous nature of the venue, with even those seated quite close to him struggling to hear.

Asked if he was happy ahead of the game. “Normally, I sleep quietly,” he said after reflecting on the question for a moment.

“In 40 years of football, as a player and a coach, it’s not a problem for me.”