Kerr still juggling options up front

SOCCER/Faroe Islands v Ireland: With Robbie Keane's hopes of leading Ireland's attack against the Faroe Islands ended yesterday by the shoulder injury he picked up over the weekend against Israel, Brian Kerr will decide how to reshape his front line after the squad's first training session at the Torsvollur stadium this morning.

Kerr must decide whether to persist with Damien Duff in the more advanced role, start with Gary Doherty or give a competitive debut to Stephen Elliott. The Ireland manager said last night he had not made a final decision, but suggested he would be influenced by conditions at the ground where the surface has generally been less than ideal for international football.

The change has been forced on Kerr by the loss of Keane, whose withdrawal from the squad was confirmed before the Irish party left Dublin yesterday afternoon. Kerr said he was not at all surprised when the news from the FAI's medical team turned out to be bad.

"No, with the type of injury and the way he held it I didn't think that he had that much of a chance even at the time," he said. "The way he went down was a bad sign because he's certainly not a quitter. He's playing in a position where it can often be a battle and I've rarely seen him go off.

"It's a disappointment, but everybody else who travelled trained, with the exception of Gary, who stayed out of it for some of it because he went into Saturday's game with a bit of a knock."

Doherty, he said, would be fit to start the game if required, given that he had played against Celtic in Glasgow 10 days ago and then for half an hour of Saturday's match at Lansdowne Road.

Another option, however, is to alter the formation to play 4-3-3 on what is a narrow pitch. In that case Andy Reid and Duff would be asked to play either side of Clinton Morrison, with Matt Holland, Kevin Kilbane and Roy Keane the likely midfield combination.

Whatever he decides, Kerr confirmed the Manchester United skipper and Stephen Carr are set to come back into the side. The likely knock-on effect is that John O'Shea will play at centre back. Steve Finnan did not travel after finally being officially withdrawn from the squad by Liverpool.

Despite Saturday's setback, the manager insisted that the team is confident of bouncing back here with a win and that his own mood is upbeat despite his less positive assessment of the situation immediately after the draw against Israel.

"I didn't think that I was being negative on Saturday," he said. "I was just stating a few realities, and I think the players' mood is influenced now by the reality that there can still be a lot of twists and turns in this group when you look at the fixtures.

"Obviously there is some disappointment within the team, and some players will be particularly disappointed with their own performances, but we all have to get on with it. They have to be professional, pick themselves up and show their determination to move forward again.

"It's a combination of things," he added. "The players have to accept some responsibility for what happens in the games and we (the management and staff) have to take responsibility for making sure that they are focused for what will be a very different sort of challenge to the ones they are used to when playing back at home."

While the FAI said they will pursue the Andy O'Brien appeal with FIFA to ensure he is banned for no more than the mandatory one game as a result of his sending off at the weekend, Kerr was philosophical about the matter, pointing out that he was aware of the rule in such situations, and he even conceded that he could see the practical thinking behind FIFA's desire to avoid the rushed consideration of such situations.

Kerr says he has watched the game between the Faroes and Swiss, a match in which the visitors prospered after abandoning the high ball approach against a team that is both big and strong at the back, but was already well aware of what to expect tomorrow night from his preparations for his first game in charge of the international team. Part of the process of weighing up the Scots in February 2003 consisted of watching their 2-2 draw here, and, he said, "I saw the sort of problems they could pose even then.

"It's a place," he observed, "where there haven't been too many clear-cut results recently, because they've learned to battle and scrap and bring teams down to their own level over the years."

Saturday's game in Dublin may give heart to tomorrow's hosts, for they might well take from it that when a team sets out to pull the Irish down to their own level they don't meet with too much effective resistance.

The Irish too, however, will, one hopes, have learned from their Israeli experience.