Lawrence doesn't like going for the jugglers

SOCCER:"I'M DEAD, aren't I," said a laughing Liam Lawrence as he left the media room in Malahide yesterday. "But at least I'm honest, eh?" He was too. Certainly on the subject of his former Stoke City team-mate Jermaine Pennant's recent declaration that he'd quite like to play for the Republic of Ireland, now that he's given up on an England call.

“I’m 28, I’m not getting any younger and I’d like to play international football, whether it’s with England or Ireland,” Pennant said. “I’d love to play for England but it’s just never happened.

“Who’s to say that Ireland can’t get to the next World Cup? If I could be a part of that with Ireland, that would be great.”

Well, what did Lawrence make of Pennant’s comments? A deep breath was followed by a large grin. “Yeah well, he is a good player at the end of the day,” he said. A pause.

But you’d recommend playing for Ireland? “Of course I would, yeah,” he said. “The only thing I know upsets us is when people are trying to juggle between England and Ireland – that’s the only issue here, really. And it is not just me that’s saying that. It doesn’t look good, does it? You know, for an Irishman to see that.”

So maybe he should have just kept his ‘juggling’ thoughts to himself? “Well, at least if he doesn’t say it you don’t know he is feeling it. “I think Glenn (Whelan, Pennant’s clubmate) has given him some stick already,” he smiled.

Similar to Jamie O’Hara’s indecision about declaring for Ireland? “Next! Look, we obviously don’t dislike these people. It is just some of the comments that they come out with – when they’re saying they are juggling between Ireland and England – you just don’t do it, do you?”

As an English-born player representing the Republic of Ireland it’s an issue, said Lawrence, that he is acutely sensitive to, recalling his own arrival in the squad.

“With the accent and all the rest of it and being born over there, yeah, I was nervous when I first came over, I know it is always in the back of people’s minds, things like that. ‘Why? Were you conscious of not upsetting people?’ Of course I was, but I wouldn’t ever anyway ‘cos there was never any . . . I would never juggle them.”

Ironically, it was Pennant’s arrival at Stoke from Real Zaragoza last summer that helped reduce Lawrence’s first team opportunities at the club, ultimately leading to him dropping down a division when he joined Portsmouth in September.

“It was a big decision for me,” he said. “For one, dropping down, because of the international thing and then, two, because of the state the club was in. But I was assured that things were going to get sorted and players would be brought in. It’s turned around eventually now, so I still stand by my decision to move and hopefully, next year, I think will be massive for Portsmouth.”

He spoke to Giovanni Trapattoni about the move at the time, the manager telling him that he’d be happier if he was playing week in, week out in the Championship, rather than warming a Premiership bench.

That, he said, was encouraging, but he recognises that most of his rivals for the wide positions in the Irish midfield are playing at a higher level.

“Yeah, there’s Damien (Duff), Aiden (McGeady), even Keith Fahey as well, he can play out there. And he’s playing regularly now (for Birmingham City). So, yeah, I think when you’re looking at it like that and players are playing week in, week out in the best league in the world, it’s going to be on the downside for me. But that’s why I’m trying to get back up there now with Portsmouth.

“But it can only be good for us as a team when we have this much competition, we’ve got some good players fighting for places on the wings and in the middle. I’ll have to see which way the gaffer wants to go this weekend. Personally, I’d like to play in the middle, it’s my preferred position, but the way it’s been over the years, I’ve always been put on the right.”

Could he fit in to Trapattoni’s system? “Well, I can play in the middle and do a job there, it just depends what he wants me to do, I suppose. Just about every team this year that we’ve come up against has played a five, with three sitting in the middle, two wide pushing on and the one up top. Everybody seems to be playing that nowadays. With 4-4-2 you just get outnumbered, it’s as simple as that, and with the quality that is in international football, when you get outnumbered in the middle, it’s the engine-room and the main part of the field, so . . . ”

Do you see a day when Ireland, under Trapattoni, won’t start with 4-4-2? “I don’t know, we’ll have to wait and see. You lot are going to get me in trouble here . . . ”

Well, at least he’s honest.