Ability to adapt grants Martin O’Neill a stronger hand

It is sometimes suggested that the evolution of Martin O'Neill's Republic of Ireland team has been the result of forced circumstance with the manager having to adapt as squad members lost form and others, with differing skill sets, coming to the fore.

Unlike his predecessor, however, the Derry man has shown a willingness to adapt his formations in order to accommodate the players whose case for inclusion is strongest at any given point in time.

Perhaps Giovanni Trapattoni would by now have revisited his decision early on that 4-4-2 was what best suited the mentality and, as he saw it, limited ability of the group he had inherited but it is entirely possible that the Italian would, even now, still be looking to be stick square pegs into round holes to make his one-formation-fits-all gameplan work.

Players’ DNA

O’Neill has been different with the former Sunderland manager clearly having a feel for the formation that Trapattoni believed was ingrained in the Irish players’ DNA but willing too to change things as circumstances required.

There was generally more width to his teams early on with wingers employed out wide but Aiden McGeady’s long-term loss of form has, despite his favoured status, been a key factor in at least one tactical rethink by the 64 year-old who has generally employed 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3 or, more latterly, 4-4-2 (diamond) formations over the course of the qualifying campaign, often with significant internal variations.

The only absolute constants over the course of the campaign really, have been Seamus Coleman, John O'Shea, Glenn Whelan, James McCarthy and Jon Walters but the Stoke City's role has shifted substantially at times and his versatility, even within games, is one of the key reasons that O'Neill will give him another chance this morning at training in Versailles to show he is in the sort of shape required to be considered a potential started against Sweden.

Others appear to have done enough to impact on the manager's thinking with Wes Hoolahan, for instance, progressing from the status of luxury item affordable only at home to a staple of the side's attacking game who pretty much must be accommodated while Jeff Hendrick's emergence has eased the transition towards a team with less width in midfield.

So too has Robbie Brady, whose technical ability at dead balls made "regular starter" status inevitable even if there are still lingering questions about what his best position is. The fact is, though, that along with Coleman, he is capable of providing an attacking threat from the full-back position by tearing into the open space in front of him and the quality of his crosses is far more consistent than that of the Donegal man's.

As against Germany at home he can also be played in a relatively central midfield role that allows Stephen Ward to overlap. It looked at one stage as though the Burnley player, injuries notwithstanding, might not regain his place in the Irish team under O'Neill who asked Brady to work on the defensive side of his game well before he had become a regular left back at club level but the manager has been happy to start Ward when he has seen fit as part of a wider re-jig with the 30-year-old also coming in for the first of the play-off games against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Diamond formation

The recent use of the diamond formation which involves, typically, Whelan anchoring midfield while McCarthy and Hendrick play more advanced roles either side of him and Hoolahan plays off the striker, has looked like it suited

Ireland

and when James McClean played as one of the strikers, he played so wide, switching wings intermittently, it added an interesting twist.

Still, there are risks attached, particularly if the opposition has the capacity out wide to exploit the space left behind by an advancing full back and it is unlikely, for instance, to be employed against the Belgians.

The manager, in any case, hasn't been afraid to keep it rather more simple when he sees fit with Daryl Murphy, for his willingness to tirelessly battle defenders, still regarded as an option to start – as he did in three of the last four games of the campaign – despite the fact that he has never scored for his country.

O'Neill, in short, probably has options now that his predecessor Trapattoni perhaps did not. But crucially his greater faith in his players means he is prepared to use them and the upshot is that, like Erik Hamren, we will all still be guessing a little until the team sheets materialise for Monday night's game.

Then the speculation will have to start all over for the Ireland’s two other outings because there is no longer just one way that Ireland play and the team, quite clearly, is all the better for it.