We don't have the players or the right tactics
The tactical plan last night, as far as I can gather, was a holding formation. That meant everybody was responsible for minding their own patch. One weakness in the defensive structure was liable to open us up.
The tracking of Séamus Coleman and Stephen Ward meant too much responsibility was heaped on Aiden McGeady and Simon Cox in the final third.
The Germans were not long sussing out how to gather a simple three points. They moved it around with 25, 30 passes, happily ignoring the catcalls of the local crowd.
We were disciplined for 30 minutes but really they were toying with us, waiting for the gaps to appear.
The wheels came off after John O’Shea was blessed not to give up a penalty for pushing Reus when stuttering in possession. Reus got a yellow card from Rizzoli (who Trap certainly cannot call “Idiota” although Joachim Low may disagree).
There is no easy solution to their pace or ability. There was nothing overly wrong with our individual endeavour, they were a little nervy but each man was clearly trying his best. The quality is not there.
It just took a split second, when one of our players lost concentration as happens when you never have the ball.
The first goal came when Marcel Schmelzer got in behind Aiden McGeady and Coleman didn’t get a tackle in on Reus.
The second goal was a sucker punch on the break as Germany exposed our understandable desire to get forward in numbers.
The manager’s decision to switch to 4-4-2 with Shane Long on for Fahey was brave but mistaken. Almost immediately the three-man German midfield, now including Toni Kroos, came flooding through us to create the penalty.
Trapattoni’s selection policy – Jon Walters ahead of Long and Stephen Kelly still benched – doesn’t really matter after what we witnessed last night.
At 3-0 down it was understandable that we had to shoot from the hip. We looked disorganised, inexperienced and the German goals that followed were impressive.
But this had been coming. It was a continuation of Astana and the Polish nightmare. Except this was even worse.
Yes, Trap finally changed the system and can point to the loss of players forcing him to rebuild. There was no succession plan in place until it was too late. This is the problem now.
The only possibility is that Robbie Keane could return. It’s hard to be too critical of anyone really. The players are not there. That is the reality.
The good news about Tuesday is we will have more possession and should make the Faroes look like we did last night. Technically we are streets ahead of them. But those boys won’t crumble in the face of an Irish onslaught.
They’ve seen it all before and they will have been watching this.
