Why stick with a system that's clearly not working?

ANALYSIS:Trapattoni rode his luck, but I wish one of his backroom staff would have a word in his ear

I THINK we have a lucky manager. That was just incredible. Russia had about 26 shots on goal. How we didn’t concede I’ll never know. Of course it was largely down to Shay Given and Richard Dunne, who was immense, but there was a touch of luck to it too.

It was like the home game against the Russians; the result (2-3) covered up what went on for the first 60 minutes when they absolutely pulverised us and opened us up at will. The problem is we didn’t rectify what happened that night; we went in yesterday with exactly the same system and they cut us open again – even more so this time.

Giovanni Trapattoni said if we’d beaten Slovakia on Friday he might have gone with five in midfield yesterday, but I don’t think the Slovakia game should have changed his way of thinking. We were outnumbered and outplayed by Russia in midfield last time, and we were outnumbered and outplayed again. Nothing changed. Glenn Whelan and Keith Andrews were just over-run.

If you’re going to play two forwards then you’re looking to get plenty of the ball, looking to get it out wide, get crosses in to the box, but we knew we were never going to have that kind of possession. So, when you know your two forwards are going to be living off scraps, when you know you’re going to be overpowered and over-run in midfield, as they were from after three or four minutes to the very end of the game, why stick with the same system?

Whenever a bit of pressure came on we just lumped it forward and gave the ball straight back. We just invited them on to us for the whole game. Andrei Arshavin, especially, caused us all kinds of problems in the first half, as did Yuri Zhirkov on the other side. They just attacked at will.

Stephen Ward struggled badly, he got pulled out of position repeatedly, but there’s no shame in that because Arshavin did the same to a very experienced Kevin Kilbane in the Dublin game.

The rest of the defence, though, did well. Dunne was just outstanding, but I thought Darren O’Dea did very well beside him, and Stephen Kelly was fine at right back.

In front of them, though, it was a struggle. Aiden McGeady and Damien Duff worked hard defensively, rarely getting the chance to push forward. McGeady tracked back a lot more than he did against Russia in Dublin, but, again, Whelan and Andrews were simply over-run.

Stephen Hunt came on and did okay. Simon Cox did a little better than Kevin Doyle; he worked harder and held the ball a little bit better, had a few runs to get us up the pitch. But it was crying out for Doyle or maybe Robbie Keane to come off in the first half and for an extra midfielder to be thrown on, just so we could keep the ball and get up the park a little higher.

You know what you’ll get from this team every time they play, the work-rate and the honesty is tremendous, and we got that in spades again. But the glaring problem is we just can’t keep the ball. We’re miles behind continental teams on that front and I don’t think that’s going to change under Trapattoni. But, longer term, we have to bring in players who are more comfortable on the ball – and we have a few, they’re just not being picked.

I don’t think Trapattoni’s ever going to change, he has his system and he believes in it. There’s a stubbornness there now, as sometimes can happen with a manager when everyone’s on his case. His answer is “it’s got us to where we are now, we’re still in with a chance of qualifying and even winning the group, so I’m not going to change it”.

I hope one or two of his staff have a word in his ear and convince him that we need more attacking flair, that we have to go and actually try to win games. The crying shame about yesterday’s result is we didn’t win on Friday – because if we had, with the point against Russia, we’d be in the box seat.

We could have gone on to win the group.

It’s hard to call now. After what they did to Slovakia last night, I don’t think our game against Armenia will be easy. I still wouldn’t be surprised if Slovakia beat Russia. It’s impossible to predict.

I haven’t given up hope. You can be lucky in football, and this manager is certainly riding his luck at the moment. I’m hoping it will last.