Is it too much to ask for a more expansive style?

I'd like to see improvement on last week's slight style change and a less rigid formation from Trapattoni's men, writes BRIAN KERR

IT’S BEEN obvious for a while now what Giovanni Trapattoni’s preferred starting 11 is for the crucial Euro 2012 opener against Croatia.

Fitness permitting, he indicated that he’d like to select that 11 to start against Hungary tonight, making it a rehearsal for the real thing.

And that’s what he’s done.

I often wonder, though, why he names his teams so early. It gives the opposition a clear advantage in their planning.

But the other side of it is that it settles everyone in the squad, they know their roles, as starters or non-starters.

It’s usually the non-starters that the coaching staff have to observe and handle carefully to ensure team morale stays high.

They can be a bit grumpy about their spot in the pecking order and that can affect others in the group if their disenchantment is allowed fester. But the three games over the week have given Trap the opportunity to give everyone playing time, which helps.

Although Kevin Foley’s dropping from the squad was poorly handled, the media frenzy around it indicates there hasn’t really been much to latch on to controversy-wise since the squad came together, which is a good thing.

The problem with the Foley case is that, like Keith Fahey, he was selected prematurely when both had still to prove their fitness.

For all his guile and experience, Trapattoni got that one badly wrong. The reality is that Foley was unlikely to feature and was dispensable. Paul McShane was hardly needed, however, as cover for the centre backs: we already have Richard Dunne, Sean St Ledger, John O’Shea, Darren O’Dea and Stephen Kelly, who can play in the centre if required. We only need two per game . . . although three or four versus Spain could be handy.

The manager insisted in interviews on that issue that he had a duty to the team and the nation to make the big decisions. I feel he also has an obligation to the people who coach and manage in football in Ireland to impose a style we can be proud of.

During the successful Jack Charlton years, few coaches, thankfully, chose the example of how the national team played as a model.

In that period our coaching courses still promoted the idea that teams should build up play from the goalkeeper and the full-backs, through the midfield in a creative way. None of that ‘Packie-boot-it-up-the-pitch’ stuff.

“Liam Tuohy’s Tots” era of the 1980s, in contrast with what was to follow under Jack, was a time of brilliant passing football from the back. Young players like Denis Irwin, Pat Kelch, Pat Dolan and John Sheridan were encouraged to get on the ball from Alan Kelly’s throw-outs and ‘pass it to a green shirt’.

Possession and passing were the key parts of Tuohy’s philosophy, as demonstrated through his time at Shamrock Rovers and with our national team in his short part-time spell as manager between 1971 and 1973. He had other jobs to do at the time, like selling ice-cream – hard to believe, but true.

So, will Trap’s legacy to football in Ireland be the goalkeeper kicking it high and long and starting from there? I hope not.

The Irish coaching scene badly needs a boost after the passing of its spiritual leader, Noel O’Reilly, and Pat Bonner’s discarding as technical director at the FAI. We believed we were going all Dutch in our style, with the appointment of Wim Koevermans as the FAI’s International High Performance Director, but that has been almost abandoned.

For the future of the game, for any hope of a return to the principles of the beautiful game, it’s time for our coaches to trust our players and our footballing culture. Charlton, remember, was not our only successful coach.

Tuohy, John Giles and Eoin Hand put out teams that were attractive to watch and relatively successful with the talent available.

In those days, after all, they were just 16 teams in World Cup finals and eight in the European Championships.

Mick McCarthy, despite his image as part of Jack’s one-dimensional team, developed a style that was effective and attractive and earned us admiration internationally — unlike the Charlton era, when world football screamed at our aerial bombardments, and the brilliance of Whelan, Brady, McGrath and the rest received little recognition.

So, please Trap, continue to let our full-backs get forward when appropriate, but firstly ask them to show for Shay and try to get on the ball from there. Maybe even Dunne and St Ledger could open up and receive a pass from there too. Next thing Glenn Whelan and Keith Andrews could be receiving the ball in space and looking forward.

Am I dreaming or what? Maybe I am.

I just fear our initial tactic of long kick-outs will lead us to having to chase around for long spells in the summer heat of Poland.

Trap will want to come out of tonight’s game with a clean bill of health, and he’ll hope to get more encouragement from his fringe players, signs that they can add spice and a little extra when given the opportunity, just like last weekend. But what I’m hoping to see is further improvement on last Saturday week’s slight style change and a less rigid formation. More overlapping full backs, a midfielder breaking in to the box more frequently and fewer long kick-outs would be my wish. But then again, I had my chance.