GROUP EIGHT ANALYSIS: Giovanni Trappatoni has made Ireland harder to beat, but this is a true test of the lucky general
LOOKING THROUGH the squad of players Giovanni Trapattoni had to choose from for this pivotal World Cup qualifying game underlines, for me, just how limited our options are and just how well he and the team have done so far in this campaign.
The job of any Republic of Ireland manager is to get the team to add up to more than the sum of its parts, and I think Trapattoni has, largely, succeeded in doing that.
He has made the side much more difficult to beat, compared to recent times, as the results in the group have shown. Tonight won’t be easy, but I think they can maintain that unbeaten run.
We’ve had some good luck along the way, the Georgia game being switched to Germany, effectively making it another home game for us, was, obviously, a huge slice of good fortune – but hey, such is life, it wasn’t our fault that the Russians decided to invade.
Trapattoni has, then, been a lucky general so far in this campaign, but the trick, of course, is to take advantage of any good fortune that comes your way. They’ve done that, not least with the win “away” to Georgia.
And 12 points from six games, and no defeats, has been achieved with a squad containing perhaps just three senior players – Shay Given, Richard Dunne and Robbie Keane – who are as good as guaranteed first-team football week in, week out. John O’Shea and Damien Duff play regularly enough, but not every week, Kevin Kilbane is in and out at Wigan, Glenn Whelan at Stoke, while Stephen Hunt and Aiden McGeady lost the confidence of their managers, both since resigned, at stages during the season. And Trapattoni has to deal with that every time the squad gets together – players short of confidence and, sometimes, match fitness.
If he loses even one or two key players – like Kevin Doyle this time around – his options are even more restricted. Caleb Folan, we’re assuming, will come in for Doyle. That’s fine, he did well against Italy, worked hard and was a good physical presence up front, but he’s someone who has spent a good chunk of the season on the bench for Hull City, scoring just one goal – in the first game of the campaign, back in August.
The options in defence are just as limited but I believe Sean St Ledger is a genuinely bright prospect for us. Anyone who watches my home-town team of Preston on a regular basis will come away saying: “Yeah, the lad can play.”
For me, he was the club’s best player this season. Quite a few people have asked me about him, because they know of my connection with Preston, and I’ve told them all that I think he can play in the Premier League. And I wouldn’t be surprised if he got sold there some stage soon.
He’s a confident lad, has confidence in his own ability, but he’s a good lad too, mixes well. What I really like about him is if he makes a mistake he’s got enough pace to retrieve the situation. And if he does make a mistake he’s not the type of player who lets it affect him, he doesn’t go in to his shell at all.
Preston took him from Peterborough a couple of years ago when he was up and coming, gambled on him a little it bit, but he’s really grown since then, grown in to the position of centre-half. He’s done very, very well.
I wouldn’t have any worries about him playing in this game if, as Trapattoni has hinted, he plays alongside Richard Dunne – who, hopefully, will be fit to start – with O’Shea moved to right-back. Yes, it would be a tough competitive debut for him, and Bulgaria are certainly capable of testing our defence, but I’d be happy to see him in there.
“We have what we hold,” is, I expect, how the manager will approach this game, we start with a point and we’ll be happy enough to finish with one. He’d take 0-0 now.
Bulgaria will, of course, be tough at home. In Stiliyan Petrov and Dimitar Berbatov they have two outstanding players. Petrov was excellent in Dublin, he ran the midfield for much of the game. And yes, it goes without saying, Berbatov is lazy and not often in the mood, but he can produce the touch of brilliance that will decide a game.
Martin Petrov is back too, after a lengthy absence through injury. He will, presumably, be well short of fitness, but he’s a very, very good crosser of the ball, an old-fashioned left-sided player who will sit on the touchline and give the full-back a real test.
We, really, have very few players who can actually change a game for us like those three, which is why first in this group is probably beyond us. Second is, though, more than achievable, and a point tonight, followed by a win in Cyprus – and God knows we owe them one – and we’d nearly be there. I think we can do it.
