Roles reversed for Liverpool pair

Jason McAteer and Phil Babb had reason to reflect on the vagaries of their chosen trade, at the end of an eventful week for the Liverpool and Republic of Ireland teammates.

Just a month ago, McAteer was going quite the better of the two after some convincing performances for Liverpool and hints by Mick McCarthy of an early recall at international level.

By contrast, rehabilitation looked some way off for Babb after an injury sustained in training, had cost him the chance of a possible recall for the two World Cup play-off games against Belgium.

Now suddenly, the roles are reversed. For the second time in less than a year, McAteer's international career may be adrift after the ebullient Ireland player was injured in a freak accident in Saturday's scoreless draw with Blackburn.

The extent of the damage is still being assessed but the thinking at Anfield yesterday was that he'll do well to return before the end of the season. That's a bad blow for Roy Evans who recently identified McAteer's aggressive running down the right flank, as one of the more positive aspects of their season to date.

For Mick McCarthy, it amounts to another major problem for his European championship warm up programme. Already resigned to the loss of Roy Keane until the autumn, he now losses the option of using the Liverpool player in a restructured formation.

For Babb, redundant in international football for much of the last two years, the scenario is a lot more encouraging after a successful January. Having negotiated a difficult assignment against Middlesbrough in the first leg of their League Cup semi-final tie last Tuesday, he showed at least some of his old authority in helping to shut out the Blackburn attack at the weekend.

Evans would be among the first to acknowledge that disciplined defence has not always been in evidence in Liverpool's performances this year. And yet, in the outline of the Irish player's return to form, he will surely find cause for comfort.

Significantly, Babb's decline from the influential role he filled during Jack Charlton's last year in charge of Ireland's team, coincided with the implementation of McCathy's new strategy in playing three specialist defenders and two wing backs.

It soon became apparent that as long as the manager persisted in that thinking, Babb would struggle to go on embellishing his reputation in international football and significantly, he had disappeared from the equation by the time McCarthy embarked on a crucial part of his World Cup programme last spring.

Now, with the manager apparently convinced that second thoughts are best and that he should, after all go with a flat back four formation, the Liverpool man's graph is climbing once more.

"Some defenders are better suited to playing in a flat formation and it seems, Phil Babb is one of them," said McCarthy. "He had a difficult time last season but his recent form for Liverpool has been encouraging."

Coincidentally, Mark Kennedy, a long time clubmate of Babb and McAteer at Liverpool, was also in the news at the weekend following his temporary transfer to QPR. The prospects of a more permanent deal depend on how the young Irishman makes out at Loftus Road over the next three months but by all accounts, he has made a promising start.

Lining out for the first time for the London club at Stockport, Kennedy did enough to convince manager Stewart Houston of the wisdom of the move and while it still didn't prevent them falling to another defeat, it was, unquestionably, one of Kennedy's better days.

For some time now, he has been seeking to end an unhappy liaison with Roy Evans, believing that he needs a change of surroundings and the chance of regular first team football to develop his career.

The move back to London where he started his senior career with Millwall, suits him and while doubtless, he would prefer to be joining a more successful QPR team, his decision to make the initial break with Liverpool, is probably a sound one.

With Steve Staunton now increasingly viewed as a defender and Kevin Kilbane failing to make the adjustment from under-21 to senior competition, McCarthy had reason to deploy Kennedy's dormant talent at a crucial stage of the World Cup qualifying programme.

The response was not unsatisfactory but inevitably, his shortage of club football militated against him. Now, thrust into a new role of responsibility at QPR, the expectation is that Kennedy will again figure prominently in Ireland's strategy for the European championship.

Meanwhile, McCarthy's big hope is that the "B" international game against Northern Ireland at Tolka Park on February 11th, will broaden his range of options by the time he gets to naming a squad for the first of the European warm up games next month.

FAI officials confirmed yesterday that its Appointments Committee is to meet again as a matter of urgency to look again at the post of Technical Director in the wake of Bryan Hamilton's decision not to accept it. Among the newest names to surface in speculation on the new appointment, are those of Eoin Hand and Packie Bonner.