Soccer:Giovanni Trapattoni believes Shane Long's pace and ability to run at defenders could prove crucial after naming the West Brom striker ahead of Kevin Doyle for Friday night's key European championship qualifier against Slovakia.
The 24-year-old won a move to the Premier League this summer when West Brom snapped him up from npower Championship side Reading in an €8million deal.
Long’s response was to score in both of his first two games for the club, significantly against Manchester United and Chelsea, to underline his growing stature.
Trapattoni has been aware of his blossoming talent for some time and was confident enough in his ability to turn to him when Kevin Doyle was injured just 20 minutes into the 2-1 qualifier victory over Macedonia in Dublin in March.
But with Doyle fit again, the Italian has decided to pair Long with skipper Robbie Keane in attack for tomorrow night’s showdown with Slovakia at the Aviva stadium.
Trapattoni said: “I know the qualities of Shane Long. He is fast and maybe he can put the Slovakia defence in great difficulties.
“I am confident about him. I don’t want to tempt fate, but at the moment, he is scoring goals for his club and he has gained more confidence from doing that. Playing against these Slovakia defenders, maybe he can do the same.”
Trapattoni admitted it was a difficult decision to leave Doyle out with one eye on his recovery from that knee injury, but with the other firmly on Tuesday night’s potentially decisive clash at the Luzhniki Stadium.
He said: “I wanted to see him to make sure there was no fear in his head about his injury. I don’t see any fear in him at all.
“I have no doubt I will have the opportunity to play him maybe in the second half, and he can also be ready for Russia.”
Keane and Doyle have formed a formidable partnership in recent seasons, but the Los Angeles Galaxy frontman has no fears about linking up with Long instead.
He said: “If you look at his performances for Ireland in the last year or so, he has been very, very good and he has taken that into performances for his new club.
“The two of them are very, very similar players, so for me, it’s not different whether I played with Shane or Kevin because they are equally as good as each other and they have got really the same qualities.”
Meanwhile, tomorrow night’s game will see full-back Kevin Kilbane miss a competitive international for the first time since November 1999 because of a back injury, breaking his 66-match run.
Keane said: “He has been absolutely tremendous for Ireland. I don’t think he probably gets the credit he deserves, to be honest with you.
“He has been a great, great player for this country and I’m sure he will continue to be so.”
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)