Trapattoni hints at five-man midfield

Soccer:Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni gave the strongest hint yet that he will play a five-man midfield in an attempt to thwart Spain in Thursday's Group C encounter in Gdansk.

As he puts the finishing touches to his preparations, Trapattoni has taken the unusual decision to delay his team announcement until the Uefa deadline of an hour before kick-off.

The Italian indicated that he had settled on his starting line-up but suggested it wasn’t always prudent to forewarn an opponent, particularly one as dangerous as Spain, as to his intended gameplan. In the past Trapattoni has been happy to reveal his hand well in advance, more often than not the day before.

Speaking at a press conference in Gdansk, Trapattoni said: “I can’t give you the line-up, I have to think very well. I have an idea but we can’t always give our opponent the line-up.”

“Spain is a team that are very technical, so it will be very important not to give them much space, particularly in midfield. They are very good at passing, they play the ball very fast.

“I’m thinking about the best solution for us. Our objective is to be offensive, to try and win the game, but at the same time also to find a way to help the midfield because sometimes we suffered in this situation.”

Trapattoni was happy that his players had got last Sunday’s disappointing 3-1 defeat to Croatia out of their system and were ready for the challenge of taking on the defending champions.

“Psychologically we have overcome the defeat to Croatia. Yesterday in training I saw the same commitment and enthusiasm in the team. We are back to believing in ourselves and our quality.”

When it was suggested by one reported that he might have regretted naming his Irish team so early ahead of the Croatia defeat last weekend, Trapattoni denied that was the case and once again made it clear there would be no wholesale changes.

“No, no, no,” he responded. “If you ask your Irish colleagues, I usually say the team, one to eleven 24 hours before the game. Today, I need to see my players in the training (later this evening), but sure, I don’t change four or five players.”