Team selection policy defies logic

It was the result we wanted, the one we so desperately needed, but let's not kid ourselves about the way it was achieved. This was a poor performance and we must simply be thankful that in the end we took three points against a team that looked as poor as Liechtenstein did in Lansdowne Road a few months ago.

A lot of individuals failed to produce their best on Saturday but then the team selection policy still appears to defy logic. There are a number of things that seem odd about Mick McCarthy's policy but, in particular, it strikes me as strange that so many players are picked to play in positions for their country that they do not play at club level.

Of the four men played across the back in this game not one was occupying the spot he normally does for his club these days.

Steve Staunton is admittedly used to playing as a full back having done so for a long stretch of his career but Jeff Kenna, Ian Harte and Kenny Cunningham were all being asked to play in unfamiliar roles which seems a remarkable thing to do for a manager who is looking for a sound defensive base within his team.

In this match we have got away with it but just how long our luck will hold out is another thing.

Elsewhere within the side there were also questions prompted by the team selection for what was known to be a vital match in our qualifying campaign. There were, of course, a number of injury worries to consider but the introduction of Kevin Kilbane, entirely untested at this level, at this point in time, the deployment of Gary Kelly once again in what seemed at times to be a right sided striking role and the way in which David Connolly was left unsupported for long stretches all seem to be very questionable decisions.

Kilbane's form has been good of late. His performances since moving from Preston to West Brom have been very strong and it was presumably the fact that his confidence must be high that encouraged McCarthy to give him his chance. The problem, however, is that the confidence of this Irish team has been somewhat battered recently, it is probably as low now as after the failure to qualify for Euro '96 and that is rarely the sort of marriage that is likely to pay off.

One positive spin off of Kilbane's start, however, was the effect it seemed to have on Mark Kennedy when he was introduced at the start of the second half. The young Dubliner needed to be reminded that no matter how much a manager likes you there are only going to be so many chances to produce the goods before he starts looking around for other options. For a while on Saturday it seemed to be a lesson well learnt but then, in two moments of crass stupidity, all of the good work was completely undone.

Kelly, meanwhile, found himself playing as an attacking midfielder with a licence to push forward in support of Connolly in attack. Over the past few years the 23 year-old had proven himself to be well capable of getting forward from the wing back position but there is still a world of difference between that role, where he is almost always facing the play, and the one he was asked to slip into on Saturday at international level, where his whole positioning and approach has to be completely different.

In the case of Connolly, who has yet to break into the first team at Feyenoord, we have asked a young and still relatively inexperienced player to make the transition from playing in the shadow of one big man or another to leading the line. At club level that would seem like quite a jump but in vital World cup qualifiers, it really is remarkable and it is a symptom of the core problem which is that too many players are being asked to do many different things at just the time when we should be keeping it simple.

Overall the fact that the team has not, despite what was said by the players and manager a couple of weeks ago, been playing well appears to have prompted some of the changes but it is at just such a time that there should be retrenchment, a return to basics and a determination to play our way out of trouble by doing what we have shown over the years we have done best.

Instead, in this game we have seen more tinkering with the system and more gambling. It has come off, just about, against a side of extremely poor quality but for anybody to talk afterwards about this being an impressive victory is nothing more than an indication of how far things have come for our expectations over these past couple of years.

In those couple of years Mick McCarthy knew that he was going to have some problems as he tried to revive our flagging fortunes with a combination of a new tactical approach and the introduction of new blood. Our decline, in terms of results obtained, has continued without interruption, however, and there appears to be a couple of problems.

One, quite simply, is that the players who McCarthy has been able to introduce into the team have not been as good as the players from the Charlton era who they are supposed to be replacing. The loss of the likes of Paul McGrath, Ronnie Whelan and John Aldridge has left gaps which the youngsters have so far been unable to plug. Andy Townsend, Ray Houghton and Tony Cascarino will go the same way in the not too distant future and so far we have large numbers of youngsters with varying degrees of promise but nobody really who has delivered when it counted.

The other is the absence of an identifiable game plan and set roles for players to adopt within the Irish set up. All too often it seems that the cracks are being papered over.

Having said all that, the bottom line is that, for all of our shortcomings, we are still in this competition. In the past we have shown ourselves to be capable of springing surprises when the stakes are high and we have least been expected to shine we have lifted our game. On Wednesday against Lithuania, another decidedly mediocre side who a couple of years ago could never have been considered to be a threat, we are capable of winning again and hopefully in more convincing style than we managed in Reykjavik.

Beyond that, however, in a play off against a team of some quality I don't believe that we currently possess the personnel to take us past the last hurdle of our route to France next summer. It was clear when McCarthy took over the reins that a great deal of work would have to be done before we would be strong enough again to seriously compete at a major championships and by the look of things on Saturday most of that work has yet to be done.

(In an interview with Emmet Malone)