Trap's young guns face German front

WORLD CUP 2014 QUALIFYING Rep of Ireland v Germany:SOAP OPERA scriptwriters must generally resort to plane or train crashes involving half their casts in order to achieve the scale of change Giovanni Trapattoni suddenly finds himself overseeing in the early stages of this World Cup campaign.

For a man who prizes experience, his team for the game against Germany must have been a desperately difficult one to pick. The question now is whether those he has been obliged to place his faith in possess enough of the other qualities he cherishes to seize their opportunity and make their mark.

Those supporters who cried out for change in the wake of the European Championships will presumably be happy though.

With Shay Given, Damien Duff, Richard Dunne and Robbie Keane all absent for the first time in 13 years, just four of the 11 that constituted the manager’s first-choice line-up in Poland over the summer will take to the field tonight at the Aviva Stadium, with injury or retirement having accounted for the rest.

Even compared to the Spain game, when five of tonight’s side featured from the start, the scale of the overhaul is truly remarkable.

Ireland’s average age has been cut by more than five years and 354 caps worth of experience has been stripped out of the team. More than half of the caps that remain are accounted for by just two men: John O’Shea, who captains the side in Keane’s absence, and Aiden McGeady.

Inevitably, Trapattoni drove the point home for any of those at yesterday’s pre-match press conference in Malahide who had not quite grasped what he reckoned to be the seismic scale of the shift.

“In the last three years with Ireland, we are proud of what we have done,” he said, sounding just a little like a general addressing men he believes are about to bite the dust.

“Without France, we could have been at the World Cup. But now we have changed the team and brought in younger players – this team is very, very young.”

On average, in fact, its members are around 26 and a half which is not all that young at all and not, indeed, as young as the German side they are likely to face tonight. They are on average six months more youthful apiece. That, mind you, is in the event that Lukas Podolski, rather than Marco Reus, starts on the left; if not, the difference will be almost doubled.

Of course, the most worrying difference between the two groups is not their respective ages or the far greater experience of Joachim Löw’s side. Rather it is the scale of the difference between their respective capabilities.

Using any available measure of their respective talents, the Germans come out well on top. And so Trapattoni found himself talking rather vaguely yesterday about how the gap might be bridged tonight.

The players’ spirit and his new system are what he appears to be pinning his hopes on.

The former has taken a bit of hammering of late but might, we must hope, be restored by the beginnings of another unbeaten run. The latter appeared to be very much a work in progress even as the Germans touched down in Dublin yesterday.

Trapattoni was forced into yet another rethink on the personnel front by the loss to an Achilles injury of Keane and his decision to pick Jonathan Walters up front ahead of Shane Long left the West Brom striker as the standout loser in the selection process.

There seemed a decent case to be made for starting with the Tipperary man up front and Walters out wide but the Italian wasn’t for ditching Simon Cox who, he suggested, might yet end up playing as a more orthodox second striker, depending on how the early exchanges pan out.

Séamus Coleman’s inclusion ahead of Stephen Kelly is interesting for it suggests that the Irish will, at least to some extent, aim to employ attack out wide as an additional form of defence.

The Greeks tried that at the European Championships and though they scored two they conceded twice as many.

In the next round, the Italians smothered the passing game so effectively employed up until then by Löw’s men and dominated them in the centre.

Trapattoni spoke again yesterday of the need to deprive the visitors of both time and space in the centre and clearly a lot will depend of the extent to which his midfield three, if that is what it really proves to be, rises to the challenge.

If they are overrun then it is bound to be a long and difficult evening with everyone behind them likely to struggle against a side whose speed and movement can be superb.

Stephen Ward’s ability to cope, most likely with Thomas Mueller, will be a big factor and if the home side ends up being besieged around its own area then it is simply hard to see this defence holding out in the way the one built round Dunne and Given did in Moscow.

If, on the other hand, the Irish can impose themselves in midfield, retain possession more effectively than usual and keep the likes of Sami Khedira and Bastian Schweinsteiger on the back foot for decent spells then it might be an altogether more uplifting experience for the home crowd.

The Germans come to town with six points bagged from two group games, but far from everyone at home are convinced that they’re hitting anything like the heights that ought to be expected.

Their performance in Vienna, where they won 2-1 but might well have lost, has been the subject of much criticism, mainly for the way they defended and if Walters does not become isolated then there should be chances for the Irish to test Manuel Neuer.

There is talk, too, of a split between the players from Bayern Munich and those from Borussia Dortmund while Löw has been criticised for not demanding more of the group overall, and former greats have suggested dismissively that the current squad spends too much time playing table tennis and not enough getting things right on the training pitch.

What Trapattoni would surely give for his opposite number’s problems. But what a comeback it would be for the 73-year-old after such a disappointing summer if he can engineer the type of result that would add to them.

AVIVA TEAMS: How they will line out

REP OF IRELAND(4-5-1): Westwood; Coleman, O'Shea, O'Dea, Ward; Andrews, McCarthy, Fahey, Cox, McGeady; Walters

GERMANY(probable, 4-2-3-1) Neuer; Schmelzer, Badstuber, Mertesacker, Boateng; Schweinsteiger, Khedira; Podolski, Ozil, Mueller; Klose

Referee: Nicola Rizzoli(Italy)