Reaching the limit?

Trapattoni: has a system

You have to ask 'is the manager doing the job properly?' To be fair, he's looking at the team and thinking if we try to pass the ball too much we'll come up short.

Ronnie Whelan
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Former Republic of Ireland international Ronnie Whelan is convinced Giovanni Trapattoni will have to develop the nation's style of football if they are to qualify for a major tournament in the future.

Ireland travel to France on Wednesday, live on Sky Sports 1 & HD1, looking to overturn a 1-0 deficit in order to reach the 2010 World Cup.

Trapattoni's men gave the French a first-half scare at Croke Park on Saturday, but in the end they were clearly second best as Nicolas Anelka's deflected effort separated the sides.

Now Ireland must score in Paris, and Whelan believes the veteran Italian must add greater subtlety to the solid base he has built if Ireland are to compete on the world's biggest stage in the future.

"At half time at Croke Park I was confident we could go through, but on the evidence of the second half France were so far ahead of us keeping the ball. They still looked like they had an extra gear, which they'll probably find in Paris," Whelan told skysports.com.

"Ireland will have to be extremely good to get through but I'm afraid to say I've never seen this side raise their game to a level where we'll beat the French.

"That's the worrying part, we need to score one or two goals in Paris to go through and you worry when we open up, the French will rip us apart."

System

Whelan acknowledges that Trapattoni has introduced a system to make Ireland competitive during his time in charge, but he fears it may never be enough to return the glory days that Ireland enjoyed under Jack Charlton.

"There are loads of changes that need making but Giovanni Trapattoni will play the same way. He'll keep the same team, the same style, he'll play conservative because we don't really have the players.

"If you have Pele, Diego Maradona and Zinedine Zidane you'd go and attack everybody, but we have to play to a containing gameplan.

"That gameplan only gets you so far; you need the right players to take you further, and I'm not sure we have them.

"There are times when you see Ireland trying to play football and they look half decent, but when the French up their level it's way ahead of us.

"That's when you have to ask 'is the manager doing the job properly?' To be fair, he's looking at the team and thinking 'if we try to pass the ball too much we'll come up short'.

"So it's about containing teams, but sometimes we need to do a little more. When you look at our results under Trapattoni, there are a heck of a lot of draws.

"That's due to the conservative way he plays football. It's a balancing act, because when we do open up we get caught out like we did against the Italians for that late goal. If we over attack against the French they'll rip us apart.

"But there's a building process to go through, Trapattoni has given us the belief, now he needs to push us on to a better level if we are to qualify for a major tournament."

Concern

Whelan's major concern is that Ireland no longer have the world-class players to go with their world-class manager.

Gone are the likes of Paul McGrath, John Aldridge and Ray Houghton, and Whelan is bemused as to where the next superstar will spring from.

"I haven't a clue as to why the world-class players aren't emerging for Ireland any more.

"We sit down and ask 'where are the Paul McGraths? Where are the John Aldridges? It's the same for Scotland with Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness and Alan Hansen.

"Nothing seems to be coming out of Ireland.

"You wonder if they're just not getting a chance at the big clubs anymore, but then if you're good enough you're always going to make it in the end.

"I don't have a clue why they're not coming through.

"Clubs like Liverpool pick kids up at 15 or 16 from Ireland, but why they're not reaching the world-class level that Irish kids used to is baffling to me.

"Man United have John O'Shea, Liverpool have nobody, and it seems nobody will really do anything about it because English clubs really won't care about the future of Irish football."