Updated 21.15
IRELAND NEED CONOR Sammon to come up trumps after manager Giovanni Trapattoni played what he feels is his strongest hand in a bid to keep the World Cup campaign on track — and to protect his job.
Home defeat against Austria tomorrow night would heap even more pressure on the embattled Italian and, deprived of his captain and first-choice striker Robbie Keane, Trap has bet the house that Sammon will shine on his first competitive start.
The Derby County striker, who made his senior bow in last month’s friendly against Poland, partners Shane Long up front in a team which shows just two changes from the side which fought Sweden to a scoreless draw. Glenn Whelan has recovered from the ankle injury which ruled him out last Friday and returns to the starting XI at the expense of Paul Green.
Asked why Sammon had been given the nod, Trapattoni said that he offers a combination of speed and strength that will prove very useful against a technically proficient Austrian side.
“I think his quality can give support to Shane,” Trapattoni said in Malahide today. “Physically, he is quick and strong. He showed us in the last games his quality.
“He’s not only tall. If you see him, he’s fast.”
He added:
It’s important to defend the ball and give the support to allow the team to come up. We are at home but we don’t know what Austria will do. We have to think about if they are coming and pressing or if they stay and wait for us.
You have to choose this situation: they wait for us and come in counter-attack, or they come in pressure? Give us space, or we need to find the space? With both players we can have this opportunity.
Although Friday’s draw in Sweden is seen as a point gained rather than two lost, there has been concern at the lack of clear-cut goalscoring opportunities Ireland created and the fact that the team failed to register a single shot on target in 90 minutes.
The squad’s main creative threat, Wes Hoolahan, starts on the bench again with Trapattoni wary of making changes that might hand the visitors the early initiative.
“It’s possible to put Hoolahan up front if we dominate the ball and we’re playing in the Austrians’ space. You can decide yes or no. You change with reason.
“I love Wes but the problem is also the opponent.”
Ireland (v Austria): Forde, Coleman, O’Shea, Clark, Wilson, Walters, Whelan, McCarthy, McClean, Sammon, Long.
This is turning into a farce.why play sammon( no disrespect to the lad) ahead of wes,doyle or even walters.
Not a hope of them gettin out of the group dream on.and if they do they’ll make a show of us like the euros.the English c team if ya ask me
A lot of people seem to be thinking very negatively. Trap has not only brought us to the euros, and is keeping us in with a chance of qualifying, but has had to deal with a weak team selection and bad press. We are a small nation that will always find it hard to qualify. He has changed the team around to a new generation, and it’s looking promising, and also did all of that with like I said, a small pool of players to pick from. I think we will grow and should beat Austria 2 – 0.
Honesty I thinks Trap is looking for the sack and a pay off …
We where statistically the worst team at the euros that’s some achievement
eoin we possibly had the easiest route to the euros we could ask for, and weak team selection?!?!?! we have a great generation of players coming up and one of the strongest teams in years. his poor team selection and negative tactics are keeping us back.
Woah woah woah. The current batch of players is nowhere near one of the strongest teams in years.
In fact, it’s the worst. We no longer have any world class players. We’ve always had a Given, Dunne, Duff, McGrath, Roy Keane or an Irwin. Robbie Keane’s best days are behind him.
Our best player gets slagged off at every opportunity. Aiden McGeady has been our best performer yet the idiot fans hate him. Our greatest striker of all time also gets slagged off at any opportunity.
This is comfortably the worst Irish team in years. No manager will fix that. You can’t change history. Trap did a great job in getting us to a WC Playoff and to the Euros.
Learn a bit of loyalty lads. Support the team. Stop being so bloody negative. Get off the managers back. It adds unnecessary pressure. Changing a manager mid tournament is stupid.
I read as far as Mcgeady is our best player and wrote off the rest of your comment. He belongs in the bin with your comment.
Great debate Barry. Sure, the main creator of our goals belong in the bin. That’s great.
We can sit here all day and pretend we have a great team, but we don’t. McGeady is the best we have.
Out of curiosity, who do you think is the best player we have?
Billie, come on now. You know damn well all the armchair critics hate facts like that.
Only we could get a draw in Stockholm when EVERYONE, (even the optimists said we’d lose) and talk of sacking Trap.
I bet no one likes to hear we’ve never lost an away qualifier under Trap either. Doesn’t anyone remember Cyprus away? Or worse San Marino? Under Kerr how many games did we blow in the 05/06 campaign?
Its not my first choice XI either. But some of the things people say and players stick up for are beyond ridiculous. I don’t hear many people flogging Kevin Foley to me now.
If we win tomorrow people will still think it’s a disgrace.
I believe seamus coleman shane long and James mccarthy are all better than mcgeady. There is a chance all 3 will be playing for top 6 teams in a year or two (except coleman who already is) and i don’t think mcgeady ever will. I also think a number of other players in the squad are better but that would stand to reason since i don’t rate Mcgeady at all.
You can’t make a silk purse out of a pigs ear
We were also in a group with 3 of the top teams in the world. Suppose you would’ve done better pal
Just like your attitude Barry
Hope I’m proved wrong but to me that’s another baffling decision
Agree with you. Salmon is an honest grafter but as he showed against poland he is miles from international class . Hope im proved wrong although the upside is if they dont beat Austria surely trap will be sacked!
I was at the Ireland Poland friendly last February, I wasn’t impressed with Sammon. I saw nothing in his performance to suggest that he should be ahead if Doyle, Walters and Hoolahan. I would prefer to see Long/Hoolahan up front even if Keane was fit.
Looking forward to Dunphy and Brady going at it again !
And O’ Herlihy with a big spoon, stirring it up. “Now that’s entertainment, . . . .”
Niall, Is it possible to play two strikers, a playmaker in behind them(Wes) and have one central midfielder(McCarthy) that does not venture into the opposition half?
I don’t doubt Andrews’, Whelan’s or Green’s commitment but I don’t know what value we are getting from them.
They get the ball(they rarely look for it) and they make a short pass to the back four or lump it forward.They are not really extra defenders so I don’t understand.
McCarthy can pass and has vision. He can distribute the ball to Hoolahan, the wingers or the front two.
With McCarthy and Wes, we have two players that won’t just lump it forward.
You have wingers who track back and McCarthy sitting in front of the back four for defence.
You then have Hoolahan and the front two, who remain in the opposition half. It gives the opposition pause for thought about sending all their players forward as happens to us when we have to defend on the edge of our box.
Sorry if that is Naive. Is that system possible(remotely credible)?
Not really with the players we have, france played something similar and won the ’98 world cup. The problem we would have is our players who play mostly on the wing would have to start playing much narrower. The intricacies of playing in any position on the pitch make it very difficult to interchange, and all the more difficult at international level.
To work in that formation you would prob need 3 defensive midfielders, two attacking full backs with the midfielders having the positional sense to fill in the gaps, players, teams and countries work for years to develop that kind of understanding, like france in that world cup, Spain and Barcelona right now, Holland in the 70′s (all be it in different formations) and it is not something that you can just decide to do for one game.
Also i can never understand why Trap announces his team so early. The Austrians would have been preparing for a Long and Keane forward line and then a Long and Hoolahan forward line. Now that Trap has told them are plans they can prepare a lot easier.
Not confident at all tomorrow night for a must win game.
Everyone ridiculed Trap for his selection against Sweden and we got a decent draw. Green proved a good move. (despite it being by accident more than design)
I’ve a feeling Sammon might have a decent night and help us to a 1-0 win! (not him to score though)
No offence but the missus would do a better job up front f.f.s.
Trapp out this is a bad joke. Hoolahan should be starting.
Salmon is a big lad. could knock it down for long to run on to.. All we need is a one nil.. But really should play five midfield with hoolahan and green in team
Well said Head
It’s Sammon, I wouldn’t mind but its written several times in the article
My view is that trap can only be judged after we see how the next Ireland manager performs with the same players. Apart from the euros, trap has got results. We were all told that when he arrived to take charge that it wouldn’t be pretty but he would get results. That is what has happened. My views are the Irish players are as good as anyone on their day. But i emphasise “on their day”. My views on team selection for tomorrow are that I’d prefer bringing on hoolohan and Doyle with twenty minutes to go than bringing on salmon and Walters. Time will tell…
Why would you announce your team 24 hrs prior to kick off.
Giving your opponents 24 hrs to make a gameplan for each player they face.
Losing interest in Irish soccer is an understatement!
Those aren’t a load of COYBIG tweets I see on your Twitter last summer are they pal? Come back when we qualify again. Or better yet, Don’t.
Jaysus, can Irish fans do nothing but moan?! We’re in a country with a tiny population that has always punched above our weight in a number of sports, including football, get behind your team lads and stop being a bunch of moany shites. The players in that team owe you nothing but their best effort, you call them a disgrace yet the euros was our first competition in 10 years don’t forget, qualifying was an achievement in and of itself we lost all our games but we had the toughest group in the tournament. These lads are representing your country and deserve your support, you could hardly do better yourselves lads!
They have overachieved up until now…
Agree with Eoin. Trap is still overachieving and we’re lucky to have him. Hope there is a good crowd tomorrow and they get behind the team.
He is going to look like a fish out of water. I’d hook him at half time and bring on wes. Although I hear he has a good leap on him
I want to see more expansive football in the future under a new manager, but I recognise also that the Spain/Barcelona project didn’t happen overnight and it takes time to implement new ideas…
The middle of a crucial wc qualifying campaign is not the best time to wildly experiment with new tactics.
Hoolahan is good, but he plays at Norwich, not a top 6 club for a reason. You cannot argue he is a world class talisman, we don’t have one.
It’s a gradual building process not an overnight transformation.
Maybe you’d all prefer the dark days when we were managed by Kerr, had a much better squad, yet never even managed a playoff place in qualifying!
People have very short memories.
If sammon can play for Ireland then I can!
No you can’t
As my Da said at the Poland game last month, Beef or Salmon would’ve been more effective!
If Pogatetz is playing – he has been awful for West Ham and lets face it West Hams defence has been busy all season – I’d love to have seen Brady and Coleman leave him on his arse. Maybe Coleman can do it on his own.
Pogatetz will be suspect – if selected.
I expected Ireland to be beaten off the park friday night.Thankfully they didint but I think it is just prolonging the inevitable. Ireland just dont have the players to compete…I dont want Ireland at the world cup if we are going to be slaughtered again like the euros.
I’m not happy Sammon is playing, but Trap knows what he is doing.
I don’t think we’ll win tomorrow, but I’ll be there to roar the boys on. If we do win then I really hope all the boo boys and pessimistic parasites will get off Trap’s back and instead try and support the team.
I think Trap got it right this time, but watch out for a first-half substitution.
Didn’t Salmon come on against Sweden? Therefore not competitive debut. Competitive start.
Like the look of the side – apart from Salmon up top. Put Walters up there and Brady to the right.
Sammon
I personally couldn’t care less what team selection this manager makes. The simple basic fact is, he will never inspire a bunch of english speaking footballers. Just listen to his interviews. I dont like to denegrate the man, with his track record, but I have been a football coach and I know what inspiring passion and smarts is all about. With regards to the selections available, I have seen some Irish local leinster league teams play with a whole lot more resolve than what any 11 can put out for the Irish Squad. However, like Aoife McDermott says, we wont be able to really view Trap until the next manager has a go. (Hope you’re not related to Brian McDermott Aoife, cos he would be another huge mistake) Here’s to Irl 3 – Aus 1
No offence to sammon but there is no way he should b starting , 4-4-2 is gone away with the fairies , too predictable and wes hoolihan should b there just behind long. All were gonna do now is whoof the ball by pass midfield & hope for a flick on . That worked back in the 90′s, the game is more technical now . Trap is old fashioned & doesn’t trust our ball players . Granted their not the most defensive but this attitude of makin sure u don’t lose is rubbish and terrible to watch . We have good players there who are not aloud to express themselves .attack is the best form of defence but if u ain’t got no attack minded players u deserve all u get and that’s no where