GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI CLAIMS he is open to shaking things up for Ireland’s World Cup 2014 qualification campaign.
Ireland’s Euro 2012 tournament came to a disappointing end with the 2-0 defeat to Italy in Poznan last night as the Boys in Green finished bottom of Group C with no points, one goal scored and nine conceded.
Although progressing past Spain, Italy and Croatia was always going to be an enormous challenge, there is a feeling of discontent among many fans who believe the team did not do themselves justice due to Trapattoni’s insistence on staying loyal to out-of-form players and sticking with his tried and trusted 4-4-2.
With Germany, Sweden, Austria, the Faroe Islands and Kazakhstan to come over the next two years, some are calling for changes to be made to the system and a number of young players to be blooded with the aim of qualifying for Brazil.
And speaking at a press conference this afternoon, Trap indicated that he could be willing to experiment in the autumn.
In the past if you remember I said I achieved the result with many other systems. In these three days of camp it’s impossible to do. 4-3-3 they (the players) never do this at their clubs. It’s the man, it’s the players who give us possibilities. It’s new system. We have to try. In August we can try.
Ireland’s 23-man squad was the oldest at this year’s finals and with talk that a number of the most experienced players are weighing up international retirement, the 73-year-old Italian was also asked about the next generation.
“There is always many names,” he responded. “We have three, four, five also in papers – McClean and McCarthy. McCarthy will allow us to change the system. Also Gibson, he is already here. We have others we can try. We know the 4-3-3. I tried all the systems. I need to know we can play with this system.”
A trip to Belgrade to play Serbia in August is the only friendly scheduled before Ireland kick off their qualifiers away to Kazakhstan on September 7.
