IT'S NOT so long since anyone comparing Richard Dunne to a wardrobe would have been assumed to mean the Manchester City defender was simply big and immobile. So, when he got the chance yesterday to clarify his comments of the previous night, Giovanni Trapattoni anxiously insisted that the observation was intended to be positive.

"It was a compliment!" he exclaimed with a grin. "I meant the ball couldn't come through him."

The Dubliner will doubtless be pleased to hear that while his manager feels he resembles a large piece of bedroom furniture, he sees it as a good thing. Sadly, there was no such silver lining for Andy Reid, with the veteran Italian coach becoming quite animated as he defended his ongoing omission of the Sunderland midfielder.

"Look, I know how your game . . . last month it was (Stephen) Ireland, now it's Andy Reid," he said when asked about the player. "But I want to clarify this. Even in Stuttgart, I always played players that were needed in that particular moment, I always looked at the team's interest.

"Andy Reid? Ireland? I have nothing against any player. They are all like my children. I just look at the balance of the team and try to give it a solidity that can give us hope for the future. Sure, I can make mistakes but I don't have anything against anybody."

Warming to his theme, the Italian managed to damn the Dubliner with fairly lavish praise, comparing him to some pretty big international stars, Ronaldinho among them, while still making it clear he is not what is required just now.

"I just want a solid team with a good balance that plays international football," he said before bringing large, inanimate wooden objects into it again. "Like this table, with its legs, you have to be solid. Andy has very good qualities but not necessarily what we need. It's not that it should be a problem for Andy Reid. It's about the team."

Reid, he continued, might well come into his own if Ireland can get to the stage where they are dominating games but as long as the likes of Cyprus have the capacity to come to Dublin and make life difficult for their hosts, as they did in the second half on Wednesday, then, he made clear, he remains something of a luxury.

"When you command the play then it's possible but when you have pressure to contend with then you don't want to lose the work done by Robbie Keane and Kevin Doyle.

"It's nothing against one particular player, let's make it clear. If we get to the point where our team dominates the game and we have the right balance then, of course, Andy Reid can be very useful to us. But I can't turn someone into a worker. I can't turn someone into a craftsman if that is not his job. I wanted to test the situation in Portugal but there was injury. I didn't get the chance to try him and now it's qualify, qualify, qualify . . . we can't gamble.

"I've been able to build a team that has a certain balance and I can't keep changing, I need to stick to what I've found. I have to be coherent. There is a philosopher who says if you are too coherent, you run the risk of being an imbecile but I can't keep changing. It's not easy to qualify. It's not easy to immediately find solid bases on which to build."

While generally satisfied with the performance of those who did play on Wednesday night, Trapattoni admitted his team had ridden their luck a little bit.

"Sure, we need to improve a little bit again," he said. "After a few minutes we took the lead and a more mature group would have taken the chance to score another goal. I think we deserved our win but we had a little luck and that's important. In the last 10 minutes there were two or three dangerous situations and in football even a deflection can sometimes be enough."

Darron Gibson, he suggested, had settled into the game well after a quiet start but the Italian hopes to use next month's friendly against Poland at Croke Park to further broaden his options, with Blackburn midfielder Keith Andrews likely to get his first senior cap.

"For him (Steven Reid), I hope the problem is not serious but I know also the injury was very, very dangerous. It's a cartilage problem and because of that, I will look at other players in the position. I think we have possibilities, Andrews for example. In the next game, against Poland, maybe I will look at him in there."

His failure to avail of the opportunities to watch his players in action for their clubs has attracted much comment and a fair bit of criticism but Trapattoni insisted his decision to stay at home was in part prompted by the number of squad members struggling to win regular first-team places.

"We (members of the management team) have been to games three or four times and the players have been sitting on the bench. Gibson doesn't play, Whelan doesn't play, even Keane, we're not sure if he plays or not. Wigan is okay," he adds with a grin, "Kilbane plays."