AMID ALL the talk of sticking with the settled side that has taken the Republic of Ireland to the brink of a top-two finish in this World Cup qualification group, Giovanni Trapattoni took time out yesterday to size up Liam Lawrence’s credentials as a potential starter against Italy on Saturday night.
The 27-year-old has just two international games under his belt at this stage and having had to replace Andy Keogh very early on in Bari against Italy, Trapattoni may prove reluctant to gamble on one of his less established squad members again, but Lawrence’s performance and goal against South Africa, combined with Damien Duff’s absence, appears to have prompted the manager to mull over his options.
“He (Trapattoni) is trying a few things but it’s a bit early in the week to be making conclusions about who will definitely play,” said Liam Brady after Lawrence, rather than Stephen Hunt, had played with what was otherwise as close to Saturday’s starting 11 as the manager had available to him yesterday morning.
“He’s had two games for us so far, though, one against Nigeria where he played okay and then he played very well against South Africa,” added Brady. “And he’s obviously in the manager’s plans.”
Absent from yesterday’s run-out was Richard Dunne who stayed back at the team hotel to rest a mildly bruised ankle while Seán St Ledger sat out the tail end of the knock-about due a slight thigh problem, but neither is considered a doubt. The hosts then, should be close to full strength, rather like their opponents whose one real enforced absence is Fabio Cannavaro.
“But that’s a big loss for them,” observed Brady. “The Italians have a great mental strength, great concentration. They very rarely make silly mistakes and gift you goals. So we’re going to have to play at our very best to beat them on Saturday night.
“Cannavaro is a huge loss for them, though, because he is their organiser at the back. (Giorgio) Chiellini, who plays for Juventus, is a young player in that he hasn’t got the experience that someone like Cannavaro has. He is their captain, he is their leader and I think they will miss him, I really do.”
The skipper’s absence, Brady insists, is just one of the reasons that there is confidence within the Irish camp. “Obviously they are going to have had their confidence restored by the win over Bulgaria,” he said. “They’d had a difficult time and got a lot of criticism after going to Georgia and winning with two own goals. They weren’t scoring goals then so obviously they have their confidence restored now.
“But I thought the Bulgarians went there not believing that they could get a result, and it showed. So the Italians will be up against a totally different team on Saturday night. And we believe we can beat them.”
The Italians’ travel arrangements always tend to suggest they are confident and Brady seemed only momentarily taken aback to hear that Marcello Lippi’s players will do no more than walk the pitch at Croke Park after landing in Dublin early on Friday evening.
“Well, these guys have played in all the stadiums in the world, one stadium is the same as another to these guys. They’re not going to be intimidated at all by not training or playing beforehand in Croke Park.”
There might, on the other hand, be some concern about one or two of the less experienced Irish players being a little intimidated by the occasion with St Ledger, for instance, facing into what could well be the most testing 90 minutes of his career to date.
“Yeah, but he played against two good strikers in Bulgaria, (Dimitar) Berbatov and (Valeri) Bojinov, was it? He’s up for it. He’s a lad who has great belief in himself and he’s still pinching himself that he’s here and could be playing against the Italians at Croke Park on Saturday night.”
And with close to all of the 72,000 tickets sold for the game at this stage, Brady expects it to be a good place for the Irish. “When we played Georgia or Cyprus at Croke Park, I think people have come along saying: ‘Well, you’ve got to beat these.’ This will be totally different. We’re playing the world champions. We need to beat them to have a chance of topping the group.
“I expect Croke Park to be totally different to anything we have seen so far. The supporters will be there in big numbers. We’ll be playing the world champions and I think the crowd will be up for it in the same way that the team will be up for it.”
Asked about his own position in the wake of Trapattoni’s contract renewal, meanwhile, Brady said that he would talk to Arsenal when the two qualifying games are out of the way but confirmed that he wants to stay on.