SOCCER:Spain's omission of Fernando Torres is something Ireland could only dream of, writes EMMET MALONE

THE NEWS that Vicente del Bosque had bitten the bullet and dropped Fernando Torres from the Spanish squad for next week’s friendly international against Venezuela can only have served to remind Giovanni Trapattoni of what he will be up against this summer.

Del Bosque was almost apologetic as he revealed that the Chelsea striker’s prolonged loss of form had finally cost him his place in the international set-up. But he said he had to be fair, and the case of Roberto Soldado – with five goals for Valencia in six Champions League games as well as 15 in 20 back at home – had simply become unanswerable.

Trapattoni must wish he had calls like that to make but things are somewhat different for the Ireland manager.

Torres has four goals in 31 appearances for club and country this season, which is not a million miles from Kevin Doyle’s four in 29, but it would take something along the lines of an ill-considered expedition in front of a bus by the Wolves striker before the 28-year-old would be left behind this summer.

Even then, one suspects, it would be rash to rule the Wexford man out completely.

Ireland, of course, have no Soldados waiting in the wings and not too many Iker Muniain’s either. Great things are expected of Athletic Bilbao’s 19-year-old winger, who received his first senior call-up yesterday, at the expense of Barcelona’s Pedro Rodriquez.

A member of the country’s Under-21 European Championship team last summer with more than 100 senior club games under his belt already, the teenager can happily play out wide or up front, much like injured international regular David Villa.

Trapattoni reckons several of his players can play either role too, but few bear much comparison to the Barcelona striker.

Del Bosque, as it happens, has said that this friendly will be used for “fine tuning” with little or no experimentation in Malaga next Wednesday and so it is entirely possible that neither of the newcomers (Soldado did earn two caps back in 2007) will see any action against the South Americans.

Spain, though, won every one of their eight qualifying games, scoring 26 goals in the process, and so the former Real Madrid boss could be forgiven for seeing a major overhaul as unnecessary.

It might be welcome, on the other hand, if Trapattoni, whose side qualified despite a defeat and three group stage draws, felt it was in some way attractive to take even a sideways glance at a Plan B in what will be his side’s third last game before heading for Poland.

Instead, it seems virtually certain the Italian will pick something approaching his strongest side for the game against the Czech Republic and look to win the game in the hope that confidence can be boosted and momentum maintained in advance of the finals.

Sunderland’s James McClean has been the most talked about topic ahead of this game but in an ideal world he would probably not be the only one.

The veteran coach could, it might be argued, benefit from giving key reserve players a run out next week and, less plausibly, testing a different system to be employed in the event that Ireland are chasing a group game.

The likes of Keiren Westwood, Keith Fahey and Jonathan Walters would all benefit from getting another 90 minutes of international football under their belts against the Czechs and both outfield players could be used in such a way as to shake things up in midfield and attack.

Only this week, Chris Hughton describe Fahey’s recent performances for Birmingham at the heart of a five-man midfield as “outstanding”, while Walters has, on recent evidence, looked like the player most likely to bring something different to the Irish attack in the event that the preferred Doyle/Robbie Keane partnership needs to be changed or reinforced.

A shift to 4-5-1 is pretty much out of the question but Trapattoni should allow a little more flexibility within the current system for at least a portion of the match and look to give some game time to the likes of James McCarthy, Seamus Coleman and Shane Long.

As things stand the Irish team seem far more likely to avoid defeat in one or more of their group games than to actually win any of them and yet Trapattoni, whose Italy side went out of Euro 2004 with five points from three games, must realise that they will almost certainly have to engineer at least one victory if they are to progress.

The order of their games has done little for Ireland’s prospects. Playing Spain first or, ideally, last would have been better as the World and defending European champions might just have slipped up in their first outing and could well have qualified ahead of their third.

The Italians are more likely to need a win when they come up against Trapattoni’s men in game three.

Croatia, meanwhile, will go into that first game expecting worse to come and desperate to beat opponents that every manager will see as an essential three points.

All three are considered to be better sides than the Russian one that beat Ireland in Dublin and utterly overran them without scoring in Moscow, and yet there seems to be little urgency on the part of Trapattoni to look at alternative ways of taking on ostensibly superior opponents or countering a five-man midfield.

The reluctance with which he brought McClean into the squad seems to be a case in point. The Sunderland winger has been hailed in some quarters as the find of the Premier League season and Martin O’Neill has said that he believed the 22 year-old is well capable of making the transition to international football in the time required.

Most puzzling, perhaps, is the fact that the Derry man would, on the face of it, appear to be an ideal fit for Trapattoni.

He is strong, energetic and direct but does not require the tactics to be changed at all. From wide on the left of midfield he can go past players and cross the ball or turn inside and power towards goal to equally good effect.

In his current form, indeed, he seems more likely to cause the likes of Iker Casillas or Gianluigi Buffon a problem directly than either of the team’s first-choice wide men.

By June that may have changed – even O’Neill believes it will be hard for him to avoid a dip in form at some stage – but Trapattoni’s reluctance to give him a chance is disappointing. It is, however, not hugely surprising.

He used fewer players in qualifying than any of his rivals this summer despite Ireland having been involved in 12 games, two more than Italy and four more than Spain.

The lack of options in some departments is, of course, outside of his control, but the personal loyalty, as del Bosque admitted yesterday, sometimes needs to be set aside.