Analysis: That was an experiment in Lansdowne Road last night that has, hopefully, been binned. It's the first part of the match that counts. Forget the last half hour. They make changes, we make changes. People come and go, it's the first hour that counts and, in that time, I tried to understand the logic of Brian Kerr and I couldn't do it.

I hope next month in the World Cup qualifying match against France we play 4-4-2. That's what Irish teams do. They do 4-4-2. I remember when Mick McCarthy first took the job and he experimented with 4-3-3 and 5-3-2. He had a little look at everything, but no. Once we go to 4-4-2, it's is what we do best. Everyone knows the role well.

I looked at Reid, Holland and Kilbane in midfield doing the job of two men, or rather, doing the job two men could have done. It was a formation where no one really appeared to know what it was.

The great problem was Morrison up front with Duff and Andy Reid trying to feed off him. Reid Holland and Kilbane in midfield were very tight and that was a problem because we never stopped the Italian full backs getting out. More often one ball beat the three midfield players. They were like a daisy chain in the first half, almost like they were holding hands in there.

Then you'd Vieri dropping off the two Irish centre backs and linking everything up for Italy. The centre backs weren't sure whether to come tight to him and in the end nobody was picking up. Ireland had lots of numbers, but no one was picking up. It was a classic case of people knowing they'd numbers in there, but forgetting to pick up and that's what happened.

To be honest about it, if after half an hour it had been 3-0 to Italy nobody could have complained. When players don't pick players up it's like they're not sure of what they are supposed to be doing. That lack of surety then spreads throughout the side.

Obviously, this was a dress rehearsal for the French game next month. If somebody like Zidane is going to get the time and space in behind the midfield players that we gave last night, then Ireland won't be anywhere near them. I know Roy Keane will probably be back and we'll have to assume we cannot play that system.

Hopefully, Kerr will change his mind and say 'this system that I've tried to play was a bit of an experiment and if you seriously think I'm going to play that way against France it will be like Joan Of Arc'. It was that simple.

The other problem was that in the first half when you don't have much of the ball and you're forever chasing ball, you end up playing Hollywood balls all the time.

Poor old Clinton Morrison. They were sticking balls up to him. He's got Nesta and Cannavaro all over him. He couldn't even hold the ball up to get Reid and Duff into the game.

Basically, your two best attackers, Reid and Duff, are completely nullified. And it just spread right through the team. Shay Given made a couple of brilliant saves early on, but you know it's a real worry. I always look at these games and analyse them for the first hour.

As I said, forget the last half an hour when all the best players play. Yes, sure in the last half an hour we had a couple of chances, a couple of saves and Stephen Elliott showed a little bit of promise, but it's after the event. Duff also had a few runs down the left and you could see what he can do.

I'm now looking at the French and hoping that he's going to go 4-4-2. Because, out wide, players will tuck in. They'll defend. I mean, when you play against a team like Italy, you have got to compete in midfield. Pirlo must have thought he was playing on his own pitch. He'd so much time and so much space, it was frightening.

It would have been interesting to have had a microphone at the home of Mr Roy Keane, wouldn't it? It is a long time since an Irish team has been out-played in that sort of way and the thing is that last night we contributed to our own downfall.