Victory over the Faroes was a good night's work but old failings will continue to trouble Trapattoni unless he changes tack, writes BRIAN KERR,Soccer Analyst

THE SAME problems remain and it seems clear to me that the main issue is arrogance before logic.

The manager’s judgments in relation to which players should and shouldn’t play cannot be papered over by a 4-1 victory in the Faroe Islands.

Irrespective of who Giovanni Trapattoni picked last night, no Irish team should struggle in Torshavn against one of the weakest teams in Europe.

Trapattoni still needs to communicate better with his players, their clubs and their managers. And the public.

He needs to go to see his players playing for their clubs so he can make the correct decisions about team selection. He is still, clearly, not making informed decisions and until he does change his approach it will continue to spiral out of control.

The Irish supporters, the pundits and journalists don’t see the players regularly either but we can identify glaringly odd call-ups like young Conor Clifford ahead of Wes Houlihan or Anthony Pilkington.

We see the Irish players playing on television more often than not but neither does the Irish manager get to see them in the flesh. That is a major part of the job!

It is a crazy situation and has brought us to the current juncture. There must be an onus on him to be more present.

There have been far too many disputes with management and unhappy players withdrawing when you would doubt there is too much wrong with them.

Glenn Whelan, Richard Dunne, Kevin Doyle and Sean St Ledger were all, obviously, injured but it will be interesting to see if James McClean plays for Sunderland this weekend.

The management must change the way things operate because there are too many incidents with disgruntled players.

Are Stephen Kelly, Darron Gibson, Marc Wilson (previously) and Kevin Foley all to be tarred with the same brush? Squad morale has been damaged by this string of stand-offs. You can’t go into combat with Germany in such a state. As we learned the hard way.

Ireland won last night because they were dogged, but equally fortunate to be up against semi-professionals who are more susceptible to error. They also have a new manager who is still learning.

We had a massive lucky break for the third and decisive goal. There was good interplay between Walters, Keane and McGeady but the own goal was a terrible mistake. Before that we were having a hard time of it and another rough night was looming.

So, we escaped with a more leeway than looked possible coming up to half-time and when the Faroes made it 2-1 in the other dangerous spell.

When Jon Walters’s header didn’t find the target on 21 minutes I got very worried. I have been on the other side of the fence and seen what happens when teams don’t put the Faroes away with an early hammer blow; they become better players and start to believe.

When two clear-cut chances had gone a begging, with Keith Andrews also putting a header wide, that started to happen. The Faroe players began to grow a few inches in stature. I could see it happening.

The Irish players needed one of those early opportunities to go in. They needed something to instil confidence in the collective.

Keane was playing too far from goal and the Faroe defence were comfortably dealing with Walters and Robbie Brady.

It was harsh to remove Brady at half-time, although he wasn’t doing anything sensational. Another strange call. His link play was impressive but not enough ball went to his feet or down the line because Andrews and James McCarthy weren’t controlling the tempo. That’s because they weren’t getting the ball off John O’Shea or Darren O’Dea. The usual problem.

On the other side Aiden McGeady was back to his best, knocking over some impressively accurate balls that should have led to goals. He got better as the match went on and any talk of dropping him must be shelved.

Then, ironically, a full-back delivered for Ireland by getting forward and having a blast. That goes against everything we knew about the manager’s tactics before last summer.

Wilson’s well-struck goal, which took a little deflection, set the tone for the rest of the second half. The shadow over the team instantly passed.

Robbie Keane started making curved runs into the channels, as Walters dropped deeper, which caused problems.

It was convincing in the end. As it should be. Does Trap survive? He will point to six points from three games, which would be an acceptable return before the campaign commenced.

However, if he doesn’t see the overwhelming need to change the communication system with the squad then, well, the problems will continue to mount.