SOCCER:If Trapattoni is to adhere to his old ways, and he will, it should be with a lone striker who can hold the ball up, writes PAT FENLON
A LESSON in Dutch tactical mastery, carried out by technically-gifted Russians, was very nearly ruined by a late Irish surge that will at least provide a huge boost for team morale ahead of a now treacherous journey to Slovakia on Tuesday.
It could easily have been 5-0 entering the home straight. Instead, remarkably, we pegged it back to 3-2. This begs the question – why didn’t we get stuck into them before it went to 3-0?
Until Shane Long’s goal, we were destroyed by Russia’s pace and movement. Our centre backs looked knackered by half-time. They would be forgiven if their nerves were shot as well.
Dick Advocaat set up a bizarre and highly risky looking 2-1-4-3 system as Russia went straight for our jugular, not the other way round as we had hoped.
Two quick passes off the kick-off and they were running straight at our defence. It didn’t let up for 70 minutes. They left only two defenders at home, no fullbacks, but we didn’t react quickly enough to punish them. The problem was we couldn’t keep hold of the ball.
Every time our midfielders, Glenn Whelan and Paul Green, got their heads up in possession they were surrounded by wine- coloured jerseys. Advocaat clearly watched how Argentina picked us apart on the opening night at the Aviva Stadium.
Movement and pace will always destroy the current Irish system. If Trapattoni is to adhere to his old ways, and he will, it should be with a lone striker who can hold the ball up.
The rigidity of the Trapattoni structure needed to loosen for us to contain Russia. The second goal was a prime example of this.
It may seem like our defence and central midfielders were at fault but that wasn’t it. I felt a possible Russian weakness would be a failure of their wide men to track back but it proved the other way around. Kevin Kilbane was forced to cover the raid of right back Alexander Anyukov, leaving right midfielder Alan Dzagoev unmarked to ghost into the box for a goal that seemed to have killed us off after just 27 minutes.
Aiden McGeady should have covered Dzagoev when Kilbane was forced wide. Everyone else was minding their men. McGeady was back in the box so he was doing what he was told but he just didn’t spot the Russian he should have been marking.
Time and again McGeady pointed for Kilbane to cover the overlapping full back but Kevin had two men to mind every time. Dunne, inside him, was trying to cover Kerzhakov or Arshavin’s mesmerising movement.
What position is the Arsenal attacker? This is why we, in Britain and Ireland, should take a long, hard look at how we equip our young talent. Arshavin started on the left but he was brilliant everywhere, causing trouble down the right and through the middle. He even stuck to John O’Shea when he pushed on.
On 63 minutes Arshavin turned to the dug out and signalled ten more minutes before he would personally call it a night. Of course, he never left the scene as it, amazingly, became a dogfight.
Arshavin may be exceptional but Dzagoev and Kerzhakov were similarly intelligent in their positioning.
The first goal was even more depressing as it had nothing to do with the unorthodox Russian system or their clever movement. Our defensive organiser Richard Dunne was ball- watching off a set-piece.
There was still hope after this early shock as the Russians continued with two defenders, although their number seven Igor Denisov sat in front of them. Much like Mascherano for Argentina, Denisov was the key. He held firm, denying any ball into the feet of Keane or Doyle.
When we did counterattack – nine times out of 10 via McGeady – Doyle and Keane were on their own in the box when the situation begged for one of our holding midfielders to burst forward. It never happened and when we did eventually throw caution to the wind the Russians panicked and looked average.
We simply cannot let a team of such quality to play. The result in Armenia (beating Slovakia 3-1) yesterday afternoon had thrown the pool wide open.
Deep-rooted problems become apparent against this standard of opposition. Shay Given never once looked to throw short balls to his full backs, opting time and again to kick long. Everyone knew the score so they just turned their backs and headed up the field.
Honestly, at half-time, I didn’t see how it could possibly get any better unless we threw in Keith Fahey for a winger and went man for man. Long was excellent when he came in.
We never tried to pass the ball. Or keep it for that matter. It was back to front or nothing.
Five minutes into the second-half it didn’t seem to matter what we did.
Suddenly we find ourselves in mortal danger of being also-rans in this pool. There is just three days to become a more tactically astute team. Slovakia will be desperate to beat us on their home patch.
Four points from these two games was our initial aspiration. Zero seems more realistic now. But to dwell on this night could prove fatal.
