IT was during his whistle-stop tour of Britain and Ireland last month that Roy Keane managed to undersell a match while promoting his book.
The question-and-answer sessions with Roddy Doyle proved a hit at the box office — each show sold out as Keane mixed anecdotes from his past with frank views of the present. “Ireland-Scotland,” he said, “will be a battle. The game will be about anything but tactics. They will go out the window.”
The comment was a tactic in itself. By putting it out there that this showdown will be a blood-and-thunder affair, Keane was attempting to get inside the Scottish players’ minds.
“Tactics,” Martin O’Neill suggested shortly afterwards, “have their place but do you know? Can you imagine Alex Ferguson looking at a team sheet and seeing Giggs, Beckham, Keane and Scholes’ names on it? No doubt, he’d say ‘do you know I think we stand a chance against Luton today’.”
What managers say publicly and think privately could be entirely different things, though. And by downplaying the importance of shape and strategy, O’Neill and Keane are not so much doing themselves a disservice as lulling their opponents into a false sense of security.
If tactics were so unimportant to this pair then how come, after three games of this campaign, they have played such a key part in the results? Firstly, there was the solid 4-5-1 shape used in Georgia, which altered late on, when Aiden McGeady was relocated from the wing to a central role. And we all know how that ended up.
Then, against Gibraltar, O’Neill changed to 4-4-1-1 with Wes Hoolahan utilised in the split striker position. Now irrespective of what shape O’Neill and Keane have selected, Ireland would have won that game regardless. With Hoolahan on board, however, they strolled to victory.
His reward was to be dropped, causing Eamon Dunphy, the resident crank in RTÉ, to voice his displeasure as only he can. Had O’Neill selected Hoolahan, Dunphy claimed, the Germans would have been played off the park, the threat of global warming would have eased, the economic climate would also have picked up and an overall sense of happiness would have visited all four parts of Ireland.
Alas, O’Neill was blind to what Dunphy could see. Instead he went for Stephen Quinn, who was guilty of affording too much space to the German midfielder, Toni Kroos, prior to the Real Madrid player scoring the opening goal of the game. Shortly after, Hoolahan entered the fray and, of course, Ireland equalised, just as Dunphy suggested they would.
“This man is Trapattoni with a Derry accent,” said Dunphy afterwards of O’Neill. What his analysis failed to spot was that Hoolahan got on the ball six times and gave it away three times, or that his cross, which led to Ireland’s goal, was overhit.
Yet he did make an impact. The part of his game he is supposedly weak at, hustling and harrying, was the part he mastered in this match, and indirectly led to Ireland’s equaliser, when a 30-yard sprint across the park discomforted the German full back, Erik Durm, into conceding a throw-in. From the throw, Ireland scored.
While this isolated incident arguably backs up Dunphy’s claim that O’Neill got it wrong, in actual fact, a counter suggestion could be made that he was spot on in his decision making.
A fresh Hoolahan charging around for 20 minutes was just what Ireland needed. Expecting him, or any player, to keep up that tempo for 90 minutes is absurd.
Gordon Strachan is a man Martin O’Neill does take seriously. “He came after me at Celtic and won three titles, did superbly well in Europe. Well done him,” said O’Neill. “Plus he has Scotland roaring again. The belief is back, not just among the fans but more importantly, the players.”
What he has said of Scotland also applies to Ireland, though. Even though Hoolahan, Glenn Whelan, Marc Wilson and James McCarthy are all struggling with injuries, the side still travels to Glasgow this week with confidence. “We have a belief about us, a belief that we can do it,” said Robbie Keane.
And despite his namesake’s suggestion that they will go to Celtic Park for a battle, the plan is for Scotland to be out-thought as well as outfought.
O’Neill knows their strengths — their pace on the flanks, their organisation defending set-plays and their creativity attacking them. Yet, despite undervaluing the importance of tactics, he will have a plan for Friday, one which will place a heavy emphasis on attacking down both flanks where James McClean will be retained in order to target Alan Hutton’s replacement at right back.
McGeady may once again be used centrally — as much because of Ireland’s shortage of options and need to accommodate Jon Walters as anything else.
Robbie Keane will be trusted again, Jeff Hendrick may be handed a start in the biggest game of his life, with either Quinn or David Meyler to keep him company. In reserve will be Darron Gibson, who made as much of an impact in Gelsenkirchen as Hoolahan. He is the Plan B, a clever tactic on the manager’s behalf.
Ireland v Scotland
Friday, 7.45pm, Sky Sports 5
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