Trap plays the Green card

By close of play in the Friends Arena here in Stockholm tonight, we will know a little bit more about Giovanni Trapattoni and, in particular, whether there’s method to his madness or madness to his method.

In confirming what this week’s training sessions in Malahide had strongly suggested — that Paul Green would get the nod ahead of James McCarthy to partner Glenn Whelan in central midfield — the manager has either made a wounding rod for his own back or effected an unlikely but inspired tactical coup.

Only the 90 minutes of action this evening will tell the true tale but it’s safe to say that, going into the game, not many outside the Irish camp will share the manager’s confidence in the rightness of his selection.

It does need to be acknowledged, however, that the Leeds United man — whose unkindest critics are reluctant to give him any credit whatsoever — made a big impression when coming off the bench as a substitute in the recent friendly against Poland, his tigerish winning of the ball in tandem with safe but effective passing, energising what had been a worryingly tired Irish performance and helping create the solid platform on which Wes Hoolahan and Jeff Hendrick were able to display their much more eye-catching wares.

It is also not unreasonable to point out that McCarthy, for all his superior qualities, has yet to fully impose himself in the green shirt, his international career thus far offering only tantalising glimpses of the all-round talent which has made him a star performer for Wigan.

Of course, Ireland’s style — or perhaps that should read anti-style — under Trapattoni is hardly conducive to bringing out the best in the kind of midfielder who is much more about finesse than fire but, since a troubling inability to retain possession has dogged the team for a long time, you might think that even someone as fixed in his ways as the veteran Italian would have begun to appreciate the urgent need for something more than heart and muscle in the middle of the park.

However, when I put it to the manager yesterday, that McCarthy’s absence could only exacerbate the lack of creativity in the Irish midfield, his answer was instructive.

“No, I’m sorry,” he said, wagging a finger in disagreement. “Despite my respect for James, who I respect very much, you can’t say that he is creative. James is good, is linear, is an easy player but he is not creative. Watch his game. I saw him in many, many games. I hope he increases his personality and takes the ball some more because it is important and he is young enough.”

To be fair to Trapattoni, Green’s selection is also not so much horses for courses as a course of action designed, in part, to nobble a thoroughbred. The Ireland manager has identified the deep-lying position of Zlatan Ibrahimovic as the biggest source of danger to his team tonight and he regards Green’s fierce application as a major bulwark against that threat, Trapattoni even going so far yesterday as to speak of him in the same breath as such celebrated firebrands as Gennaro Gattuso and Nobby Stiles.

But he also outlined what he seems to consider an even more important reason for the player’s selection — to provide cover for Seamus Coleman when the Everton dynamo pushes forward. And McCarthy, he went on, is simply not the player to do that. “I want both my full-backs to make their full-backs have to defend,” Trapattoni stirringly declared.

Certainly, there are some real positives in the starting 11, not least of which is the presence of an all-Premier League back four, albeit in front of a Championship goalkeeper who will be making his competitive debut for his country. Ahead of them, Trapattoni has also confounded expectations — as well as his own habit since Damien Duff retired — by opting to start the squad’s two out and out wingers to support the strike force of Robbie Keane (who’ll also be expected to help reinforce midfield) and Shane Long.

Again, it’s deep end stuff for James McClean and Robbie Brady — the latter the subject of some peculiar mind games by the manager yesterday as he seemed to suggest that, by publicising a doubt about the young man’s place in the line-up, it might serve to provoke a fighting response from the player.

Clearly, the manager does have some worries about Brady’s psychological preparedness for such a big game but, raw though he and McClean still are at this level, if the two talented wingers can swim rather than sink in Stockholm, it would go a long way to helping secure a vital result.

But, of course, it’s not just World Cup points which are at stake. Trapattoni’s position has long been under intense scrutiny and, should his plans backfire badly tonight, the calls for his head will be deafening.

The manager, however, appears convinced his team won’t let him or the nation down.