Keeping faith with the veterans an act of folly

PITY the Euro 2004 managers whose loyalty to some tired old warriors was misplaced. How it cost them.

None suffered for his faithfulness more than Italy's Giovanni Trapattoni but there were others. Now, while they attempt to enjoy an extended holiday, what regrets must assail the minds of Sven Goran Ericsson, Rudi Voller, Kobi Kuhn and especially Jacques Santini.

How they must bemoan their lack of initiative, if not lack of courage. For they chose to ignore the evidence of their own eyes, stayed with the tried and tested and found their allegiance went unrewarded.

One can only assume that if they were allowed rerun the championship they would make changes. They would surely have taken notice of the response that Portugal's flamboyant manager, Brazilian Luiz Felipe Scolari, provoked when he ruthlessly rang the changes in that monumental contest with England.

Not for Scolari the fawning admiration of Ericsson for his off-form team captain David Beckham. Scolari did not hesitate to call ashore one of the greats, Luis Figo, when he needed more dynamism and more initiative than was forthcoming from his great winger.

Contrast Scolari's aggressive attitude to that of Ericsson. He also took off full-back Miguel, who was playing brilliantly, and the holding midfielder, Costinha, and sent Portugal charging forward with three new attacking players Rui Costa, Helder Postiga and Simao for the final 30 minutes.

Ericsson was much less adventurous. Of course they were leading 1-0 until the 83rd minute, but still the introduction of Philip Neville for Paul Scholes as early as the 57th minute betrayed his defensive attitude.

The further introduction of Owen Hargreaves for Steven Gerrard after 81 minutes was scarcely the attitude of a man prepared to gamble for the big prize.

Most damning of all however, was Ericsson's perseverance with Beckham even when his team captain was palpably out of touch. It could not be said he played well in any of their four matches, against France, Switzerland, Croatia or Portugal yet he was on the pitch for every minute. I cannot remember him threatening a goal, not even from one of his free kicks, and his penalty attempt was lamentable.

Trapattoni's contribution to Italy's dismal championship was even less resourceful. His use of his players was all too predictable.

The players he stood by repaid his faith in the most cavalier fashion and their return of three goals from three matches was abysmal. Their goal-scorers were Antonio Cassano, the Roma striker who claimed two, and Simone Perrotta of Chievo.

Yet Trapattoni started Alessandro Del Piero in all three of their matches against Denmark, Sweden and Bulgaria and started Christian Vieri twice. He substituted a subdued Del Piero against Denmark and Sweden and after suffering with Vieri for two full matches against Denmark and Sweden, he introduced him as sub 53 minutes in against Bulgaria.

The return from two players who have given Italy great service did not justify the field time they were given. The 21-year-old Cassano was introduced as sub in the first match against Denmark and proceeded to play with fire and commitment for the rest of the tournament.

Rudi Voller had the grace to admit after Germany's performances that his players were not good enough. His decision to step out of the job despite having a contract valid until after the next World Cup was admirable as he knew the contribution from the specialists was less than acceptable.

Voller showed a preparedness to invite youngsters like Bayern Munich's 19-year-old midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger and Cologne's 18-year-old striker Lukas Podolski to state their case but only when the tournament had been lost.

Schweinsteiger came in as sub in the first two matches against the Netherlands and Latvia and played with plenty of initiative when he started against the Czech second team; Podolski played for just the second half of the game against the Czechs.

Two goals from Germany said it all and although Michael Ballack received plenty of praise most of his work was produced in front of defences. He did not have the imagination or the subtlety in his passing to infiltrate defences and provide a German presence in the danger zone often enough to justify his big reputation.

Kobi Kuhn's Switzerland were a huge disappointment and his striking star, Hakan Yakin, had a colourless tournament. Kuhn stuck with him, even though the Swiss were held scoreless by Croatia and England.

Kuhn turned to the precocious 18-year-old Johann Vonlanthen of Eindhoven late in the game against England and finally gave him a start in the final match against France. Vonlanthen repaid him with a splendid goal.

Most dismal of all, however, was the performance of France and their pedantic manager, Jacques Santini. It is true France looked tired when they lost to Greece and that was in part due to the physical effort they had to produce to beat England and draw with Croatia. With such a talented squad of players Santini should surely have been able to devise a tactical approach that would have got the champions to the quarter-finals.

Michael Silvestre, for instance, was not adroit enough to play full-back, he should not have been moved from centre-back to play against Croatia. Lilian Thuram's attacking strength was lost to the team when he was deployed at centre-back and the decision to stick with David Trezeguet made no sense at all.

Luis Saha and Sylvain Wiltord both looked capable of contributing more than Trezeguet when they saw action as substitutes. The French, above all others, have most reason to feel their talents were wasted.