O’Shea suited to central midfield
He said he had played his under-age football and had made his early appearances with Ireland's international teams in central midfield. Now there's a thought!
O'Shea made his first competitive appearances for Ireland's senior team over the past two weeks at left-back. It is not his favourite position but, like all good professionals, he was more than willing to accept the challenge if it meant getting into the team.
It is fair to suggest that O'Shea will play better games for Ireland. He was burned by Demitradze as Georgia scored their goal in Tbilisi and he was stretched by a very good opponent in Duro in Tirana. At 22 years of age O'Shea is, of course, still learning his trade.
"He has still a bit to learn about full-back play," said Brian Kerr after the Georgia match.
This is undoubtedly true. O'Shea is already a marvellous player and advanced in the game beyond his years. He will never stop learning, no matter how long he remains in the game. It seems certain that he will play most of his football in a central position.
He is ideally suited for the position of centre-back for he is powerfully built and growing more assertive in his approach with every game. His strength in the air is one of his greatest assets.
Could it be, however, that the central position he will occupy in the near future for Ireland will be central midfield rather than centre-back? Ireland's current centre-back pairing of Gary Breen and Kenny Cunningham is a formidable one.
It seems fashionable to criticise Breen and those who point to flaws in his game inevitably draw up West Ham. The truth is that Breen has been playing the best football of his career with Ireland over the past 12 months.
His problems at West Ham have not impacted negatively on that. Forget the matches against Russia and Switzerland the team generally was off-colour Breen was outstanding in all of the World Cup matches and he excelled again, as did Cunningham in the role of captain, in Georgia and Albania.
So why not retain Breen and Cunningham while they are playing so well together and augment Ireland's defence by slotting O'Shea into the team in front of them ?
THE IDEA of playing three centre-backs is hardly an innovative one for Ireland. Jack Charlton operated from this base with sustained success for he used Mark Lawrenson in midfield at first and later had Paul McGrath playing in front of Mick McCarthy and Kevin Moran. Charlton showed that playing three centre-backs did not necessarily push a team into operating a 3-5-2 system that is favoured by many of the continental teams.
He still protected the flanks by using two players wide a full-back and a wide midfielder. Irish teams have never functioned well with only one player on the flanks. The players are familiar with the 4-4-2 systems operated by their clubs and attempts to vary that at international level have invariably backfired.
A return to fitness by Steve Finnan might well provide Brian Kerr with a player capable of bringing to the left-back position the defensive strength that would release O'Shea to play midfield. With Stephen Carr at right-back Ireland would then have a defensive unit of five players in front of the outstanding Shay Given that would surely be capable of dominating most opponents.
The main problem Ireland will face in their upcoming European Championship matches will be the creation of goal-scoring chances.
Their next three matches are in Dublin against Georgia, Albania and Russia and they must win all three if they are to survive. Ireland's most creative force is unquestionably Damien Duff and it seems logical that he should be used in his best role as provider if Ireland are to prosper. This means playing him wide on the left to punch holes for Robbie Keane to capitalise upon.
Brian Kerr is well familiar with John O'Shea as midfielder for he used him there at under-age level. It will be interesting to see if he will attempt to accommodate him there again when Ireland play Norway in a friendly international at the end of this month.
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