Ireland must set tempo
Ireland did extremely well to take a point from Tirana when the teams played a scoreless game in April.
Kerr, in is usual fashion, declined to reveal his team selection after Ireland completed their preparations yesterday on a Lansdowne Road pitch that is in peak condition.
But it can be taken he will not be tempted to depart from his tried and tested formation.
Kerr confirmed that the exciting Steven Reid (Millwall) will not start the game because of his long absence through injury.
This suggests the experiment of playing Damien Duff in a central attacking role just behind two centre-forwards is unlikely to be employed early in the game.
Kerr will demand that the team concentrates early on dominating Albania and, in particular, overpowering their talented middle three who controlled so much of the play in Tirana.
Ireland will seek to set the tempo and prevent Albania from finding the rhythm they will seek to impose through their ball-playing midfielders.
He said: “Albania imposed their rhythm on the game out there as their supporters did, but from us I would expect us to be at a better tempo then we were in Albania.
"In hindsight, I think everybody was probably affected then by the effort of the game four days previously in Georgia and the day of travel between the two.
“It was understandable in the circumstances and it was hard to measure the percentage that we were short, but I think each player would have admitted after the game that we felt maybe not quite as good as we did going into the match with Georgia.
"Or maybe it was that after an hour of the game we did not feel as fresh as we would have liked.”
Whatever the reasons, it was certain Albania gave Ireland many problems. Duro, who plays his club football in Turkey, stretched them on the right flank and Murati, based in Greece, was a bundle of tricks on the left.
In addition, they had three talented players in central midfield in Lala (Hanover 96), Hasi (Anderlecht) and Skela (Eintracht Frankfurt).
Ireland were forced to bolster midfield to counter them with Lee Carsley and Kevin Kilbane taking turns to support Matt Holland and Mark Kinsella.
Because of that I expect that Kerr will start with the same team as was on duty in Tirana with Robbie Keane and Damien Duff initially playing as a centre-forward partnership.
Duff, as is his wont, will regularly drop deep to augment the midfield and Kerr will be hoping that Ireland will gain such an influencing grip in the opening half-hour that he can then turn to the bench and look to introduce other attacking players like Steven Reid, David Connolly and Gary Doherty.
The experiment of playing Duff behind Keane and Connolly against Norway worked and there were times when the football flowed effectively in an attacking mode.
Kerr will use this tactical set-up again and may well do so before the end of the 90 minutes today, but I will be surprised if he starts with it.
More likely he will start with the regular four across midfield, particularly as Carsley and Kilbane have had such good seasons at club level and are in form.
Also, they performed well for Kerr in Georgia and Albania and their capacity for hard work is well recognised.
Kerr is on record as looking for a big contribution from the Irish fans in the form of their enthusiastic backing.
He will also be looking for improved performances from a number of Irish players who were, perhaps, taken by surprise by the quality of the opposition in Tirana.
Certainly Stephen Carr and John O’Shea are capable of playing better and both will be keen to prove that. While Carr was troubled by the
skilful Murati, O’Shea also found Duro a difficult customer to contain and they will take much closer order on their immediate opponents from kick-off.
Kerr said that under the previous management, Albania had not been afraid to take the game to Russia when they played them back in October, and although they lost 4-1 they created many scoring chances.
He did not expect them to be too different in their attitude under the German coach, Hans Peter Briegel.
He said: “I’m sure there will be respect on their side for us and they will not go hell-for-leather as they did in Tirana. I would imagine they will be expecting us to put some pressure on them, and I expect us to, and our approach will have to be more aggressive.
“The circumstances of the match in Tirana made it reasonable for us to be a little cautious, not so much in approach, but in the positions the players took at times. In a home game I would expect that won’t be the case.”
He added: “Their wing-backs were very effective over there, we expected them to play like that. I thought from the defensive point of view we handled it well. We also exploited it in the attacking sense and we got some good service up to the front players.
“We didn’t take that on, I suppose, we didn’t really exploit the openings we made in Albania, we’ll be hoping we’ll make more of them and that we’ll finish them when we get the chances but they are good players they have, the two wide fellows.”
The other big improvement that Ireland will expect will be in the form of Robbie Keane.
The ebullient striker has scored 14 goals in his 42 internationals and it will be recalled that he performed under difficult circumstances in Tirana.
He had buried his father a short time before the match but offered to fly out after the Georgia game to add his effort to Ireland’s cause.
His presence was undoubtedly effective as a rallying-call for a very committed group of players, but it was hardly surprising he was not at his best.
This time round Keane and his colleagues will be well rested and fully aware of the importance of the game. The memories of Japan and South Korea and the spectacular
experience of playing in the finals of the World Cup will be very fresh on the first anniversary of that busy time and these players will not spare themselves in seeking a repeat in Portugal.
They should win, if narrowly, and team captain Kenny Cunningham put their feelings into words yesterday when he said: “The results of these matches may not be decisive and with so many surprise results in this group it may not be a must-win situation.
“But we are all very aware of the significance of the matches and we know just how important it would be for us to win these two games and pick up six points. The preparations have gone well and we are ready.”
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