Danger here ahead of Sofia mission

AND so begins Giovanni Trapattoni’s week of living dangerously.

Having already lost striker Kevin Doyle to untimely injury before then shipping a couple of goalkeeping casualties in the farcical friendly fire surrounding last Friday’s game against Nigeria, the Ireland manager now prepares to lead his side to Sofia for a pivotal qualifier at one of the trickiest times of the season against a team which will be effectively fighting for its World Cup life.

And Trapattoni admits that he has had to give special consideration to the timing of Saturday’s Group 8 game against Bulgaria.

“There are two moments, that are difficult times for a national team,” he says. “The first moment is at the start of the season when many players are not in condition, not fit. The second is at the end of the season when many players are on holiday (in their heads) or not interested. That is psychologically a bad moment.

“Like Stephen Hunt, I saw him after playing the season for Reading and he looked tired. It is important that a coach understands the players, their performance, and thinks about the week ahead.”

Hence Hunt’s cameo in the 1-1 draw with Nigeria at Craven Cottage on Friday evening, a game in which Trapattoni ran the rule over a clutch of newcomers.

Of particular interest, in the absence again of Steve Finnan for the match in Sofia, was the performance of debutant Kevin Foley. However, judging by the manager’s analysis of his display, the highly-rated Wolves full back is not about to be sent straight into competitive battle next week.

“I have seen him play better and sometimes he was nervous,” says Trapattoni. “I know him, he likes to look up, like Finnan, but this time he passed the ball back. But that’s normal, in a game like this (his debut).”

Deciding who he will play at right full in Sofia is an especially big call for Trapattoni, not least because Man City’s left-sided Bulgarian Martin Petrov is back to full sharpness.

Paul McShane has been first-choice right back but, after swapping his and John O’Shea’s positions in the course of the game against Italy in Bari, the manager hints that he might now consider starting the Manchester United man at right-back in Sofia. “What do you think?” he smiles. “Maybe.”

It’s never an easy matter reading between the Italian’s sometimes indecipherable lines but, as he weighs up his options, it seems he hasn’t ruled out moving McShane to centre-half alongside Richard Dunne or even giving a competitive debut to Sean St Ledger who performed well on Friday.

If Caleb Folan recovers from a knee injury, he is expected to partner Robbie Keane upfront in the absence of Kevin Doyle, with the rest of the side the one we’ve come to expect in this qualifying campaign.

With Trapattoni acknowledging that Saturday’s game represents Bulgaria’s last chance to stake a serious claim to a qualifying place, the consensus view is that a draw would effectively rule them out of the running and make the Irish odds-on favourites to secure a play-off berth at least.

But while Damien Duff sees the value of a point in Sofia, he thinks Ireland should still be aiming higher.

“We just can’t lose, so a draw wouldn’t be a bad result,” he says. “But we’re going there to win the game. We’re only two points behind Italy and we’ve got them to come at Croke.

“So we’re still looking to win the group.”

After a couple of days off since Friday, the Irish squad will reconvene at Arsenal’s training ground tomorrow before flying out to Sofia from Luton on Thursday.

Meantime, Giovanni Trapattoni – who signed a two-year deal last May – insists that he is not distracted from the task head by any concerns about negotiating the terms of a new contract with the FAI.

“At the moment it’s not a problem,” he insists. “We have to qualify, we have to try to qualify. For me it’s not a question of when. When the FAI decide, that’s fine.”

However, the manager did note that he is entitled to keep his options open in terms of other expressions of interest.

“In the contract it is not forbidden for people to call and ask you, ‘oh, what do you do after November or after April,” he says. “We can speak, it’s no problem, because all there is a contract. What about you, maybe you change newspaper? So maybe I think about it but it is not at the moment important.

“What is important is to qualify – after that, if the FAI and the Irish people are happy with our work, then I have said that I am happy to be here.”