Frustrated Trap looks to eliminate bad habits

THE TALK at the end of another international year is of the big picture but, typically, it’s the little details which continue to absorb and animate Giovanni Trapattoni.

A bowl of mints and an energy drink bottle are requisitioned to recreate a situation on the pitch and, next thing, he’s out from behind the top table in a conference room in the Clarion Airport Hotel, miming the actions of a player who has switched off after making a pass.

For the veteran Italian, the point is that it’s the accumulation of the little details which creates that bigger picture, hence his near obsession with the error or oversight or lapse in concentration which can make all the difference between a draw and a win and ultimately shape the outcome of a group table.

“We lost a qualifier against Italy from a throw-in,” he is saying. “The last minute, (Kevin) Kilbane must stay, stay in our box. Before the game against Norway, we showed the players the first goal we conceded to Russia. One player was one metre out. They know that one metre is important.

“On Wednesday, the wall did not jump (for Norway’s first goal). Only two players jumped, the others did not. I said before that in Italy, it’s not that we are smarter, but we pay attention to every little detail and situation. In Italy, a wall jumps one or two metres and maybe the ball is deflected. There are many situations that determine the game. That is an example.”

That such lessons are not always absorbed by his charges clearly frustrates Trapattoni, who also seems to hold the coaching at some English clubs at least partly responsible for bad habits.

“There was another situation with a player where maybe this is normal at his club – I don’t know. But this player has a habit of passing the ball and then turning and wandering away. I said to him ‘if you pass the ball and turn your back, you don’t see the ball again’. I said, ‘when you pass the ball, keep looking, you can go on again and get it back’.”

That these are things Trapattoni feels he can help put right perhaps explains why he is considerably less animated when the talk turns to issues over which he has virtually no control – such as the concerns about the game time the likes of Robbie Keane, Shay Given and Glenn Whelan have been getting at their clubs.

Asked if he’d like to see some Irish players moving in the January transfer window, the manager smiles knowingly.

“I don’t speak about them in this situation, they have agents,” he parries. “Remember last year I spoke about Keane changing at Liverpool? The manager said ‘Oh no, Trapattoni says...’ But, sure, it would be better for us.

“Liam Lawrence asked me before his move to Portsmouth in the Championship, should he go. And I said ‘go and play’. But then again they have family, children and schools to think of. And maybe they are big at their club. In future, for example, Keane may play a few games (for Spurs).

“Shay (Given) too has a strong character and his personality is very important. The players with personality are the champions and the stars and are very, very proud. It is important to have this pride because the manager needs these players. There are those in the selection who say, ‘I stay at home, my son is ill, I stay at home’. I don’t need these players. But not Shay, not Duff, these have fantastic mentalities. I see Shay in training, and he works like a young 20 year old.”

(It’s important to note here that Trapattoni’s mention of a son being ill was intended as a general example of an excuse for not showing up; the manager later clarified that it should not be taken as a reference to Darron Gibson who had to pull out of the Norway squad because his daughter Evie had been hospitalised).

Assessing Ireland’s balance sheet at the end of the year, Trapattoni selects the home defeat by a “superior” Russia and the loss of key players to injury as the big negatives.

He also makes clear, by miming a machine gun attack, that he feels playing one up front against the Russians at home would have seen him blasted by his critics. But, even though Ireland have lost four games out of nine in 2010, he believes the glass remains half-full as international football enters its winter hibernation.

“I think this year was positive because we discover Coleman, Walters, Fahey and Cunningham and know now that Long gives us a real alternative upfront,” he says. “The new players have potential. And the Carling Nations Cup in February will give us a chance to evaluate others.”