Dunne is one man we can’t do without

AT best, Mick McCarthy was trying some individual motivation.

At worst, he was giving an insight into the personal feud that would fuel Saipan. But, in the middle of the 2002 World Cup qualifiers, the manager made quite a statement.

“When Roy is absent, we don’t miss him that much because of Matt [Holland]”

It was, of course, an exaggeration. But even if Ireland eventually buckled without Keane in the long-term after the 2002 World Cup, McCarthy was proven mostly right in the short-term. Holland and Mark Kinsella just about held the midfield together for a rousing trip to the second round.

And here’s the thing: stick Richard Dunne in for Keane in McCarthy’s statement and it’s difficult to think of an equivalent serviceable pro to replace him.

Over the course of Ireland’s single successful campaign since 2002, an intriguing question has arisen that at least deserves investigation.

Is Dunne the most important player to any Irish team after Keane? Indeed, given the quality available, is he even more important to the current team than Keane was to the 2002 vintage?

First off, let’s get one thing straight. We would never argue that Dunne is anywhere near Keane’s class as a player. Keane wasn’t just one of the finest midfield players of his era, he was one of the finest midfield players of all time.

And it’s difficult to think of too many examples from football history of players who enforced their individual will on as many matches as Keane did in the 2002 qualifiers.

Amid all of the potential rights and wrongs of Saipan, one argument has often been overlooked: Ireland would possibly have got there without McCarthy but there’s no way they would have got there without Keane.

Clearly, Dunne is nowhere near that class. But he also fulfils a very different role to the Cork man.

At that point, the Manchester United midfielder was the explosive presence in a more expansive team. Beyond spirit and cohesion, the 2002 team had no obvious outstanding qualities.

They were neither cast-iron in defence nor exhilarating in attack. But, added up, the team performed well as a unit — with Keane usually providing the glue.

You can’t say the same about the current side.

All of their success has been built on one very clear and visible foundation: the defence. Ireland’s astounding sequence of clean sheets has been the key to coming through the qualifying group.

ON that issue, Oliver Kahn once told a revelatory story about his time under Giovanni Trapattoni with Bayern Munich.

The Italian, apparently, would go apoplectic over 2-2 draws. But, despite the fact the point gleaned was the exact same, he was always satisfied with a 0-0.

As one of the men who set the stereotype for conservative Italian managers, Trapattoni’s game isn’t about going out and beating teams but in setting up all the foundations, stopping the opposition and then hoping to stun them.

And at the very centre of all of this in the Irish team is Dunne. Indeed, for a manager who notoriously prizes the system above any individual, it is interesting just how much Trapattoni’s system is dependent on one player. Were it not for Dunne, the entire foundation of Trapattoni’s success would have a lot more holes.

Just consider his effect.

For a start, in a more muted version of what Keane used to do, Dunne exhorts better performances from the players around him.

Sean St Ledger, for example, looks twice the centre-half alongside the Aston Villa leader. Although St Ledger can still occasionally be struck by nervousness, Dunne bolsters him enough so that the Leicester defender is free to put in the Kevin Moran-esque tackles that have become so important to this defence.

And, in the famous performance in Moscow, it was inspiring to see Keith Andrews follow Dunne’s lead with the kind of feral tackles that forced an unlikely point.

And that’s the other influential part of Dunne’s game. When everything is collapsing around him — as happened in Moscow — he is now experienced enough, intelligent enough and determined enough to cover the cracks. Indeed, to strengthen the argument, it’s no exaggeration to say that Dunne’s display against Russia was the most impressive and important individual performance by any Irish player since Keane’s against Holland in 2001. And the key is that it wasn’t a one-off. Overall, Dunne calms and strengthens the Irish defence. He leads by both instruction and example, setting the tone with emphatic challenges.

Given the lack of viable replacements, he is not far off indispensable.

Ireland’s success is almost based on defence and that defence is almost entirely based on Dunne. Overall though, that’s probably the key difference between himself and Keane.

The midfielder used his world-class drive to dominate every area of the pitch and actually change the course of games.

Dunne uses his stature to keep things steady. As such, he’ll never be as influential as Keane. But, in the history of the Irish team and particularly the system-led successes of the Charlton and Trapattoni eras, hardly anyone else has been as important as Dunne.