Prickly Trapattoni considering rethink

Giovanni Trapattoni opened a door and inadvertently stumbled into Hungarian manager Sandor Egervari’s post-match press conference in the Ferenc Puskas stadium last night, the Irish manager’s apology and generous smile — which was graciously accepted by Egervari — suggesting the Italian was in a good mood.

But his good mood quickly disappeared as another communications breakdown raised the temperature and left Irish journalists baffled as to his intentions against Croatia next Sunday. At issue was the fact that Trapattoni had clearly been perturbed by how Ireland were nearly put to the sword by a young Hungarian side in the Ferenc Puskas stadium. And now he was talking about having to make changes for the Euros, at least in the way Ireland would play, if not in terms of personnel.

The manager confirmed that “thank God” all his players were fit after the game but he had been worried by what he saw as the Hungarians at times threatened to tear the Irish apart without making them pay the price. Now, it appears that he may ask one of his strikers to drop back to make it a five-man midfield for during at least one of the Euro group games, possibly against Croatia and almost certainly against Spain.

Trapattoni admitted Ireland had dodged a couple of bullets against the young Hungarian team.

“I think we were a little bit lucky because in the first half, Hungary deserved to score two goals,” he said.

“Only our goalkeeper Shay Given saved us. It was difficult for us because of the way Hungary played but I have a system and I can’t change it from one game to the other. When we meet a team with one striker and another playing between the lines, we find it difficult.

“To have the balance, we have to renounce one striker and put another in midfield. I will speak with the team and will show them our difficulty with this because we need to take a decision either to sacrifice a striker or ask one to drop back — like Andy Keogh did for us against Italy in Liege — because maybe Croatia and Spain can play like this.

“I have to review this game. The next game is not until next Sunday. It is my duty to change if I have to. We have to decide. I have to speak with the team and say why this happened. I used this game to understand how the players play.

“We could have lost two or three nil. Now I must show the team why we had difficulties.. This evening has been a very good test.”

For his part, Hungarian manager Sandor Egervari said: “We had a lot of chances, unfortunately we couldn’t make the most of them.”

He then took the opportunity to wish Ireland and their “renowned coach” all the best at the Euros.

But, clearly, after last night, Trapattoni feels there’s a lot still of work to be done before a ball is kicked next week.