Trap: It’s not time for change

Worst ever.

Not the sort of phrase that should be bandied about lightly and yet the statistics are irrefutable. Never before has a Republic of Ireland team suffered such a loss on home soil, and you have to scroll all the way back to Linz in 1971 to when Austria hammered the Irish 6-0 to find a comparable disaster in a competitive fixture.

As competitive embarrassments go, it wasn’t quite the nadir. Back in 1961, another Irish team conceded seven and scored just the one against Czechoslovakia in Prague in another World Cup qualifier — but how depressing that such days are even being revisited.

Facing another barrage, this time from the press, Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni started off by admitting that there was “no excuse” for the Irish performance, he disagreed with the assertion that it was time for change.

“No, I don’t think so,” he explained in his habitually halting English. “We will see the other results when there are players not injured. After the Euro we won away in Kazakhstan. That wasn’t easy.”

He added: “We have to be more aggressive and more confident. Usually we have more of a reaction. We played under our performance. In the past we have been more aggressive and we have played with more determination.”

Dietmar Hamann said after the game last night that the Faroe Islands had shown more fight against the Germans than his Irish team but again the manager was quick to come to his own defence.

“We scored the goals in the last minutes in Kazakhstan. Our spirit is important. Do not forget Kazakhstan. I don’t look to the excuse about the missing players — the Richard Dunne, the Robbie Keane, the Whelan. We look at all the players.”

Strip everything down and there is no escaping the fact that Trapattoni’s tenure is unravelling at the seams. Dispiriting though the European Championship was, it would have been possible to compartmentalise it and move on had Ireland hit the ground running to this campaign. What Kazakhstan and last night tell us is that Poland was no speedbump. Either the players have stopped listening or Trapattoni simply isn’t communicating his wishes effectively enough. Either way, the buck stops with him.

“Usually there is a reaction,” he said when asked how the players could raise themselves for Tuesday’s visit to the Faroe Islands.

For Joachim Low, this was as emphatic a full stop as he could have possibly wished for at the end of a week which began with his captain Bastian Schweinsteiger questioning the team spirit of the national team and yet further grumbles about the continuing lack of silverware after three major tournaments in charge.

“I have to hand it to my critics that maybe we hadn’t quite reached the level we were aiming at in previous matches,” said Low, “but during the week it became evident to me that my players were hitting their rhythm and the criticism never got to our players.

“We didn’t let it bother us and the Sweden game will be very different for us next week. The Swedes are well capable of creating opportunities and they do not just play the long ball like the Irish. If we win it will be a brilliant finish to 2012 for us.”