Wes left in limbo by Trap’s 4-4-2

Some expected game time against Georgia tomorrow would be welcome but still, you would have to think, hardly ample compensation for remaining glued to the bench at Wembley.

Such was Wes Hoolahan’s fate on Wednesday night, adding to the baleful narrative of an underused talent which has made the Norwich man the cause célèbre du jour for critics of Giovanni Trapattoni’s tactics.

But if Hoolahan shares the frustration of many fans, then he’s obviously in no position to shout it from the rooftops, so he opts instead to make his case in a low-key and diplomatic way.

“To go to Wembley and get a 1-1 draw was fantastic,” he says. “Of course you’d like to get on the pitch and show what you can do, the same as everyone in the squad, but that’s just the way it is.”

The way it is, is that Trapattoni doesn’t seem to see the Dubliner fitting into his default 4-4-2 setting, indicating instead that 4-5-1 would be a system better designed to get the best out of his creative talent. As it happens, the man himself doesn’t disagree.

“It’s up to the manager to pick the formation with Ireland,” he says. “At Norwich I generally play in the hole, behind the striker. When we play against the likes of Manchester City and Manchester United we play what’s more or less a 4-5-1, so I get to roam around and get on the ball as much as I can, but also help out the lads defensively when we don’t have the ball.

“But it is different with Ireland as we generally play 4-4-2. But if the manager did play a 4-5-1 with me in the hole I think I’d do well. I have been playing well in the Premier League for the last two years so people know what I can do. I think I can add something to the team if I come in. I like getting in the box, scoring goals, creating goals, that’s how I see my job.”

With only four caps to his name, Hoolahan is also happy to take any international chance that comes his way — even if that means missing his mate Anthony Pilkington’s wedding in England today.

“I think I am the only Norwich player not at the wedding,” he says. “I am disappointed to miss that but it was important for me to be here and show up for my country. I don’t get many comments from people around town when I am back home in Dublin about whether I should be in the Ireland team or not, I just keep my head down. You get so many knock-backs but you just keep going.”

Like former Shels man Hoolahan, Damien Delaney is another ex-League of Ireland player who has reached the top in England, the former Cork City man now looking forward to a season in the Premier League — 11 years after he was last there with Leicester — following Crystal Palace’s Championship play-off win against Watford last Monday.

Delaney’s route was more circuitous, however, taking in a clutch of clubs and a number of injury setbacks, by far the most serious of which was a type of clotting which, had it not been treated promptly, could have seen him lose the use of a leg.

“Yeah, it was the extreme of the risks involved,” he recalls. “There was a strong possibility they would have to remove part of my thigh muscle. Since then I’ve had letters off people who have had a similar injury and it wasn’t diagnosed quickly enough. It’s called compartment syndrome but the physios at Ipswich were brilliant for me. They called it within 20 minutes and had it operated on within the hour. Some of the people who wrote to me, they were sitting in A&E for a few hours and the blood supply gets cut off to the muscle and then it dies basically.”

But what he calls his “long road back” has now brought him to a happy place, with the glory of that promotion triumph in which he played a huge part as a highly regarded centre-half. And the very next day he was linking up with the Irish players at their Luton hotel, leaving precisely no time for celebrations.

“I went back to the hotel in central London after the game where there was a party, and at about 11.30 I got a Tube home,” he laughs. “And I was a right sight going through London with my suitcase and my bag of boots. And then up the next day and off for breakfast near where I live with my family who were all over for the game. Then I went to Luton and then back to Wembley for a cool-down!

“But I’ve always wanted to play for my country. So when I got the text [from the FAI] saying ‘3 o’clock on Tuesday’, I didn’t even hesitate. If I can stake a claim and do reasonably well then you never know for the future. I know there’s a lot of defenders here but, either way, I’m happy. Like I say, any day you can get out and train is a good day.”