Familiar faces help King add depth to Trap bag of tricks

It was a bit like doing the time-warp at Gannon Park yesterday, as Ireland’s training base in Malahide played host to some footballers we haven’t seen in this neck of the woods in quite sometime — Andy Reid,Anthony Stokes,Darron Gibsonand Kevin Doyle.

If you confined your gaze to those few, you could nearly convince yourself the Giovanni Trapattoni era had all been a dream.Open up you rears and the soundtrack was significantly different too, Noel King repeatedly intervening in the training game to bring play to a halt and call the shots. “I wouldn’t have been aware of that, genuinely,” the caretaker manager remarked afterwards. King admitted he was not yet clear about his starting 11 for Cologne on Friday, though he said he does have an idea of the tactical approach his team will adopt. The rest of this, his first week as senior Ireland coach, will decide everything — but, unlike Trapattoni, he won’t be naming his side 24 hours before the game. (Beyond, that is, the bombshell dropped yesterday when he revealed that if Robbie Keane plays, he will be captain).

“It’s not about me or where I’m coming from, it’s about where the group is coming from and what the group is trying to achieve,” said King of the daunting challenge ahead. “I think the group will be trying to get a victory against Germany — as audacious as that sounds, but there is no point in approaching it a different way.

“I haven’t looked at any video of Kazakhstan, we have been looking at Germany, Germany, Germany.”

King proffered a neat line in self-deprecation when asked about the formidable strength in depth of the German squad which Joachim Low unveiled at the end of last week.

“I only saw them on Fifa Soccer,” he laughed. “My young fella plays it and he frightened me more than anything, he gave me a tally of their worth. Yeah, it’s a massive challenge. But I’m looking forward to it. I’ve talked with most of you about football — who do you think is better, who should be in, who should be out. I have the reins now for two games [laughs]. But I can’t get fulfilled until the two games are over. Can’t. There’s too much at stake.”

King insisted he wasn’t in the least put out by FAI chief executive John Delaney eliminating him from the running for the permanent post.

“I’m a realist,” he said. “And I’m delighted to have this opportunity. But as I said, you can’t be happy if you don’t produce performances and results.”

King, no fan of 4-4-2, denied he was committed to 4-3-3 for the game. Previously he had mentioned the possibility of going 4-2-3-1.

“I have used lots of systems,” he said yesterday, before suggesting with a grin that this time his team’s tactical approach would be “a swarm”. Surrendering to laughter again, he added: “It will be innovative — when we are finished in Cologne the world will change in football!”

But, behind all the jokes and the touch of nervousness which he admitted to feeling before taking his first training session, there can be no mistaking the fact King is fully focused on maximising the Irish effort in Cologne.

The past, as they say, is a different country.

“I don’t know how it was before and how they adapted,” he said of the returning exiles. “It’s about them coming in with us. People are happy, people are doing their thing about the place. I think we have a response from the group. We will know more over the next few days but I think we are well set up.”

So it’s all change in Camp Ireland — even if Noel King has inherited Giovanni Trapattoni’s old kit bag.