O’Neill puts the emphasis on attack

The public utterances of Giovanni Trapattoni might have had us all scratching our heads from time to time but there was always at least one moment of piercing clarity to his eve of match press conferences, with the Italian happy to name his team a good 24 hours before kick-off.

Martin O’Neill, like many other managers, prefers to keep his cards much closer to his chest — even to the stage yesterday where he declined to confirm that John O’Shea would start against Serbia tonight, despite the Sunderland man sitting right beside him at the top table in the traditional captain’s role, that seat having been left vacant by the absence of Robbie Keane.

But, assuming O’Neill intends to start with something close to his best available 11 against what will be testing opposition, it’s hardly too much of a gamble to forecast that, alongside O’Shea, lining up for the anthem will be David Forde, Seamus Coleman, Marc Wilson, James McCarthy, Glenn Whelan, Aiden McGeady and Shane Long. That being so, three positions will remain in the balance. If, as has been the case in O’Neill’s first two games as manager, Stoke’s Wilson is deployed at centre-half again, then Stephen Ward looks the obvious candidate to fill the left-back berth.

On the flank opposite McGeady, the manager could select Jon Walters from the off but, in light of his stated belief that the onus is on Ireland to attack, James McClean may get the nod there.

That would leave the most interesting position still vacant — who to play up front with Long. My guess is that we could see Wes Hoolahan in the number 10 role for which he is so well suited, playing off the Hull striker.

But an alternative does present itself with the call-up to the squad after a long absence of Ipswich Town’s Daryl Murphy, whose presence could herald a return to something at least approximating the old Irish strategy of the ‘big guy, little guy’ double act at the business end of the pitch — an approach which, as the manager acknowledged when I posed the question yesterday, has also been a feature of his club sides over the years.

“At club level I’ve been, let me put it this way, blessed with some centre-forwards,” he reflected.

“For instance, at Leicester City young Emile Heskey who started off left wing when I was at the club first of all, became a centre-forward and ended up signing for Liverpool for a lot of money. But he did fine for us.”

O’Neill puts focus on attack

“When I went to Celtic, Mark Viduka was leaving the football club so, to help Henrik Larsson, out we had a similar type of player in Chris Sutton. He was an excellent player.

“But [with Ireland] we have what we have. In other words, if you thought that’s what you wanted to do [at club level] you could maybe get some player in the transfer market. Here, we don’t have that facility.

“If Shane Long comes through in the manner in which he is capable of doing, that would be terrific. Robbie won’t be around forever but you never know [laughter]. He’s still as excited as ever, wants to play. He said himself, he feels like a new man with the heel injuries having cleared up.

“So the answer is I’ll wait and see. We want to try and score some goals and, if the manner of scoring goals is different to what we’ve been used to here at international level, so be it. But it’s not an obsession.”

At one point yesterday, O’Neill talked about allowing his players “freedom of expression — to a certain degree”. Inevitably, it was the first part of that declaration which was seized on by the assembled media, prompting O’Neill to stress the second.

“They’re easy words for me to use until Serbia keep the ball for 10 minutes and then you’re asking where is this freedom of expression,” he said. “Easy words but it’s harder to do these things. We have to earn the right to express ourselves.”

O’Neill was also at pains to emphasise he and Roy Keane are still only coming to grips with shaping the Irish team, their time with the players on this one-off friendly occasion strictly limited. Serbia tonight at the Aviva, therefore, will represent just one more step rather than a great leap forward.

“Our approach to the game is relatively simple,” said O’Neill. “We’re at home, and we want to try to attack Serbia, try and give fans something to cheer about and eventually try to win the game. As for style and pattern of play, hopefully that will evolve.”