OUTSPOKEN RTÉ FOOTBALL pundit Eamon Dunphy has launched a fresh broadside against Ireland national team manager Giovanni Trapattoni.
Simon Cox scored a late equaliser to earn a 1-1 draw with the Czech Republic at Lansdowne Rd last night.
While Trap is charged with preparing the boys in Green for this summer’s European Championships, the likes of James McCarthy and Seamus Coleman were left as unused substitutes while in-form Sunderland winger James McClean was afforded little over 10 minutes on his senior debut.
“It was very disappointing performance. We were completely outplayed by a pretty ordinary Czech side who struggled to qualify,” Dunphy told Darragh Maloney on Morning Ireland earlier. “It was embarrassing at times, they looked like Barcelona.
“It was a badly set up team and I would say I watched John Giles and Kenny Cunningham and they articulated very well and demonstrated quite well why this was a bit of a shambles. And if we play like that in the championships we’ll be humiliated and embarrassed.
“[McClean] is a fantastic kid. He was treated very badly by Trapattoni. He should have been given 90 mins in my view and John Giles I know shares that view. He should have at least have been given 45 minutes. To give him 11 minutes at the end was insulting, obviously the kid was thrilled but it wasn’t professional.”
This is not the first time that Dunphy has railed against the Italian’s conservative approach of course, but the former Millwall midfielder now insists that Trapattoni has no respect for the Irish players and his tactics will lead to disaster in Poland.
“There’s an amateurishness and an almost arrogant approach by this coach which is depressing. I think it’s shared by nearly everybody. I watched Sky’s match commentary and Ray Houghton was baffled as well, both tactically and in terms of the personnel. For example putting Paul Green and Stephen Hunt on before McClean and maybe James McCarhty was stupid and there’s no reason to it,” he said.
Giovanni Trapattoni at his post-game debrief this morning in Dublin. Pic: INPHO/Morgan Treacy
“This coach thinks he knows more about football than we do – he doesn’t. He’s making grotesque mistakes, he was fortunate to qualify and he has very little support among the football community in this county now. He’s arrogant because he thinks his system which has been shown up repeatedly, and again last night against the Czech Republic, is the key to our success.
“He doesn’t respect our players. He thinks he’s coaching Outer Mongolia or we’re some Third World football nation. We have some outstanding players and we should be able and confident enough to go out and play some good football as we tend to do when we need to get a goal. The way he has the team playing is a disgrace, it’s wrong, and it’s not popular to say it because he got us qualified but if we go to the championships it’s important in the interests of the game in this country and the players we need to do things differently to the way they’re being done now,” he added.
What do you think? Do you agree with Dunphy’s points?
