IRELAND’S RECORD GOALSCORER Robbie Keane yesterday revealed he is likely to be a spoiler rather than a striker when Ireland face Croatia in their opening Euro 2012 Group C game on Sunday.
Earlier this week manager Giovanni Trapattoni, in his jumbled English, had given the impression the team’s strict 4-4-2 could be changed ahead of the game against Slaven Bilic’s side in Poznan, having watched his side struggle to a scoreless draw against Hungary on Monday.
But, having reviewed the match video again, the Italian suggested such drastic action would not be required, and after yesterday’s training session in Gdynia, Keane also insisted there was little chance of such a volte face by the 73-year-old.
“He has not really spoken about it,” the 31-year-old Ireland skipper confirmed. ”He’s had the same system since he came in, so if anything changes it would be a minor thing.
“As players you’re always working hard, but for myself in this game, I might have to drop deeper on to the (opposition) holding midfielder and not let him dictate the game.
“It’s more things like that, than say a formation change. We’re not going to just go to a 4-3-3 when we haven’t done it for a long time.”
Every member reported for training, with training drills and two-touch games taking place at a higher intensity than Tuesday’s public training session. Wednesday’s surprise day off may have put a spring in the players’ step, with John O’Shea and Glenn Whelan returning to full training, having played little part on Tuesday.
Shay Given — who like Keane and Damien Duff is a survivor from the last major finals the Irish appeared at the 2002 World Cup — took part in a one-on-one session with goalkeeping coach Alan Kelly, at the opposite end of the pitch to the rest of the team, and played no part in the training game.
Both Ireland and Croatia have spoken of the game as being the most important of the group, and with Italy and Spain favourites to progress from Group C, defeat in the opening clash would be a major blow to either side.
The two teams played out a scoreless draw in Dublin last August, so there is little to surprise either side ahead of Sunday’s rematch.
“Yes, we played against them not long ago, so we know the players they have in the squad,” Keane said.
“But I’m sure the manager and backroom staff will have clips of them and we’ll sit down this week and look at certain clips of them in action.
“In any competition you want to start off as well as you can, and get points on the board. We know we’re in a group where anybody can beat anybody so every point is crucial.
“We’ve not set ourselves a target, we’ll take each game as it comes, but we’re focused on Sunday’s game now – and hopefully after that we’ll be talking about having three points in the bag.”