LIAM SCALES SHOULD be at the centre of Ireland’s plans if they are to persist with a five at the back formation for tomorrow’s clash against Greece, according to Shane Keegan on the latest episode of the Football Family, the podcast for subscribers to The 42.

Keegan asked: “Has Heimir Hallgrímsson, John O’Shea or anybody given any reasoning behind Liam Scales not starting the England game?”

He added: “If you’re playing three at the back then the left-sided centre-half has to be left-footed!

“If you’re going to play proper coherent football then the left-sided one needs to be comfortable using their left foot. Without that you’re on the back foot instantly. 

“Anytime as a manager that I would talk about playing an opposition team, you say: ‘Look we probably can’t press them man-for-man all over the field, so somebody on the pitch is going to have to be the player with a little bit of extra time on the ball’. 

“You’re hoping that if the opposition are playing with two centre-backs that they’re both right-footed. That’s an equation that you come across quite often. Then you think: ‘Happy days, we can leave the left-sided centre-half as his passing selections will be an awful lot less’. So, it’s a massive help if your own centre-back in a back four or back five is left-footed. 

“We’re not stuck for a left-footed player to play in that role at the moment. Liam Scales is flying it. Ok you can argue the merits of the level that he’s playing at, but he had just come out of the Rangers game where he had played extremely well.

“What could possibly suggest from what Liam Scales is doing at the moment that he wasn’t good enough to be in that starting 11 vs England?

“If you have a left-footed option and don’t want to play him, you need to have a serious reason not to.

“As an outside player in a back three, is Liam Scales not a better defender than Seamus Coleman? Obviously, Seamus is a better option as a full back, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around that one.”

The 42’s David Sneyd added: “Maybe Ireland should stick with similar personnel against Greece but mix it up a little bit in terms of the formation and where they’re positioned.” 

“Just because we’ve loads of quality centre-backs in the squad doesn’t mean that we should be playing this system. It suits so few of our players that it’s hard to expect a win against Greece,” Gavin Cooney of The 42 said. 

“I wouldn’t give us much of a hope at all. I think a 0-0 draw would be a sign of progress providing it’s a 0-0 where Greece don’t really look like scoring rather than one where Kelleher has to make save after save,” Keegan said.

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