Eamon Dunphy blasts 'amateur & arrogant' Trappatoni

Thursday, 1 March 2012 13:24 http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2012/0301/trapattoni.html


RTÉ soccer pundit Eamon Dunphy has labelled the Republic of Ireland's performance in the 1-1 friendly draw with the Czech Republic as "embarrassing", and blasted Giovanni Trapattoni as "amateurish and arrogant".

The outspoken former international, speaking to Darragh Maloney on Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1, also stated that if the manager does not change his approach Ireland will be "humiliated" at this summer's European Championships.

"It was a very disappointing performance", Dunphy claimed. "We were completely outplayed by a pretty ordinary Czech side who struggled to qualify (for Euro 2012).

"It was embarrassing at times the amount of possession they had. They looked like Barcelona. It was a badly set-up Irish team and a bit of a shambles."

"If we play like that in the championships we will be humiliated and embarrassed."

Dunphy also castigated Trapattoni's treatment of James McClean. "James McClean is a fantastic kid and he was treated very badly by Giovanni Trapattoni. In my view he should have been given 90 minutes, or at least 45 minutes. To give him 11 minutes at the end was insulting.

"Obviously the kid was thrilled but [how he was treated] was not professional."

Dunphy continued by claiming that Trapattoni's "amateurish" approach to the game is not liked by the majority of Irish footballing people, and that the veteran Italian has no respect for the quality of the Irish players.

"There is an amateurish and almost arrogant approach by Trapattoni that is depressing. I think [this opinion[ is shared by nearly everyone. I watched Sky's coverage of the game and Ray Houghton was baffled by what he was watching as well."

"It was baffling both tactically and in terms of personnel. Putting Paul Green and Stephen Hunt on before McClean and James McCarthy was stupid and there is no reason to it.

"This coach thinks he knows more about football than we do but he doesn't. He is making grotesque mistakes. He was fortunate to qualify, and he has very little support amongst the football community in this country now."

"He is arrogant because he thinks his system, which has been shown up repeatedly, and again by the Czech Republic, is the key to our success. He does not respect our players. He thinks he is managing Mongolia, or that we are some third-world footballing nation.

"We have some outstanding players and we should be able, and confident enough, to go out and play good football, as we tend to do when we need to get a goal."

"The goal we got against the Czechs was an outstanding strike by Simon Cox, and Keith Andrews did very well to close down his opponent and win the ball.

"We should have been playing like that from the start of the match, and we should always be playing like that. We should be on the front foot, looking to do the best we can and showing our players up in the best light."

"The way (Trapattoni) has the team playing is a disgrace and it is wrong. It is not popular to say this because he managed to qualify for Euro 2012, but if we go to the championship we need, in the interest of the game in this country and the players, to do things differently to the way they are being done right now."