Givens praises young Green Army

Don Givens has been impressed with his side of late. Speaking earlier today, the 59 year old was clearly still delighted with the ‘young boys in green’ who defeated Spain by two goals to one at the RSC last Friday night. “It was great, we had a good performance and any time we managed to beat one of the top nations is very satisfactory, especially for the lads. As a follow on from the Germany game it was a very good performance and it was a great psychological boost for them,” he said.

The player's work rate has been impressive recently and the former QPR striker believes it is down to the strong mentality within the squad, saying: “I’ve said all along that this is a good bunch of players. Mentally they’re a strong group and there’s nobody with any ego in the squad at all. There’s nobody trying to be the star man and it works great. They work together and they’ve all got opinions as well. It hasn’t always been that way with past under-21 groups”.

Defensively, the Irish were very strong at the RSC last Friday and while Givens believes this is very important, he won’t be adapting to a Trappatoni style of play against Turkey tomorrow night. “When you look at the first half against Germany, we played quite well but could have conceded three on the break in the first half because we were a bit wide open. In the second half we closed that up and against Spain we were never really cut open. Going forward we’ve always got a chance, I feel we’ve always got a chance from dead ball situations as well.”

Despite the good form, it will still be an extremely difficult task for the Irish to qualify for the 2011 European Championships which will be held in Denmark, mainly down to a system which irks Givens. “There are 57 places and only seven spots. You have to top the group and then play against another group winner, where you go into a play-off home and away. So we’ll end up with seven to go to Denmark, plus Denmark themselves.

“I think they are making in roads and trying to change it to a sixteen team final. In all honesty, this would give countries like us more hope. At the moment it’s nearly always the same six countries out of eight. We’re in a group that hasn’t got any of the big boys in but the fact that Turkey are number one seed means they have to be doing something right,” added Givens, who is now approaching ten years as the under-21 boss.

When questioned on where this group of players ranks from his time as manager of the side Givens believes it is hard to say but as whole, the group are excellent. “There might not be as much individual talent in this group but as a core they’re great to work with. If everybody is fit after this one, it’s a job to pick eighteen. When I pick six defenders for the squad, somebody is going to be left disappointed and upset; the same goes across the middle.

“It might well end up that we’ll probably have a decent run in qualification but not push too many up into the senior squad in the next two years. With the exception of Eddie (Nolan), I don’t think that at the moment there are many ready to make the step up,” he said.

After Eamon Dunphy heavily criticised Givens in the national media at the weekend, he refused to respond directly but still had some strong words to say about Dunphy himself.

“I wouldn’t respond to any criticism from Eamon Dunphy. I would respond to criticism from what I call proper football people but not from him. For instance, if John Giles had done it, I’d have had a bit more respect towards it but not to that other clown who says things to be controversial. It doesn’t upset me at all but might have if it was somebody like Gilesy.”