Trap to wait on Brady selection

Not for the first time, confusion was rife at Giovanni Trapattoni’s pre-match press conference at the Friends Arena this afternoon with the Italian naming Robbie Brady in his side to take on Sweden tomorrow night, before placing an asterisk next to the Hull City midfielder’s name because of his ‘psychology’.

The Italian was waiting until after tonight’s training session, where he would make sure the wide man is in the right frame of mind ahead of the crucial must-not-lose qualifier, before deciding if he would stick with him or not.

Trap said: “I spoke with him and said ‘are you sure you’re ok?’ He said yes I am. I want to see his commitment. I liked him against Poland. I told him ‘you must repeat this game’, he promised to me he would.

“This match will be very important for our qualification. It will be very important. There is only one point between us and Sweden. We can achieve qualification but, as always, it is important to achieve the result against strong teams.”

As expected, Paul Green will start in the heart of midfield alongside Glenn Whelan, with the Leeds man handed the tricky task of tracking Swedish skipper Zlatan Ibrahimovic when the PSG attacker drops deep.

That means James McCarthy misses out instead. Trapattoni took a bizarre turn at the end of the pre-match briefing when describing the reasons behind leaving McCarthy out. The manager said that the Wigan man is a ‘good player’ but is ‘not creative’, indicating that Green’s workhorse ethic would be better to deal with the enigmatic figure of Ibrahimovic.

Meanwhile, captain Robbie Keane, who grimaced slightly when Trapattoni made those comments, insisted Ireland will not be spending the evening soaking up pressure against the hosts.

“We’re not here to sit back and leave the Swedes run all over us. I don’t think there’s much between the two teams and I think there’s a respect there. Their home fans will expect them to get a result and we’re here to get a result ourselves. We’ll roll up our sleeves and try.”

As for his role up front alongside Shane Long, the country’s all-time scorer will drop deep, leaving Long up front on his own when Ireland are not in possession.

“Obviously I think when you’re playing away from home against a strong team my role changes a small bit, dropping in and becoming that extra midfield player, playing in the hole to stop their midfielders from playing. It’ll be certainly different from a straight 442, Shane will play a lot higher up with me underneath him. It’s something I’ve obviously done for a long time and it’s something I’m very familiar with.”

David Forde will make his first competitive start for Ireland, while Ciaran Clark retains his place alongside Shane Long at centre-half ahead of fit-again Sean St Ledger. Seamus Coleman and Marc Wilson complete the back four.

James McClean, meanwhile, will definitely occupy one of the flanks, but if for some reason the manager does a u-turn on Brady, Andy Keogh will start on the opposite wing.

Ireland (v Sweden): Forde; Coleman, O’Shea, Clark, Wilson; Brady (tbc), Green, Whelan, McClean; Long, Keane.