Will we see three at the back again?
IT WAS in a Boston bar 22 years ago where Mick McCarthy championed a tactical revolution for the Republic of Ireland. As he shunted beer bottles around a table, his enthusiasm for a 3-5-2 formation was unequivocal.
To his credit, he gave the system a try, but he hadn’t fully thought it through and within nine months, it had been binned.
It wasn’t the formation that was flawed, rather the players he’d picked to play as his three centrebacks were not suited for the demands of job.
Roy Keane was bizarrely stationed at the centre of the threeman defence at home to Iceland, while the call to play Denis Irwin and Steve Staunton either side of Gary Breen in a back three in Macedonia backfired.
After that 3-2 loss in Skopje, McCarthy reverted to a flat back four which has been the staple for every Irish manager since.
That could change tomorrow as Martin O’Neill, in his 30th competitive game in charge, is openly courting with the 3-5-2 system for the Nations League visit of Denmark.
Twice this year, it has been rolled out for experiment, in Turkey and in Poland, to mixed reviews, but 3-5-2 has never been deployed in such a high stakes game as this. A calculated risk, or akin to a last throw of the dice? Take your pick.
O’Neill was not afraid to dabble with 3-5-2 in his club career, but to try it with Ireland after five years at the helm could be regarded as a panic measure.
Just as there are horses for courses, so there are players for systems. O’Neill may feel the rebuild he is overseeing is best suited to three at the back, and wing-backs.
The most successful teams to have played 3-5-2 deployed a defensive midfielder as part of a three-man defence. Hector Enrique fulfilled this role for Carlos Bilardo’s Argentina in the 1986 World Cup, for instance.
Marcelo Bielsa, another openminded Argentine thinker, has long been a disciple of three defenders, while Pep Guardiola converted Javier Mascherano, a midfielder, into a key defender as part of Barcelona’s 3-5-2.
Having the right players is clearly crucial. In December 2012, then Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert paid for his choice of a three-man defence against Chelsea with an 8-0 defeat.
The advantages of 3-5-2 allows teams to flood midfield with five players, two of whom are auxiliary wingers, while also playing two attackers.
O’Neill is aware of the shortage of goals in his team and, with victory vital tomorrow, is considering a two-pronged attack.
Against the Danes last November, Daryl Murphy was left on his own for both legs of the play-off where Ireland relied, almost exclusively, on set-pieces for any attacking threat.
For 3-5-2 to work, the contribution of the wing-backs is crucial. While Seamus Coleman’s absence is a huge blow, O’Neill has Matt Doherty, Cyrus Christie, Enda Stevens and James McClean, two right-footers and two left-footers respectively, as wing-back candidates. As for the three wise men at the back, it’s vital that the outside centre-backs are alert to any gap left on their flanks by an advancing wing-backs.
They must be able to anticipate danger and leave their central station at a split-second’s notice.
Tall, lumbering, stoppers aren’t always comfortable when dragged away from the edge of the penalty area, especially if the opponents use a midfielder as a false No9.
Under Age Hareide, Denmark play 4-3-3 with a centre-forward and two wide men. If Hareide sticks to his principles, would O’Neill trust his three defenders to mark three attackers?
More likely, O’Neill would ask his wing-backs to drop back, yet such a move could leave Ireland short in midfield if Danes pushed one of their full-backs forward.
Pre-match tactics are fine, but they must come with a clearly defined strategy. How O’Neill prepares his team to implement 3-5-2, should he play the formation, could define this reunion.