Hand to Blame

Ireland's first minute collapse against Holland reflected the side's tactical naively and lack of organisation. For this the manager must be held responsible. The Irish European Championship campaign was not even a minute old before it had begun to ship water. Holland's 37 second goal was not produced by a thunderbolt from on high. Ireland were hoist on the petard of tactical ill-preparation. That opening goal was so obvious and could so easily have been prevented.

The tactical formation of the two sides presents the key. Holland, in contrast to their four man attack of last year, lined up with a formation that included but one recognised front player - Rene Van Der Gijp. The strategy of Dutch manager, Kees Rijvers, was obviously to avoid affording the generous room which had been given to Ireland by the three man defence of last year. This time Ireland's front three of Tony Galvin, Michael Robinson and Frank Stapleton were shepherded throughout by Bennie Wijnsteckers, Michel Van Der Korput and Ron Spelbos. On top of that Holland had two extra defenders in Juup Stevens in the left back position and Johnny Metgod as the sweeper behind the other four.

With his defence securely anchored by these five players, Rijvers further ensured his team's defensive strength by playing four mid fielders in five of the remaining positions. Willie Van Der Kerkhof was given a roaming, largely defensive role whilst Ruud Gullit, Gerrie Vannenburg and Dick Schoenaker would obviously be expected to augment their defensive work with getting forward quickly.

If Holland were to score with this line up, it was obvious that unless Van Der Gijp were superman, that some of the attempted scoring would come from players making runs from midfield. Anyone even vaguely familiar with Dick Schoenaker's style with Ajax knows but too well that he has scored nearly all the goals of his entire foot balling career by coming on such runs from deep.

The first priority for the Irish defence then was to be wary of midfielders coming from deep, particularly Schoenaker. If a manager is to serve any function whatsoever, other than to give interviews, then it is to provide his side with this sort of simple knowledge about the opposition. Someone should have been detailed to watch Schoenaker. If someone was, then that someone forgot his instructions immediately. For as Van Der Gijp knocked his low cross over, Schoenaker was able to steam into space which was contested only belatedly by Gerry Daly. Meanwhile the nominal right back of the side, Mark Lawrenson, who might have been expected to be in the right back position from which Schoenaker scored, was standing stranded on the penalty spot, wondering what was happening.

The pace both of Van Der Gijp down the Irish left and of Schoenaker down the Irish right outfoxed the flat Irish defence. It was a shattering blow from which Ireland really did not recover until the first period of the second half. It was a stumbling start to a European Championship.- The tragedy is that, with only minimal luck, this match represented an away fixture where Ireland could and should have had at least one point.

With a beginning like that Holland found that the resultant pattern of the game suited their containing contentions admirably. Holland were only too willing to drop back into their own half and let Ireland come at them. As Ireland ponderously went about their build up, the Dutch waited, won possession in their own half and then totally changed the tempo of the- game by breaking at speed on the counter attack. Now Ireland's problems really began.

Breaking from their own half, players like Van Der Gijp, Vannenburg, Van Der Kerkhof and Gullit found themselves in acres of space which they were able to exploit with their pace, much to the embarrassment of the unfortunate Micky Martin, who was forced to hack down three of the above four in the opening twenty minutes. Martin is a safe, reliable professional but he cannot, at his age, be expected to match the speed of such as Van Der Gijp.

But Martin was not the only Irish defender in bother. The ploy of playing Lawrenson at right back, presumably in the expectation that since there was no recognised Dutch left winger then there would be space for Lawrenson to move forward, proved ill-advised. Eoin Hand's thinking in this choice, as his thinking in the two previous games (against Holland and France both at home) in which he played Lawrenson out of what both player and manager agree is his best position, was understandable. Unfortunately the move did not work in either of the previous two games and it failed again. At international level, whatever about playing for Liverpool, Lawrenson is clearly a central defender - nothing more and nothing less.

Both Gullit, in the first half, and Rene Van Der Kerkhof, in the second half, proved the point about Lawrenson. It was galling to see such a fine player experience such an uncomfortable match.

Nor did Irish problems stop with Lawrenson. Deprived of obvious target men up front to mark, even such a usually accomplished player as David O'Leary, looked strangely ill at ease. Two aspects of the Dutch attack further complicated the task of the Irish defence. Much of the Dutch attack was on the ground, which in itself will always bother a largely "British" (in football education) side. Even more significantly the Dutch attack was impossible to predict, in that Gullit, Vannenburg, Schoenaker and Willie Van Der Kerkhof were all likely to turn up on either flank, usually at full speed and in plenty of space.

Thus it was that Ireland were frankly lucky to be only one goal down at half time. Only Jim McDonagh's continuing brilliance in the Irish goal kept that score down.

By half time things were indeed going so nicely for Holland, that Metgod was deemed an unnecessary insurance as a sweeper and winger Rene Van Der Kerkhof was brought on to the left wing instead.

Yet with the sort of relentless determination which is the hallmark of this Irish side, they hauled themselves back into the match, particularly in the first twenty minutes of the second half. As Liam Brady gave a remarkable imitation of one man football, Ireland won three corners, three free kicks near the edge of the box and came close to scoring when yet another Brady chip was just a little too far in front of the unmarked O'Leary, who could only barely connect with the ball.

It was at this very moment that Holland exposed the already outlined limitations of Chris Hughton. He, too, throughout the first half seemed unsure as to whether he should get forward or lie back. Van Der Gijp gave him so much bother in the opening quarter of an hour that he fouled the Dutchman four times and was probably lucky not to receive a yellow card. His unease was spectacularly exposed when he mistimed his challenge for a Schoenaker pass to Gullit and allowed the Dutch teenager to tum inside him and have a free shot at goal. Superb finishing from Gullit did the rest. Ireland were sunk without trace.

Obviously the best news of the match, from an Irish viewpoint, apart from Jim McDonagh's goalkeeping, was the performance of Liam Brady. Last year against Holland, he had had a very difficult time against Bennie Wijnsteckers' close marking. This year, Kees Rijvers took the risk of letting Brady go unmarked. Brady flourished in the unaccustomed freedom, which more than any matter of relieved responsibility vis a vis the captaincy explains his outstanding performance.

The difference which close marking can make was clearly underlined by the difficulties which Robinson, Stapleton and Galvin all had. All three were followed everywhere and denied even the remotest look in. It was not until after Holland's second goal that Tony Galvin got in his first cross of Hie night. Until that point, although he had roamed far and wide in search of the ball, he never found space. Against less rigorous marking than that of Wijnsteckers, Galvin will flourish yet at international level. For the meantime he can console himself with the thought that twelve months ago, Brady himself met with exactly the same lack of success against the eminently capable Wijnsteckers.

For Eoin Hand this match represented a particularly unhappy combat. He was right to say afterwards that it is a killer blow for the away side to go a goal down in the first minute. What he did not say was why they went that goal down. Simply, Ireland played a tactically naive game in which they were completely outfoxed and bewildered by the Dutch. For this, Hand must take some of the responsibility.

Prior to this game, Hand had affably made himself available, at length, to the legions of the Dutch sporting press. Correctly, he had made no bones about the fact that he thought Ireland could win this game. His pre-match confidence boosting had one undesirable effect - it irked some of the Dutch players. On the morning after the game, one of the Dutch nationals headlined thus:

"Hand inspires Dutch victory".

The taunt was cruel and rather unfair, but it contained a grain of truth.