Last chance for Trap's plan to pay off

Back in May 2008 when Giovanni Trapattoni was unveiled as the new Republic of Ireland manager the message that he relayed to the assembled media was that qualification for the 2010 World Cup was the target.

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The 70-year-old knew that he was taking over a team lacking in confidence, structure, and quality players, yet he cited the example of Greece in 2004, who defied all expectations to triumph at the European Championships, to suggest what could be achieved.

Fast forward to the present and Ireland are still fighting to seal a place in South Africa. But the doubters have started to step out of the shadows after the defeat to France in the first leg of their play-off last week.

The calls for Trapattoni to abandon his 'strait-jacket tactics' have gathered some volume as several pundits think it is time for an all-out attack at the Stade de France on Wednesday in order to swing the tie back in Ireland's favour.

For the doubters it is bad enough that the manager continues to ignore Sunderland's Andy Reid and didn't go out of his way to convince Manchester City's Stephen Ireland to return to international football, but now his defensive stubbornness has caused ire as the threat of not qualifying has become very real due to Nicolas Anelka's away goal in the first leg.

Despite the criticism aimed at the manager, the mood in the Irish camp is upbeat as they are buoyed by the fact that they have scored six times away from home in the qualifiers in this campaign and feel that they can score in Paris.

"The belief is there and we feel we can score when we go out there," said left-back Kevin Kilbane. "It's going to be a tight, cagey affair but if we do keep our shape we've got a goal in us. It doesn't matter how late it comes, we feel we'll be in the game."

In many ways it is quite baffling how Trapattoni can be under pressure after guiding his team to second place in Group Eight behind reigning world champions Italy and with his only competitive defeat coming in Dublin last week. Add to that the fact that he is forced to pick from a limited pool of players (compared to the talent available to previous Irish managers) and he has in fact overachieved with this team.

The pragmatic approach favoured by the former Juventus manager is based around the old fashioned 4-4-2 formation that uses its two wingers as the creative outlets for the front pairing, while the central midfielders sit deep to protect the back four.

In order for this system to be successful it needs its wingers - in this case Damien Duff and Liam Lawrence - to provide the attacking threat through their breaks forward, shots from open play, injections of trickery and, most importantly, service into Robbie Keane and Kevin Doyle. If the wingers fail to create scoring opportunities then the whole approach suffers.

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Keith Andrews and Lassana Diarra are pulled apart at Croke Park

It is too late in the campaign for Ireland to even attempt to adopt a different style, so they simply need Duff and Lawrence to contribute more offensively in the second leg. The system is not flawed; it is just that the players now have to do that bit extra.

After all it is not as if Ireland played badly in the first leg last week. For the bulk of the game they were actually the better team with Anelka noting that his own side struggled to find any sort of rhythm to their play due to the hard work of the Irish players. "We couldn't get going and develop our game," said Anelka.

If Ireland can make better use of their possession and test keeper Hugo Lloris much earlier in the game, then Trapattoni's tactics will not be called into question. And if things need to be changed he does have the likes of Aiden McGeady and Stephen Hunt to call on from the bench, as well as striker Leon Best.

An early goal for the boys in green would really shake things up. The French crowd have a tendency to turn against their own team when not impressed by their play and with Raymond Domenech's side already being massively unpopular it should only require a little more pressure for the French balloon to burst.

There is also now an element of bad blood between the two teams following Lassana Diarra's supposed venomous comments at full-time in Dublin last week. The Real Madrid star has foolishly given the Irish players another reason to be pumped up for this must-win game.

Trapattoni knew that it was never going to be easy when he originally signed on to help Ireland reach only their fourth ever World Cup finals, but with one match left to justify his bold claims that he could achieve qualification, now is the time for him to remind everyone why he has been so successful throughout his career.

For Ireland, a chance of playing in the World Cup lies in the balance. For Trapattoni, his reputation needs a boost. The two hope to combine under Paris lights to secure a victorious outcome.

• Gareth Maher covers Irish football for ESPN Soccernet. Check out his website www.garethmaher.com to read more of his writing.