Giovanni Trapattoni instructs Irish players not to read the newspapers

Trapattoni has advised the Irish players to ignore the Irish media, ahead of tonight’s vital clash with Slovakia in the Štadión pod Dubňom in Žilina.

The Irish team were criticised following their flaccid performance in Ireland’s 3-2 home loss to Russia, especially recent arrival Paul Green.

Giovanni Trapattoni was especially vituperated for his unwillingness to change tactics or personnel.

The 71-year-old Italian regards such media attacks as inevitable, however.

“In 30 years I’ve had many good results and bad results,” he said.

“It is more difficult to analyse things beforehand. If I said I had foreseen the exact situations we ended up in, you wouldn’t believe me.

“My job is predicting. If I change things and we lose, then people would be asking why am I changing everything? It’s normal.

“The first thing I said to the players (after Friday’s game) was we will watch the game again but for psychological reasons you have to not read the newspapers.

“The players know if they played bad or well. They can’t be in the right frame of mind if they’re reading bad, bad, bad, bad. We cannot lose our trust or our confidence.

“It’s important because, yes games are 90 minutes, but the first 10 minutes can change the game. Tomorrow is another game, tomorrow we have another opportunity. We cannot cry, we must start again.”

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