Originally Posted by
tetsujin1979
When Trapattoni took over, one of the first things he noted was the revolving door in central midfield (look at the home game against Cyprus) so his first step was to stop team from coming through the middle against us, hence two defensively minded central midfielders. Steven Reid was the link between defence and attack until he was injured, acting as a box to box player, and he still hasn't been replaced. Until another player like that becomes available (Clifford? McCarthy?) I believe Trapattoni will choose to protect the central defenders from midfield, rather than change it to help the strikers. That system was still in evidence against Paraguay on Tuesday, they were forced to go to the wings every time to try and create something.