Managerial record

To end the week of Trapattoni statistic blogs, let's look at the record of the Italian, as compared to his predecessors.

Jack Charlton
Level	P	W	Win%	D	L
Competitive	57	25	44.64%	21	11
Friendly	37	22	59.46%	9	6
Total	74	47	50.00%	30	17

Mick McCarthy
Level	P	W	Win%	D	L
Competitive	40	19	47.50%	13	8
Friendly	28	10	35.71%	7	11
Total	68	29	42.65%	20	19

Brian Kerr
Level	P	W	Win%	D	L
Competitive	16	7	43.75%	7	2
Friendly	17	11	64.71%	4	2
Total	33	18	54.55%	11	4

Steve Staunton
Level	P	W	Win%	D	L
Competitive	11	4	36.36%	4	3
Friendly	6	2	16.67%	2	2
Total	17	5	35.29%	6	5

Giovanni Trapattoni
Level	P	W	Win%	D	L
Competitive	35	14	40.00%	13	8
Friendly	29	12	41.38%	9	8
Total	58	26	44.83%	22	16

Trapattoni's debutant goalscorers

While compiling the information on Trapattoni's reign, I noticed that there was a high number of players who had scored on their debut for the Italian. No less than five footballers all registered their first strike on their first appearance for the Boys in Green. This is as many players as managed the feat under the previous four managers combined! Under Jack Charlton, David Kelly (10th November 1987 VS Israel), Bernie Slaven (28th March 1990 VS Wales), and Tommy Coyne (25th March 1992 VS Switzerland) all scored on their first appearances, with David Kelly notching a hat trick. During Mick McCarthy's reign both Clinton Morrison(15th August 2001 VS Croatia) and Graham Barrett(21st August 2002 VS Finland) scored on their debuts. No players managed the feat under the next two managers Brian Kerr and Steve Staunton.
After Keith Andrews impressed in a B international against Nottingham Forest in November 2008, he was promoted to the senior squad for the friendly against Poland on the 19th and scored Ireland's second goal in a 3-2 defeat to their future European Championships hosts at Croke Park.
In the penultimate game of the Carling Nations Cup, the Republic of Ireland faced Northern Ireland in front of a sparse crowd at Aviva stadium on the 24th May 2011. Stephen Ward and Simon Cox were both handed their first appearances by the Italian, and they scored the first and final goals, respectively, in a 5-0 victory against our neighbours from the North.
After an underwhelming last minute victory over Kazakhstan, the team returned to Craven Cottage for their third friendly at the ground, following games against Colombia in May 2008 and Nigeria May 2009. Winger Robbie Brady marked his first cap, and his first start, with his first goal with a fine strike from outside the area. Second half substitute Alex Pearce converted a header from an Aiden McGeady corner to complete the goalscoring for the Irish side in a 4-1 win.
A double strike from debutants is extremely rare, in fact previous to Trapttoni's reign, an Ireland game had not been marked with this since 1976 when Joe Waters and Frank Stapleton both scored against Turkey in Ankara on their first appearances for the country in a 3-3 draw.

First caps under Trapattoni

Here are the 37 Irish players handed a debut by Trapattoni during his five year reign, and the games in which they received their first cap.
Note: the numbers in brackets refer to the ranking of the side at the time of the game

Date	Level	Home Team	Score	Away Team	Debut(s)
24 May 2008	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(41)	1-1	Serbia(31)	Damien Delaney Glenn Whelan
29 May 2008	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(41)	1-0	Colombia(19)	Wes Hoolahan
15 October 2008	World Cup Qualifier	Republic of Ireland(38)	1-0	Cyprus(80)	Caleb Folan
19 October 2008	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(36)	2-3	Poland(32)	Keith Andrews Noel Hunt
29 May 2009	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(34)	1-1	Nigeria(30)	Liam Lawrence Kevin Foley Leon Best Eddie Nolan Sean St Ledger
12 August 2009	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(37)	0-3	Australia(16)	Keiren Westwood
8 September 2009	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(38)	1-0	South Africa(73)	Darren O'Dea
2 March 2010	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(37)	0-2	Brazil(2)	James McCarthy
25 May 2010	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(43)	2-1	Paraguay(30)	Paul Green Keith Fahey Cilian Sheridan
28 May 2010	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(41)	3-0	Algeria(30)	Greg Cunningham
11 August 2010	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(36)	0-1	Argentina(5)	Keith Treacy
17 November 2010	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(32)	1-2	Norway(12)	Jonathan Walters
11 February 2011	Carling Nations Cup	Republic of Ireland(35)	3-0	Wales(116)	Ciaran Clarke Marc Wilson Seamus Coleman
24 May 2011	Carling Nations Cup	Republic of Ireland(34)	5-0	Northern Ireland(65)	David Forde Simon Cox Stephen Ward
29 February 2012	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(20)	1-1	Czech Republic(29)	James McClean
11 September 2012	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(26)	4-1	Oman(93)	Darren Randolph Robbie Brady David Meyler Alex Pearce
6 February 2013	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(41)	2-0	Poland(56)	Conor Sammon Jeff Hendrick Richard Keogh
2 June 2013	Friendly	Republic of Ireland(39)	4-0	Georgia(96)	Stephen Quinn
14 August 2013	Friendly	Wales(46)	0-0	Republic of Ireland(44)	Paddy Madden
6 September 2013	World Cup Qualifier	Republic of Ireland(44)	1-2	Sweden(30)	Anthony Pilkington

Of these, James McCarthy was the youngest player to make his first appearance, who was 19 years and three months when he came on against Brazil at Emirates Stadium. At the other end of the age scale, Galwegian David Forde was 31 when making his debut against Northern Ireland in the Carling Nations Cup.
Only two players made their debuts in competitive games - Caleb Folan and Anthony Pilkington, while Paddy Madden has the honour of being the only player given his first cap in an away game*
To compare with previous managers, Steve Staunton awarded 23 new caps during his reign, with no less than 11 of these coming in the same game - VS Ecuador in New York in 2007. During his tenure, Brian Kerr gave 15 players their first caps.
*Note that the games against Colombia, Nigeria, Brazil and Oman are treated as home games, as designated by their listing on fifa.com

Goalscorers under Trapattoni

Unsurprisingly, Robbie Keane scored the most goals during Trapattoni's reign. The Tallaght striker notched an incredible 28 goals in five years under the Italian. No other player managed to get into double figures, with Kevin Doyle and Shane Long coming closest with seven and six goals, respectively. In midfield, Keiths Andrews and Fahey both scored three goals for the venerable manager, however Aiden McGeady managed two strikes in competitive games, one more than his fellow midfielders' total in competitive matches.
In defence, mainstays Sean St Ledger and Richard Dunne both scored three times, with all six goals from the duo coming in competitive games, to top the goalscoring charts for defenders. St Ledger possibly has a slight edge, due to his close range header against Croatia in the European Championship finals.

P.S. If you mouseover a player other than Robbie Keane in the goals section in the infographic - http://irish-abroad.appspot.com/Blog - several other players are highlighted - why is that?

#TrapStats

Over the last few weeks, I've been asking questions on twitter and facebook based around appearance data for the Irish side under Trapattoni with the hashtag #TrapStats - here's the final list of questions and their answers

Who made the most assists for Trapattoni's side?  
McGeady, with 10

Five players marked their debuts under Trapattoni with a goal, name them and the opposition?
Simon Cox, Stephen Ward (both Northern Ireland), Robbie Brady, Alex Pearce (both Oman), Keith Andrews(Poland)

Robbie Keane is the top goalscorer under Trapattoni, but what players were the top scoring midfielder and defender? Note - there's two midfielders and two defenders with the same number of strikes, one of each is acceptable as an answer  
Dunne and St Ledger (3) Andrews and Fahey (3)

Trapattoni gave 37 players their first cap. Who were the youngest and oldest players to make their debut?
James McCarthy (19) David Forde (31)

Of the 37 debuts awarded, only 2 were in competitive games (ie qualifiers) Name the players & games?
Caleb Folan VS Cyprus, Anthony Pilkington VS Sweden

Throughout Trapattoni's reign, only one team beat his side in an away friendly, name the opposition? To clarify, the 2-0 loss to Brazil in London was designated as a "home" game for Ireland by FIFA
Spain, in New York

Only one player made his debut in an away game under Trapattoni. Name the player and the opposition? Again, the friendlies in London are designated as "home" games for Ireland on fifa.com
Paddy Madden VS Wales

Two debutants scored in the same game twice in Trapattoni's reign. When was the last time two debutants scored in the same game before Trapattoni's reign?
Joe Waters and Frank Stapleton VS Turkey in October 1976

What is this? http://t.co/jHuNXN2hOb
Graph of the FIFA ranking of the team at each game during Trapttoni's reign, but I'd accept just FIFA rankings

No assistance on this one http://t.co/lYdey8xmMx
Graph of the number of assists by each player, the big circle in the middle is McGeady

 GW6, RD5, KA5, RK3, JO3, PM3, SS3, SL2, DG2, SH2, JM2, SW2, KK1, DD1, MR1, KD1, SK1, DO1, KW1, WH1, LB1, CF1, CC1, SC1, PG1, KF1 Figure it out  
 Each player and the number of bookings they received

All these questions came from research I've been doing for an infographic on Trapattoni's reign. The final graph is here: http://irish-abroad.appspot.com/Blog
You can mouseover pretty much everything to kick off an animation containing more information, and the numbers in the "Overall Record" section can be clicked on. Enjoy, and share.
(it works best in Firefox and Chrome, and Internet Explorer 9 or greater)

Zero substitutions

Ireland's 3-0 loss to Germany last night was unremarkable for the most part, apart from some strange positions on the pitch for various players. However, one statistic stood out - over the course of the game Noel King, the interim manager, made no substitutions at all! Of the named substitutes (St Ledger, McGeady, Long, Keane, McClean, Green, Elliot, Pilkington, Reid, Hoolahan, O'Brien and Henderson) not one saw a minute of play, although Keane and Pilkington were both carrying knocks and it was subsequently announced that Pilkington will return to his club for treatment.
A lack of substitutions is uncommon in international football, but it has been the case for the Republic of Ireland in two games in the recent past. Early in Giovanni Trapattoni's reign, his charges drew 0-0 away to Montenegro in a World Cup qualifier in September 2008 without a single player being withdrawn from the action. Previous to that, under Brian Kerr, Ireland won 2-1 in Georgia in a European Championship qualifier when again no substitutes were used. The match was also remembered for a penknife striking Kevin Kilbane, while various other objects were thrown from the crowd with Lee Carsley, Gary Breen and Damien Duff also being hit.