The FTBL ranking confirms the fact that the French will go into their World Cup 2010 playoff games against Ireland as the clear favorites: the 23 best French players have a combined score that is more than double that of the 23 best Irish players (2,533 points against 1,098)! Since the choice of players determines the tactics, to a great extent, this would indicate that the Irish really have little choice other than to opt for a fairly simple scheme: retreat in defense and try to score in an eventual counterattack, with a player such as Tottenham Hotspur’s Robbie Keane in their ranks.

Keane, who can score a lot of goals at times, is also very unstable. After scoring 4 in late September against Burnley, he waited until last weekend to score his next goal in the Premier League, this time against Sunderland.

But the Irish will really be hard-pressed to do better. Keane has a tally of 110.84 points at the moment, some 10% of the tally of the entire team. If he proves out of form, Ireland will have not much to count on.