ALL I WANT FOR XMAS? IT'S OUR FRONT TWO TEETH

Dentist doesn't need to drill down too far to see Troy and Evan have to be Ireland's incisors now

- camondunphy

THERE is now, at long last, a perfectly obvious option staring Ireland in the face: play Troy Parrott up front with Evan Ferguson.

Two strikers.

Not a false nine, not a winger pretending to be a forward, not a lone teenager abandoned on an island. Two proper strikers, up top. The very fact this needs to be said tells you everything about Heimir Hallgrimsson.

Because let's be blunt about it: the idea of a one-man striking system for Ireland is bollix.

Always has been. Always will be. We are not Spain 2010, passing teams into hypnosis. We are not Man City with six midfielders who could thread a pass through a letterbox. Ireland produce centre-halves, honest midfielders and, once in a blue moon, a goalscorer. And right now — miracle of miracles — we have two.

So why in God's name would we play only one?

The snobbery around 4-4-2 is baffling.

You hear these tactical gurus — the sort of lads who need a tactics board to order a sandwich — sneering that 4-4-2 is for dinosaurs, long-ball merchants, the route-one cavemen.

Yet Arsenal built one of the great sides of the Premier League era on a version of it.

Look at Thierry Henry and Denis Bergkamp (inset).

One lived on the shoulder of defenders, threatening to break the offside trap at any moment.

The other dropped into those velvet pockets of space between midfield and attack, knitting the whole thing together with intelligence bordering on artistry.

Was that primitive?

Was that tactical illiteracy?

No. It was football at its purest and most devastating.

I'll tell you something: Parrott and Ferguson are not a Henry/Bergkamp tribute act. They are their own men and can be a world class pairing fit for the big stage.

I'm not joking. The tools are there.