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Following his side's early exit from the European Championship, the Italian insists he is the right man to lead the Boys in Green through the World Cup 2014 qualifiers

Giovanni Trapattoni has expressed his desire to stay on as the coach of Republic of Ireland, despite his side's group-stage elimination from Euro 2012 following defeats to Croatia and Spain in their opening two Group C fixtures.

Peter Staunton  Ireland Expert

Trapattoni has taken some justifiable criticism for his 'basic' football as it was termed by Slaven Bilic. Playing 4-4-2 with midfielders as limited as Glenn Whelan and Keith Andrews is simply asking for trouble at this level. However, not all the blame for Ireland's ills can be laid at the feet of the Italian. His players badly let him down with their mishaps at Euro 2012 and the man himself deserves the time to right some wrongs for the World Cup programme. If the football, or the results, don't improve come September though, Trap could be staring down the barrel.

The 73-year-old believes he has the ability to turn around the team's fortunes, oversee a rebuilding process and take the country through the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign, while also reminding that he and his coaching stuff guided the Boys in Green to their first tournament finals in over two decades.

"I think that we [him and assistant Marco Tardelli] deserve to stay on," Trapattoni told reporters.

"The reason is we have achieved qualification [for the European Championship] for the first time in 24 years.

"I think it is our right to stay on. I have enthusiasm to remain. But I ask you, how much value do you give this team for reaching the Euros?" the Italian argued.

"I know how much. I am proud to come here with this team and these players."

Trapattoni insisted he could rebuild the side's winning formula in time for the next tournament by refocusing his squad.

"We will start again [next] season, but we cannot change all. In Italy we change four or five players, but not here.

"When a team loses, only the manager is to blame," he said, before laying some responsibility on his players and explaining how his team failed on the big stage.

"We conceded a goal after two minutes and 30 seconds against Croatia, and again a goal after four minutes against Spain.

"It is very difficult against these teams. After those minutes, everything changes, including the system ... everything.

"You give the advantage to a strong team, and then it becomes very difficult. This happened against Croatia and happened again with Spain.

"Our players do not have the habit of playing in a tournament like this. We had an attitude in our games that I have not seen in two years."

Trapattoni indicated he would make some alterations to his starting lineup for their final Euro 2012 match against Italy, but resisted against wholesale changes.

"I can start some of the players of the future against Italy; I have changes in mind, but I can't make three, four or five changes as I might be accused of favouring Italy," he admitted.

"I will also give merit to the team that brought us here, even if I do have changes in mind. I think they deserve to be here."

Following Euro 2012, Ireland will begin their World Cup qualifying campaign on September 7. They have been drawn alongside Germany, Austria, Faroe Islands, Kazakhstan and Sweden.