Five Heimir Hallgrimsson reflections as Ireland manager suggests playing the second half first
Ireland picked up their first win under new boss Heimir Hallgrímsson and then followed that up with a fourth consecutive defeat to Greece.
Heimir Hallgrímsson has come up with a novel plan to get Ireland on the front-foot in games.
The Boys in Green boss watched on once again as his players needed a kick up the behind on Sunday night in Greece before they clicked into gear.
It was only after Tasos Bakasetas opened the scoring in the 48th minute that Hallgrímsson’s players came out of their shells at the Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus, just outside Athens.
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It was a similar story in Helsinki three nights earlier, but on that occasion they fashioned an impressive comeback victory over hosts Finland, thanks to goals from Liam Scales and Robbie Brady.
Ireland couldn’t repeat that feat on Sunday, although they did play some fine attacking football. Substitute Jack Taylor came the closest to scoring when his header was tipped over the bar.
And ultimately, with Ireland still chasing an equaliser in injury-time, they conceded a second goal through the otherwise outstanding Caoimhin Kelleher’s mistake.
Here are five of new Boys in Green boss Hallgrímsson’s reflections after his second international camp.
Hallgrímsson’s FIFA proposal!
Heimir Hallgrímsson joked that he had the perfect way to solve the problem of Ireland only starting to play well when they go behind.
“I said, maybe as a joke, maybe we should call FIFA and start playing the second half first, and the first half second. So that might be a good thing for us,” he laughed.
Seriously though…
Despite his quip, it’s something that the Icelander is taking very seriously.
He sees it as a confidence problem - and changing the mentality of his players is priority number one ahead of next month’s final two Nations League games against Finland at home and England at Wembley.
Not that it’s his team’s only achilles heel. Bakasetas’s opener, three minutes into the second-half, was just the latest in a run of goals conceded in the period just after the break.
Fotis Ioannidis’s opener for Greece in Dublin last month came in the 50th minute, while the tail end of Stephen Kenny’s reign was littered with goals coughed up shortly after the restart.
So, changing the mentality is going to be key, with Hallgrímsson admitting in the post-mortem in Piraeus late on Sunday night: “That is now our task.
“We were just saying that to the players in the dressing room after the game. We need to find that within ourselves, what are we doing differently, what each and every one of us is doing differently when we are down.
“We need to fight to get back in the game. Why can’t we just start the game with that mentality?
“It’s something psychological for sure. I’ve talked a lot about confidence. And I think once we have spells in games like now I think the confidence must grow when we show them the good things.
“And, of course, the bad things we need to correct.”
It’s not all negative
Hallgrímsson saw plenty of positives in the performance too.
“The good things from this game… to stay in the game when the opponent has the upper hand is also something that in football, you need to have that quality, even though the opponent is better, to stay in the game, defend,” he said.
“There was big heart, big character in this game as well, throwing themselves at shots and then growing as the game went.
“Even though (they were) tired, they pushed themselves to the limits in the end. It’s just nice to see the character growing in this team.”
You can’t cut out all the mistakes…
It’s been a baptism of fire for the new manager, whose appointment during the summer meant that he had no friendly opportunities to iron out the creases.
Competitive games are likely to be on the schedule well into next year too, with Ireland currently in the Nations League promotion/relegation play-offs next March.
The World Cup qualifiers also kick off in March, so the June, September, October and November windows next year will be filled with competitive fixtures too.
So neither time nor the calendar are friends of the former Iceland boss, whose checklist includes more than building up confidence within his squad.
Ensuring that mistakes don’t come at such a high cost is another top priority, after he expressed unhappiness with the “sloppy” concession of Greece’s opener.
It was sympathy that he felt for Kelleher over the second goal.
“Mistakes happen to the best teams in the world. It’s just… I think once we improve collectively, the individual mistakes will cost us less,” he said.
“But when we are collectively maybe not perfect, then individual mistakes cost us.
“If it was the same player doing all the mistakes, then it would be the player that you would change.
“But it’s not, it’s moments in games that we cannot switch off. We need to be really focused and disciplined all the time.”
Sliding Scales
Asked for his thoughts on Liam Scales during the Finland and Greece games (it was put to him that the Celtic defender was arguably Ireland’s best performer over the two games), Hallgrímsson appeared to give an answer about Robbie Brady.
It was the Preston man’s winner that earned Ireland all three points in Helsinki, so he could be forgiven for having Brady on the brain.
“I think all the four games he’s been good since I came in,” said the Ireland boss (Scales was an unused sub in both of the September games, while Brady started both).
“He’s just a solid performer. It’s important for the team as well, he’s with young kids, he probably could be the father of some of them! It is like he is just one of the guys.
“Inside the camp he is really important. He had two really good performances now and hopefully he stays safe and keeps on playing well for his club, and country.”
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