Heimir Hallgrimsson details a potential addition to Ireland backroom team after Wembley thumping
Ireland conceded five second-half goals in last weekend’s Nations League defeat to England.
Heimir Hallgrímsson says he might look to introduce a sports psychologist to his backroom team in light of the 5-0 thumping at Wembley.
The Ireland manager admitted that it had been a tough week since the defeat, but that the result hadn’t shaken his confidence ahead of the World Cup qualifiers, with the draw set to take place on December 13 in Zurich.
Ireland will feature in a four-team group and play their games between September and November.
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Despite being third seeds, the man who led Iceland to the 2018 World Cup remains hopeful.
“The good thing is that we are in a four-team group. That is more or less 100 percent. Then we can use June for final preparation (by playing friendlies). It will be more relaxed,” he said.
“The teams that we can face, especially from Pot 2, are not teams that are much better than us, even though they are higher ranked. It gives me hope that we can do things.
“No matter who we face we will be ready when it comes to the World Cup, that we can get results for sure.”
Hallgrímsson is still struggling to get his head around the second-half collapse at Wembley last Sunday, after such an impressively disciplined first-half display.
Having held England scoreless at the break, a red card to Celtic defender Liam Scales early in the second-half led to a spectacular meltdown.
Lee Carsley’s side scored three goals in five minutes, and added two more before the end.
Only for some fine saves by Caoimhin Kelleher, the Boys in Green could have been staring at a record-equalling competitive defeat, similar to the 6-0 reversal against Austria in 1971.
Asked how difficult the week had been, Hallgrímsson said: “It’s tough. All coaches would say the same, losing with this number has been tough.
“And criticism, you cannot answer that in any way. You need to take it in, because when you lose five-zero you’ve definitely done something wrong.
“We’re not hiding. The goals we conceded were very soft and strange but I think again it was down to the mentality and psychology, we lost our heads.
“We lost a player, and we conceded a goal. It was kind of a mental breakdown, moments of madness.
“We conceded three goals in six minutes and it’s game over. It’s tough to come back from that. It happened very quickly.”
In the wake of the Wembley humbling, Hallgrímsson suggested that he might add another speciality to his backroom team; someone that can look after the players’ mental wellbeing.
“We had a good talk prior to the England camp, just who has access to things like these, in this area, and, yeah, I myself have used help in this area and it’s really just one piece of the puzzle,” he said
“You can add to what we are doing a professional in this area, not even a professional, just someone you can share things and stuff with because psychology is just a bigger and bigger part of elite sports.
“In elite sport, it’s a bigger and bigger part of coaching.”
He did take one positive from the second-half - and that was the performance of substitute Andy Moran. Currently on-loan at Stoke from Brighton, he showed plenty of promise during his short spell on the pitch.
Hallgrímsson also hinted that Moran might be joined by a few more of his former Under-21 teammates by the time the March internationals come around.
“We have names in our head that we are monitoring,” he said. “I thought, for example, it was positive the introduction of Andy Moran.
“He showed leadership skills, he was not afraid to take the ball in probably the worst moment for a sub, to come in in a game you know is kind of lost.
“But he showed good characteristics once he came in so that’s a good thing.
“We didn’t want to touch much of the under-21s because they were so close to qualifying so there might be younger guys.
“It’s a long time, you can have a guy shining in the next two or three months. We will be looking at the options we have, not only these play-off games but for the future as well.”
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