Ireland back to basics under Hallgrimsson, says O'Shea

The Ipswich Town defender took the positives from the away double header. 

GREEN SHOOTS: Dara O'Shea, left, and Mikey Johnston after the UEFA Nations League B Group 2 match against Greece. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Mystique has surrounded the contents of the green notebook Heimir Hallgrimsson’s clutches but Dara O’Shea insists there’s no elaborate curriculum therein.

“He has kind of simplified our game,” said the defender, four months into the manager’s reign.

“Obviously he knows our strengths. What he wants is getting the ball in the opposition half, where we can do our damage.

“We’ve got some great attacking players playing at high levels in the UK and abroad. It’s about giving them the ball and let them do their thing.” That’s a rudimentary doctrine Ireland failed to implement consistently against Greece.

When the ball did eventually hit Evan Ferguson or Troy Parrott up top, either miscontrol or a lack of support cost them.

Ferguson had the fewest touches of any player on the pitch before being called ashore 12 minutes into the second half, visibly shattered after two starts in three days.

O’Shea, back in the Premier League following Ipswich Town’s deadline-week swoop, preferred to apply his assessment in the round. Two draws may have been an acceptable return to the 1,000 fans who trekked from northern to southern Europe over the weekend but headroom derived from Helsinki exceeded that.

“Obviously we’re three points better than we were before the window so that’s a positive,” said the man, redeployed to right-back from the centre after last month’s pair of home defeats to England and Greece.

“We’re still quite a young side. Compare us to Greece and they've quite an experienced squad with an average age and caps count a lot higher than ours.

“That’s not an excuse because we’ve got to grow into it, something I feel we’re doing.” O’Shea admitted the threat of long-distance efforts from Greece – their openers in Dublin and Piraeus were shots from outside the box – was a weapon they'd planned to smother.

He pointed to the unfortunate deflection which the 48th-minute opener took off Liam Scales to beat Caoimhín Kelleher and the goalkeeper’s rare error in gifting the second in the lands of the Gods.

Four games down in this campaign, two remaining – concluding at Wembley on November 17.

“Our last game against England in September wasn’t at the level we wanted,” O’Shea added about the 2-0 home defeat to England.

“That was our first match under the manager and we’d only a short period of time to prepare.

“We’re a hard-working nation and he's trying to keep that going, drilling that message into us.

“He wants us to play a different way to the last couple of years and we’re improving.

“We want to qualify for major tournaments but momentum will be the key thing. It’s about putting in strong performances back-to-back.”