In the absence of a superstar, Hallgrímsson sees only one way forward for Ireland
Ireland head coach Heimir Hallgrímsson reacts during the UEFA Nations League B Group 2 match against Greece. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Different manager, similar outcome, a worrying rut.
Ireland’s struggles in competitive matches predate the arrival of Heimir Hallgrímsson, only he’s floating a fresh solution.
A temptation to change the props doesn’t exist.
This, bar the return of Josh Cullen and his new Burnley teammate John Egan, is the Ireland team the Icelander is wedded to working his way out of a slump with.
Eradicating the turning point of Tuesday’s latest loss, Fotis Ioannidis being allowed pick his spot from 20 yards for Greece’s opener, might be possible with time but reconditioning a mindset weatherbeaten by defeats is the deficit to shore up.
From November 2017, when Christian Eriksen’s masterclass derailed Ireland from a second successive tournament appearance in the World Cup playoff, Ireland have contested 45 competitive matches.
A mere nine of those resulted in victory – lowly Gibraltar accounting for almost half with four. Georgia, Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Scotland and Armenia are the others.
Robbie Brady’s late penalty to beat Armenians 3-2, almost two years ago, was the last time an Irish team enjoyed victory over a nation other than the Gibraltarians.
By this time, Stephen Kenny’s supposed revolution was meant to be bearing fruit, the clutch of debutants he blooded with sufficient caps and experience to cope with the rigours of the international stage. As Shay Given pointed out yesterday, England possess a younger squad.
All a core led by 23-year-old captain Nathan Collins on Tuesday have known is struggle and strife, particularly the eerie blend of silence and boos trudging off the Lansdowne Road pitch.
It was the recent guests at Croke Park, Coldplay, whom Hallgrimsson borrowed a line from to contextualise the plummet to the dredges. “Nobody said it would be easy,” he opined during a post-match conference in which the weight of the shirt was raised as an impediment.
He would elaborate later, speaking calmly in a nearby dressing-room to a smaller group of reporters.
“We can all agree that Ireland doesn’t have a matchwinner at this stage,” he said, illustrated by a fifth blank in six matches of 2024.
“We don’t have a Zlatan, Messi or Ronaldo or the high-profile players of the past such as Roy Keane etc playing at the highest level.
“If we want to grow, it has to be collective. That is where we should start. Once that happens, we’ll start to get points and we’ll grow in confidence.”
The former Iceland and Jamaica manager added: “This is my third time to come and want a structure.
“I'm not saying it’s zero here but we like to start from some point. I know it's going to take time and a lot of repetition. If you play golf, change your swing and play 18 holes, the next day you just return to your old swing. You need to repeat things and get stuck in.”
Repetition on the scoreboard is all that’s consuming the narrative around this Ireland team.
Avoiding relegation, rather than gaining promotion, is now the objective in the remainder of the Nations League campaign and they’ll have only two games left once the double-header away to Finland and Greece on October 10 and 13 is completed.
The 57-year-old gleaned enough of an improvement from the replica scoreline defeat against England four days earlier to predict an upturn. That outlook looks to be predicated on the reverted four-at-the-back formation being cemented as a cornerstone.
More experimental was deploying Sammie Szmodics as the sole striker, a role he’s not accustomed to.
“Maybe I am too positive, maybe you disagree, but until the goal I was really happy,” he said of the breakthrough four minutes into the second half.
“When building a team, you must start with organisation in the defensive part and work from that.
“If that is not good, then we can never build a team. So we’ll continue to work on, what I saw at least, was an improvement from the England match, and what I think was an improvement from before.
“I’m not hiding behind the fact that we need to play better and faster, making decisions quicker and use the strength we have like Sammie’s speed and his runs in behind. We didn’t use it.
“It’s just improvements step by step - impossible to do in one step.
“Let’s build on what we did well, forget that we lost but improve on what we did badly. But let’s be realistic.”
With no standout contender from an U21 team navigating their own campaign simultaneously, this is principally the deck he’s shuffling. Against the deflating backdrop of battling the drop and an increasingly likely third seeding for December’s World Cup draw, there’s always the wonderkid to hang a nation’s hopes on.
Evan Ferguson was part of the squad but not the fully-fit teen who devoured Premier League defences before his injury.
“We gave Evan more minutes; his first minutes of the season,” Hallgrimsson pointed out about the two substitute cameos. “Hopefully that will help Brighton select him because he will be a huge asset for us when he’s fit.
“I think we saw that Kasey McAteer is one for the future too.”
After four years of listening to empty promises, the patience for more patience is dwindling.
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