Hallgrimsson hoping change of scene sparks change of Ireland's fortunes

CHANGE IN FORTUNE? Head coach Heimir Hallgrímsson. Pic: Ryan Byrne/Inpho

Heimir Hallgrimsson is convinced Ireland’s fortunes will soar once they snaffle an elusive win.

Since Robbie Brady’s late winner against Armenia in 2022, Ireland have lost every competitive game bar two facile victories over minnows Gibraltar.

Hallgrimsson succeeded Stephen Kenny for the last two of those eight matches, the 2-0 defeats to England and Greece last month. 

They’re on their travels for this week’s second double-header of the Uefa Nations League campaign, starting with Finland on Thursday.

“I wouldn’t say a losing streak, but if you are in a downward spiral it’s good to do something different in a different country - a different environment, shake things up,” said from the Helsinki Olympic Stadium.

“The players are staying together much more and are closer. That’s a good team-building thing, to travel and stay somewhere else.” 

Continuity and cohesion are the watchwords for the Icelander, who confirmed that 23-year-old Nathan Collins will continue the captaincy he attained from the last match.

“We need to find our ways to win. Once we do, hopefully, we can keep on winning.

“Without fear goes in line with confidence of knowing what you should do. That’s when you start to play without fear, when everybody is going in the same direction, knowing what is going to happen.

“I said before this camp and after the last camp, I felt it looks like players are not confident when there is a run and not a pass, or a pass and not a run.

“The decision-making is slow because you are hesitant about moving so I think confidence comes with knowing what you are doing and slowly you build upon that.” 

Reporting no fresh injuries, after losing Callum O’Dowda from his original 24-man squad over the weekend, Hallgrimsson likened his task with Ireland similar to Iceland. 

He, initially as assistant and then co-manager with Lars Lagerbäck, guided the underdogs to the 2016 Euros, where they beat England, and then the following World Cup under sole stewardship.

“There’s a lot of similarities, starting from a low point in both projects,” he explained.

“I’m trying to build a structure which is really important in an international team - not taking it game by game but building something together from one game to another, trying to build on what we did last time. That's really important.

“I have said so many times that it's so different to be a national team coach.

“If you just take this camp and it will be the same next camp, players play on Sunday, they come and cannot train on the Monday so yesterday was probably the only real training session we can have, so that's the only time we have all the players when they are physically ready to do a training session.

“It's tough to be a coach and only have one training session. We need to have everything ready on what we did last time and try to build on that as the players will go to their clubs and do something totally different for a month.

“And then next time they come will have one training session so we need to be clear and ready with what we want - don't overload the players with information, keep on building and slowly, camp by camp, improve on what we are doing.” 

Collins, the Brentford centre-back, noted: “It's been a very positive week, a lot of meetings which is part and parcel of international football.

“I think the work we have done on the pitch has been very productive. We feel a lot better this week by knowing our ways around what the gaffer wants.” 

Both teams are looking for the first goals and points of the mini-group. Greece, who host England in the other game on Thursday, welcome Ireland to Athens on Sunday. The series wraps for Ireland with games against Finland at home on November 14 and England at Wembley three days later.