Hallgrímsson won't be so naive against England but expects Ireland to 'suffer'

The Ireland boss argues there is no correlation between ball possession and winning football matches.

Republic of Ireland head coach Heimir Hallgrímsson at Wembley. Pic: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Four months into his tenure as Ireland manager and only revolution Heimir Hallgrímsson has intentions of is ending the major tournament famine.

Whereas the constant proclamation during his predecessor Stephen Kenny’s reign was becoming an exemplar to teams nationwide, the Icelander has seen enough to know where his team sits in the overall landscape of European nations.

It’s not that a primitive style will be descended into, rather an acceptance of the perils of engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the aristocrats.

One of those looms at Wembley later, where England require victory to be assured of topping the group and clinching promotion back to League A.

As against a team laced with La Liga’s Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane from the Bundesliga, surrounded by Premier League regulars, Ireland will be fortunate to have a majority of top-flight representatives in their starting team.

"I'm okay with that,” said Hallgrímsson about the fact Ireland tend to be bossed in possession, even in Thursday’s defeat of Finland.

“There is no correlation between ball possession and winning football matches, so I am okay with that.

“I know some people are not and some players are not.

“They want to keep hold of the ball the whole time. So I am okay with it and I would like the players, it is so important when you play teams like England that have more individual quality than us, that we don't play the game on a one-v-one basis - if you understand what I mean by that.

“So let's try to do it collectively, let's try to guide them and even I would say when we will play our best we will control the game without the ball.

“So we will guide them - you can go here, but you cannot go here.

“That, for me, is controlling the game without possession. And I hope we will become better on that one.

“And then once we guide them to a certain place and win it, that's the place that we want to hurt them.

“I know it's early days for me, but I think that is something that ultimately in my opinion is the most important thing to qualify for the World Cup - to be in charge of the game without possession."

Hallgrímsson‘s debut game transpired to be a masterclass from the English in September. Two goals to the good inside a half hour, it was a complete mismatch.

Two months and four games later, he’s better positioned to analyse.

“In all honesty, we need to put in more fight than we played them at home.

“We know if you look player by player, the individual quality in England is huge so we need to be better in other areas, collective areas etc to get some results against them.

“Playing a game in our heads, it’s definitely going to be more possession England than Ireland and we just need to be aware of that fact. Don’t be too agitated in defence.

“We will need at times to suffer and do a lot of running without the ball and we just need to accept that, that’s probably how the game will be played.

"Maybe I was naïve in September, not having done any work with the players prior. But, given the fact that even though we have had really short camps, we've had September, October and now November, I'm lucky in that sense, the time between camps has been short and luckily we've been able to use similar players from camp to camp so I feel more confident in how we should play against England.” 

One tactic the manager won’t be replicating from his predecessor when it comes to facing England is showing a motivational video. It’s known that a number of players and staff were taken aback by Kenny’s attempts to rouse his team for the November 2020 friendly, a 3-0 defeat in front of a Covid-19 enforced empty stadium.

A clash between former clubmates and Ireland colleagues Damien Duff and Alan Kelly contributed to the pair quitting the Kenny ticket. No such debates will be occurring between staff this time around.

“My opinion is that a national team player should be able to motivate himself. Otherwise he shouldn't be in the team.” 

Enough said.