Heimir Hallgrímsson: 'It's better to be best in three, four, five, six areas out of 10'

The Boys in Green kick off their World Cup qualifying campaign on Saturday against Hungary.

ALL SMILES: Head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson and Nathan Collins on Friday. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

For all the optimism expressed in the build-up to Saturday’s opening World Cup qualifier, Heimir Hallgrímsson has stressed Ireland’s status of underdog requires them to prioritise certain facets.

Portugal in Lisbon lurk next month but Ireland first have second seeds Hungary at home on Saturday followed by a tricky trip to Armenia on Tuesday.

His players, as well as assistants John O’Shea and Paddy McCarthy, have chimed in with their confidence about emerging from a World Cup qualification group for the first time since 2002.

Top spot after the six-match series secures a direct ticket to USA, Canada and Mexico next year, with second joining 15 others in the playoff vying for the final four places from Europe.

“If you are an underdog like us in this group – and we are ranked No 3 – there’s a need to be better than others in some areas,” said the Icelander in his final press conference at FAI headquarters in Abbotstown.

“It's always better to be best in three, four, five, six areas out of 10 rather than to be semi good in 10 out of 10.

“So we are focusing on certain areas we want to be good at and that's these principles in defence and attack.

“We want to improve them because we would like to be better than others in some areas.

“That is our focus and what gives us belief, and that is why the confidence is growing and the energy is growing because we feel like we are improving in those areas and that will give us an edge in games, when we're playing Hungary and even if we go to the World Cup and we're playing World class teams.

“That is what's needed to succeed at this level.” 

Hallgrímsson is 14 months and 10 games into his tenure but this is the first qualifier he’s overseen. That bedding in period of eight Uefa Nations League matches and two summer friendlies sh0uld stand to the a squad weather-beaten from years of failure.

“It looks like they are taller today than when I came a year ago,” he surmised, contrasting with the visit of England 12 months ago.

“It's been there all the time but I’ve seen it emerge with my own eyes. These players probably had low self-confidence from losing in the past.

“Many are young players, and just seeing them growing has been for me most impressive.

That's why I say I feel the energy more now than I did in the beginning. As a new coach, they probably didn't know what to expect but I have felt it slowly growing, this unity in the team now.” Nathan Collins, at 24, begins the campaign with the same captain’s armband he’s ownership of at Brentford.

“There's been spells and times where we look like a really good team but it's not just fully clicked for us,” the centre-back reflected.

“I think the big thing is that people are stepping into roles now, stepping up to the plate, driving things in training and matches.

“Anything needs fixing, people are able to step up to that and know what we're doing. I think that's a big thing.

“It's the leadership that we've gotten from more than one player, more than two players, more people are coming into that group and standing up to things and being a big voice in the dressing room. That pushes things a lot more.” 

Collectively, they’ll be mindful of curbing the influence of Hungary captain Dominik Szoboszlai.

“I’ll tell my midfielders to do their jobs to be fair!,” Collins joked.

“He's a hell of a player, he's shown that year in, year out now at Liverpool, he has a lot of good attributes to his game.

“But the thing about Hungary, they are a very good squad with a lot of good players, they have players in different positions that cause different problems to a team overall.

“So as much as I put my focus into one player, we need to be careful of a lot of other players.

“He is definitely the one that orchestrates everything in a lot of ways but it's a team game so I'll use my teammates and he'll have to use his teammates.”