HEIMIR Hallgrimsson knows Ireland don’t have any high-profile stars and will put his faith in the “collective” – but the new coach insists they must play faster football in next month’s Uefa Nations League double-header away to Finland and Greece.
The Irish have lost their two opening Nations League fixtures – two 2-0 home defeats to England and Greece – with Hallgrimsson coming to terms with the size of the task in front of him following his appointment in July.
While there were few redeeming features in last Saturday’s painfully one-sided clash with England, Ireland were better against the Greeks on Tuesday night – but two opportunistic strikes in the second half from the visitors had a demoralising impact on the 37,000 crowd and the players themselves.
Boos rang out at the final whistle with Ireland facing an uphill task to get back in contention in Group 2B.
“It feels like maybe the jersey is a little bit too heavy for some of the players,” said Hallgrimsson.
“When they put them on, they don’t show the same quality as they do for maybe their clubs.
The 57-year-old Icelandic was happy with his side’s display against Greece up until they conceded the first goal in the 50th minute.
“I think that’s always the first step when building a team - you need to start first in organisation, in the defensive part and then we 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 game, and what I think was an improvement from before. Maybe I am too positive, I don’t know - maybe you [the media] disagree - but until the goal I was really happy.
“[But] We need to play better. I’m not hiding behind that. We need to play faster, make decisions quicker and use the strength we have like Sammie’s [Szmoidcs] speed and him in behind. We didn’t use it.
“Good passing players need to do it a bit faster. It’s just improvements step by step. That’s impossible to do in one step. We need to build what we did well, forget that we lost, but improve on what we did badly. Let’s be realistic.”
The manager also hopes Evan Ferguson will be able to start next month’s away games having come on as a substitute against England and Greece, his first minutes of the new season.
The Brighton striker missed the end of last season due to an ankle injury that required surgery. He played the last eight minutes against England and half an hour against Greece as the Irish tried to rescue the game.
Hallgrimsson name-checked Ireland new boy Kasey McAteer of Leicester City who also came on in both games.
The Irish have failed to score in five of the six internationals they’ve played in 2024.
“We can all agree that Ireland doesn’t have a matchwinner at this stage. We don’t have a Zlatan [Ibrahimovic], Messi or Ronaldo, or the high-profile players of the past such as Roy Keane playing at the highest level.
“If we want to grow, it has to be collective. That is where we should start, and our job is to grow. From there, players will be confident from organisation and structure.
“Defending without the ball and feeling confident. You can control the game without the ball. Once that happens, we’ll start to get points, and we’ll grow in confidence. And then some players will hopefully be fitter for the next games.
“We gave Evan more minutes, his first minutes of the season. Hopefully that will help Brighton select him more etc., He will be a huge asset for us when he’s fit.
“I think we saw that Kasey McAteer is one for the future. He didn’t create but again a lot of positives how he did attack and found spaces.”
The Irish played some neat football in the opening half against Greece without look especially dangerous with half chances falling to Alan Browne and Sammie Szmodics.
Substitute Callum Robinson went close towards the end before the visitors counter-attacked to grab a second goal.
The manager added: “If you play golf, and if you change your swing and then you go and play 18 holes the next day, you just return to your old swing, you need to repeat things.
“This is why I was pleased with the way we were for 45 minutes, the structure, sometimes it takes a long time for a player and for the team to gel.
“I’ve done it probably the third or fourth time [where] I’ve come into a team… I’m not saying [starting at] zero, but we like to start from some point and I know it’s going to take time. It takes a lot of repetition.
“And then the players go now to their clubs and play for three weeks before we meet the next time, so then we need to repeat again, all the basic things because the details don’t matter if the basics are not working, that is the first step in every team.”