WRITING FOR Rolling Stone magazine in 1970, the famed journalist and author Greil Marcus once opened a review of Bob Dylan’s ‘Self Portrait’ album by asking: ‘What is this shit?’
Many Ireland fans were essentially saying the same thing at half-time at the Aviva Stadium last night, after another underwhelming opening 45 minutes.
Heimir Hallgrímsson said before the game that he would take a “shitty game and win 1-0,”. Yet some people were still taken aback by the sheer lack of quality on display.
Against the lowest-seeded team in the group and the 103rd-ranked country in the world according to Fifa, Ireland had, for long spells, looked the inferior side for the second international window in a row.
On home turf, by half-time, the Boys in Green managed just 45% possession and zero shots on target in a must-win game.
The hosts completed 187 passes compared to 254 for their opponents.
Many critics felt the team’s approach was too conservative.
Ireland played with three centre-backs, plus two wing-backs/full-backs. They also had Festy Ebosele, generally regarded as a full-back or wing-back, playing in a more attacking role.
And until Troy Parrott’s introduction in the 65th minute — 13 minutes after the visitors had been reduced to 10 men — they had just one out-and-out striker on the pitch.
It was understandable to take such an approach against world number five team Portugal on Saturday, but many onlookers objected to a style that ostensibly wasn’t drastically different at home to Armenia.
But Hallgrímsson will feel everything was vindicated by the result, as Ireland won 1-0 to keep alive their World Cup qualifying hopes.
And perhaps it is hard to blame him when you consider the following facts.
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Before Tuesday night, it was almost two years to the day since Ireland’s last qualifying win — a 4-0 victory away to Gibraltar.
It had been almost four years since they won a World Cup qualifier, beating Luxembourg 3-0 on the road.
Their last home World Cup qualifying remarkably came in the Martin O’Neill era in 2017 when they beat Moldova 2-0.
Hallgrímsson’s side took encouragement from Saturday’s unfortunate late 1-0 loss to group favourites Portugal.
A similar scenario occurred in the 2-1 defeat to the same opposition in 2021, when Cristiano Ronaldo scored a couple of late goals.
Stephen Kenny’s team followed that performance in the same international window with a 1-1 draw at home against Azerbaijan.
A positive display followed by a poor one has been a recurring feature for the national team — and as the above example highlights, it is an issue that predates Heimir Hallgrímsson’s tenure.
The second game in the international window has proved particularly hard to navigate.
Counting only competitive games, before Tuesday night, the Boys in Green have won this fixture just once (against Bulgaria last March) under the Icelandic coach, losing the other four.
So any suggestions that Ireland had turned a corner in Lisbon were met with justifiable scepticism from long-term viewers of this side.
Last month, Ireland adopted a more attacking style against Armenia and got outplayed as a result.
They were similarly badly exposed in the first half by being too open against Hungary.
The main positive from this window is that Hallgrímsson has at least seemingly made Ireland tougher to play and score against.
Keeping Armenia and (nearly) Portugal at bay is no mean feat.
Given Ireland’s abysmal record in qualifiers, it is hard to justify a more expansive approach against almost anyone.
There are five players in the squad who are expected to play regular Premier League football this season.
One goalkeeper (Caoimhín Kelleher), three defenders (Matt Doherty, Nathan Collins and Jake O’Brien) and one defensive midfielder (Josh Cullen).
In other words, most of Ireland’s best players are defenders.
That is why Hallgrímsson has become increasingly conservative, because it is the most logical way forward, to build around a solid base.
There are very few teams now that Ireland can expect to dominate.
So it makes sense for Hallgrímsson to focus on being defensive, prioritise set pieces (from which Evan Ferguson scored a winner last night) and hope that Ryan Manning or Finn Azaz might be able to occasionally conjure some creative ingenuity on the occasions where the team is not set up to defend.
Ireland 1-0 Armenia: The breakthrough against the 10 men of Armenia comes through the head of Evan Ferguson, who nods home from Will Smallbone's cross.
That strategy worked last night, albeit with the caveat that Ireland were somewhat fortunate as Armenia’s captain, Tigran Barseghyan, lost his head in a moment of madness and got sent off following a headbutt on Azaz, leaving the visitors with 10 men for most of the second half.
Unless the Armenians can now do Ireland a big favour by taking points off Hungary in Yerevan, the Boys in Green will likely need to take a minimum of four points from their final round of games against Portugal and Hungary to finish second, and potentially have to overcome the latter by a margin of more than one goal.
It may not be the inspirational football Kenny had once hoped to oversee, but two more “shitty” wins next month would be more than welcome, and that pathway represents Ireland’s only conceivable hope of an unlikely victory.
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Here’s why Ireland are now betting on an ultra conservative approach
WRITING FOR Rolling Stone magazine in 1970, the famed journalist and author Greil Marcus once opened a review of Bob Dylan’s ‘Self Portrait’ album by asking: ‘What is this shit?’
Many Ireland fans were essentially saying the same thing at half-time at the Aviva Stadium last night, after another underwhelming opening 45 minutes.
Heimir Hallgrímsson said before the game that he would take a “shitty game and win 1-0,”. Yet some people were still taken aback by the sheer lack of quality on display.
Against the lowest-seeded team in the group and the 103rd-ranked country in the world according to Fifa, Ireland had, for long spells, looked the inferior side for the second international window in a row.
On home turf, by half-time, the Boys in Green managed just 45% possession and zero shots on target in a must-win game.
The hosts completed 187 passes compared to 254 for their opponents.
Many critics felt the team’s approach was too conservative.
Ireland played with three centre-backs, plus two wing-backs/full-backs. They also had Festy Ebosele, generally regarded as a full-back or wing-back, playing in a more attacking role.
And until Troy Parrott’s introduction in the 65th minute — 13 minutes after the visitors had been reduced to 10 men — they had just one out-and-out striker on the pitch.
It was understandable to take such an approach against world number five team Portugal on Saturday, but many onlookers objected to a style that ostensibly wasn’t drastically different at home to Armenia.
But Hallgrímsson will feel everything was vindicated by the result, as Ireland won 1-0 to keep alive their World Cup qualifying hopes.
And perhaps it is hard to blame him when you consider the following facts.
Before Tuesday night, it was almost two years to the day since Ireland’s last qualifying win — a 4-0 victory away to Gibraltar.
It had been almost four years since they won a World Cup qualifier, beating Luxembourg 3-0 on the road.
Their last home World Cup qualifying remarkably came in the Martin O’Neill era in 2017 when they beat Moldova 2-0.
Hallgrímsson’s side took encouragement from Saturday’s unfortunate late 1-0 loss to group favourites Portugal.
A similar scenario occurred in the 2-1 defeat to the same opposition in 2021, when Cristiano Ronaldo scored a couple of late goals.
Stephen Kenny’s team followed that performance in the same international window with a 1-1 draw at home against Azerbaijan.
A positive display followed by a poor one has been a recurring feature for the national team — and as the above example highlights, it is an issue that predates Heimir Hallgrímsson’s tenure.
The second game in the international window has proved particularly hard to navigate.
Counting only competitive games, before Tuesday night, the Boys in Green have won this fixture just once (against Bulgaria last March) under the Icelandic coach, losing the other four.
So any suggestions that Ireland had turned a corner in Lisbon were met with justifiable scepticism from long-term viewers of this side.
Last month, Ireland adopted a more attacking style against Armenia and got outplayed as a result.
They were similarly badly exposed in the first half by being too open against Hungary.
The main positive from this window is that Hallgrímsson has at least seemingly made Ireland tougher to play and score against.
Keeping Armenia and (nearly) Portugal at bay is no mean feat.
Given Ireland’s abysmal record in qualifiers, it is hard to justify a more expansive approach against almost anyone.
There are five players in the squad who are expected to play regular Premier League football this season.
One goalkeeper (Caoimhín Kelleher), three defenders (Matt Doherty, Nathan Collins and Jake O’Brien) and one defensive midfielder (Josh Cullen).
In other words, most of Ireland’s best players are defenders.
That is why Hallgrímsson has become increasingly conservative, because it is the most logical way forward, to build around a solid base.
There are very few teams now that Ireland can expect to dominate.
So it makes sense for Hallgrímsson to focus on being defensive, prioritise set pieces (from which Evan Ferguson scored a winner last night) and hope that Ryan Manning or Finn Azaz might be able to occasionally conjure some creative ingenuity on the occasions where the team is not set up to defend.
That strategy worked last night, albeit with the caveat that Ireland were somewhat fortunate as Armenia’s captain, Tigran Barseghyan, lost his head in a moment of madness and got sent off following a headbutt on Azaz, leaving the visitors with 10 men for most of the second half.
Unless the Armenians can now do Ireland a big favour by taking points off Hungary in Yerevan, the Boys in Green will likely need to take a minimum of four points from their final round of games against Portugal and Hungary to finish second, and potentially have to overcome the latter by a margin of more than one goal.
It may not be the inspirational football Kenny had once hoped to oversee, but two more “shitty” wins next month would be more than welcome, and that pathway represents Ireland’s only conceivable hope of an unlikely victory.
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Comment heimir halgrimsson Soccer talking point Armenia Ireland Republic