Gavin Cooney

AND SO ENDS the First Year of Heimir. 

Hallgrimsson will be more than 12 months in the job by the time Ireland next kick off in September, and so we look back at the achievements and the yet-to-dos of a 10-match reign that has thus far featured four wins, four defeats, and two draws. 

Successes 

Designing a structure

Ireland have thus far betrayed a very clear indication as to what they have been doing on the training ground. 

Ireland have developed an obvious method of play depending on the level of the opposition, a necessary clarity in advance of a sprint through World Cup qualifying. 

Without possession, Ireland set up in a 4-4-2, but this switches to a 3-4-2-1 – a little like how Shamrock Rovers play – when they have the ball. 

The 5-0 hammering to England at Wembley is, of course, best forgotten, but the first half offered a vision of Ireland may choose to set up against group heavyweights Portugal. Nathan Collins was selected in central midfield and asked to choke central areas and force England wide, at which point he dropped into centre-back and pushed the Irish defence out wide, thereby putting pressure on the incipient English cross. It was all going so well, too, until Liam Scales was sent off and Ireland imploded. 

But with Cristiano Ronaldo – the best penalty-box player in the history of the sport – likely to await over qualifying, they have a blueprint to try and curb his influence. Time has been put to good use.

Building depth 

Stephen Kenny completely overhauled the Irish squad and greatly broadened the player pool for Hallgrimsson, who has nonetheless sought to assess even more potential options. The manager has used 37 players in total across his 10 games thus far, and that doesn’t include players who have been called up and have not played, including Shane Duffy, Josh Honohan, Mark Travers, Josh Keeley, and Bosun Lawal. 

The consequence is Ireland have depth in most positions now, although that is partly a consequence of too many players not doing enough to separate themselves from their positional rivals. This is most obvious in central midfield, where Ireland have plenty of options, almost all of them easily interchangable.

Ireland do, however, lack some depth at left-back, which is why Robbie Brady has emerged as such a crucial player. Ryan Manning is better further forward, Callum O’Dowda is injury-prone and at League One level, and Matt Doherty is an option but much more comfortable on the right flank. Given the lack of alternates to Brady, don’t be shocked if James McClean yet makes an unlikely Irish comeback. 

Hallgrimsson has been frustrated at other attempts to build depth. A home-based training camp in January didn’t happen as the FAI hadn’t budgeted for it, while additional friendlies slated for May – which would feature Championship players and padded out by those the fringes of contention – fell apart when one of Ireland’s two opponents withdrew. A less diplomatic manager may have publicly voiced his annoyance.

Curbing counter-attacks 

Ireland have looked much more secure under Hallgrimsson when they turn the ball over, a regular area of weakness under Stephen Kenny. (If they were rarely cut open in the same way under previous managers, it was at least partly down to the fact they rarely attacked in such a way as to leave themselves open.)

Hallgrimsson’s team has thus far struck a better balance. He has spoken of the importance of “rest defence”, which is how Ireland are set up to defend opposition counters when they have the ball. The above formation usually keeps three centre-backs and two midfielders behind the ball in the event Ireland lose it, and thus gums up the middle of the pitch whenever Ireland are turned over. They have also become more clever and effective at committing those small, niggly, non-bookable fouls to stop opposition counters whenever it’s threatened. 

The yet-to-dos

Build a clear starting XI

Hallgrimsson spoke early in the job of wanting to create an obvious hierarchy within the squad, with a settled starting XI building the kind of cohesion that is invaluable at international level. That hasn’t happened. It’s partly because of injury, partly because of the manager’s own calls, and partly because some of those who have been given opportunities haven’t done enough to make themselves undroppable. 

From this remove, only Caoimhín Kelleher, Nathan Collins, Robbie Brady, and Josh Cullen are an absolute lock to start against Hungary.

Matt Doherty, Dara O’Shea, Jason Knight, and Troy Parrott have probably done enough to deserve inclusion too, but equally, would there be a big step-down if they were respectively replaced by Jake O’Brien, Liam Scales, Will Smallbone, and Adam Idah? 

Otherwise, all of Chiedozie Ogbene, Festy Ebosele, Mikey Johnston and Kasey McAteer are competing for a spot on the right wing, while Hallgrimsson can pick any two from McAteer, Johnson, Finn Azaz, Ryan Manning, Jack Taylor, Sammie Szmodics, and Evan Ferguson for the two number 10 spots. 

Every international manager wants options, but Hallgrimsson would prefer for one or two of these players to elevate themselves significantly above their compatriots. 

Stop leaking goals

For all of Ireland’s solidity in transition, they continue to concede goals: Tuesday’s clean sheet against Luxembourg was only the second of Hallgrimsson’s reign. (The first came at home to Finland, and required Caoimhín Kelleher to save a penalty.) 

Ireland have conceded 15 goals across Hallgrimsson’s first 10 games, two more than the equivalent figure across Stephen Kenny’s final 10 matches in charge. (Granted, a third of the Hallgrimsson figure came with 10 men in that berserk second half at Wembley, though Kenny’s run includes home-and-away games against France and Netherlands.)

Hallgrimsson has identified a trend of conceding from crosses, which he says comes from Ireland becoming too passive. This is a slightly worrying trend, that Ireland can struggle when they sink deep and defend their penalty area. With tests against Portugal and Hungary awaiting, that is something they must improve.

Vastly improve the attack

Though Ireland appear to be better balanced, they haven’t vastly improved their attacking output, given they have scored eight goals across their 10 games under Hallgrimsson.

Though it’s a small sample size with which to make our contrast, Ireland averaged 1.175 goals per game across Stephen Kenny’s 40 games. 

Take the outliers of a couple of strolls against Gibraltar out of the equation, and Ireland averaged 10.6 shots per game in Kenny’s final year in charge, whereas they are at 9.1 per game under Hallgrimsson. 

Given Ireland are third seeds, they’ll spend more of the forthcoming qualification group on the backfoot, but they must add more in attack to pick up the points they need, especially in the ties with bottom-ranked Armenia.