Gavin Cooney

THE IRISH MANAGEMENT team have not given up hope of persuading Liam Delap to represent Ireland. 

Chelsea striker Delap, whose father Rory made 11 senior appearances for Ireland, has represented England at every underage grade but has yet to be selected at senior level. Though he has so far expressed a preference to represent England, Irish assistant coach John O’Shea has been in contact with Rory to express the FAI’s interest. 

“It’s in Liam’s corner, as they say”, says O’Shea. “Let’s wait and see.”

Heimir Hallgrimsson added, “It’s a decision that is still just his. He hasn’t played for England and it doesn’t look like he is going to the World Cup, it looks like he is far away from that. But again it is his decision.”

Delap has struggled in his maiden season at Chelsea – scoring twice in 32 appearances across all competitions – but he impressed at Ipswich, having come through the Manchester City academy. 

While the FAI have redoubled efforts to enlist Irish-eligible players from across the world, Hallgrimsson says he is unaware of any more declarees currently on the verge of following Harvey Vale into becoming available for Ireland. 

“We always are on the lookout”, says Hallgrimsson. “If there are good players, we will always want to improve our squad. All coaches would like to improve their squads. We would appreciate any position, if there is a player better than what we have.”

With no World Cup on the horizon, Ireland must now shift focus to Euro 2028, the first tentative steps for which will be taken at a training camp in Spain from the second week of May. Ireland will play a friendly match against Grenada as part of that camp, who may yet provide the opposition for a second friendly game. Given the camp is not part of the official Fifa window, Hallgrimsson’s selection will be largely limited to the Championship and League One players who are not involved in play-off action. The timing also precludes involvement from anyone involved in the League of Ireland, Premier League, and Scottish Premiership. 

Jack Moylan of Lincoln City and Jaden Umeh of Benfica are believed to be among those under consideration. 

Hallgrimsson also reflected on the World Cup qualifying campaign by giving a short presentation to the journalists before him, pointing to several statistics which bear out his claims that Ireland have improved. 

“We feel that we are growing and we talked to the players before the Czechia game”, said Hallgrimsson. “The last two camps [October and November], we have conceded 0.75 goals per game, four games, three goals conceded. And it is similar here, two in Czechia, none tonight [against North Macedonia]. We can lower this maybe, but that would qualify you for any tournament, that’s a statistical fact.” 

He says Ireland have improved defensively in the sense that they do not allow opposition teams play through  them as often as they once did, and are running harder than before. 

“All metrics in running and sprinting has improved. There is correlation: statistically if you do more running, you win more games.

“And then fast attacking, forward-thinking, a lot of things we have improved there tactically, but most of all how we penetrate lines.” 

He showed us statistics which show Ireland have jumped from the 20th percentile to the 95th percentile in terms of penetrating opposition defences, and have leaped from the 20th percentile to the 80th percentile in terms of allowing opposition teams penetrate their defence. They have also improved from the 40th percentile for getting in behind opposition teams to the 90th percentile. 

He also said Ireland have punched above their weight in finishing second in their qualifying group as third seeds, which is only the second time they have outperformed their seeding in a qualifying group in the last 14 years. Hallgrimsson also pointed out that they have come from behind to win a competitive game four times under his tutelage – away to Finland, home and away to Bulgaria, and away to Hungary in Budapest – having last done so against Kazakhstan in 2013.