Keeping an open mind on HH but disappointing he’s not more up to speed on the players. Was hoping he could put his stamp on the team from the off. Understand change needs to be gradual, but stating O’Shea will have heavy involvement in selecting the squad/ picking the team/ and presumably deciding how the team plays against England + Greece is a continuation of a past that was not working rather than a new start.
Gavin Cummiskey in The Irish Times:
Heimir Hallgrímsson’s initial impression of the Republic of Ireland squad he has inherited from Stephen Kenny revealed one potential flaw. “I think in many ways Ireland is similar to Iceland in the sense that we don’t have many high, high-profile players in the Champions League,” he told a room of season ticket holders at the Aviva Stadium last night. “It is going to be down to the group to win the games, not individuals. “I think the first impression of the players is they are really good characters. Maybe a little bit too nice? Sometimes you need a ******* in your team.” Hallgrímsson hopes to remedy this situation. “I am looking for him. Maybe we can develop him.”
The new Ireland manager also intends to introduce an under-23 international in December with a squad largely populated by League of Ireland talent. Due to the cost of such a venture, the FAI have yet to warm to this idea. “I shouldn’t have said it, I regret it a little bit, but it is still my plan to do something like that,” said Hallgrímsson. “Now I am talking to you like I am talking to the FAI – getting your permission to do it.
“It would give players in the League of Ireland a platform to take the next step and gives them a chance to work in the environment of the national team.
“When we did this with Iceland, we did it with Jamaica as well, using domestic players and players from academies, it always provided one or two [for the next international window].
“It gives more weight to the League of Ireland to have a prize at the end of the season. There would be a game for the best players in December.
“The negative thing is there’s a cost to it. For me, if it produces one player it is worth it.”
Hallgrímsson also revealed that assistant coaches John O’Shea and Paddy McCarthy (Glenn Whelan has been redirected to the under-21s) will select the squad he announces next Thursday to play England and Greece in the Nations League at the Aviva Stadium next month.
After serving as interim manager following Stephen Kenny's departure, John O'Shea will act as assistant coach to Heimar Hallgrímsson.
Besides expressing concern about the League of Ireland not having enough young players, the 57-year-old was cautious during his conversation with Off The Ball presenter Will O’Callaghan and in response to some eclectic questions/statements from the floor.
In an hour-plus sitting he did not mention a single Irish player by name until he was asked directly about Caoimhín Kelleher’s game-time conundrum behind Alisson at Anfield. Turns out Hallgrímsson is a Liverpool fan, so that’s half the country lost before a ball is kicked.
There is no concern about the Icelandic dentist, whose most recent job was guiding Jamaica to the Copa America, adopting the possession-based philosophy of his predecessor.
“In-game management for me is having a plan B for everything.”
With England on the horizon and considering Hallgrímsson’s Iceland knocked them out of Euro 2016, the fans wanted to know his secret sauce.
“You need so many stars to align for this to happen, especially for a nation like Iceland. We had a special group of players that were a similar age.
“Then, we had many leaders in different areas. Every time we met, we tried to improve our ‘superpowers.’ For us, it was to be the best defensive team in the world; we’re going to be the best set piece team in the world and we are going to have the best team spirit.
“In my opinion it is better, especially when you are an underdog team, to be really good at five things out of 10, rather than being semi good at 10. You need to be pragmatic.”
A curve ball: Thomas Byrne, the Minister of State for sport, noted this week that the FAI are seeking far too much government funding. What do you think, Heimir? “A political one. In Iceland it was not so much government funding, it was the municipality that pays for the facilities.”
What’s your preferred style of play? “My philosophy is rock’n’roll football. Aggressive. When you lose it you win it back as quick as possible.”
The best question came from the most passionate Irishman imaginable, comparing the visit of England to Dublin on September 7th as AC Milan vs Inter at the San Siro, the Old Firm at Ibrox and the “Fenerbahçe derby” all rolled into one event.
“If the people in this room cut their finger,” went the ultra, “they would bleed FAI blood because we are so passionate for Irish football … we’ll be screaming our heads off at five to five on September 7th, how will you feel?”
“Well said,” Hallgrímsson replied. “My job will be to calm the players down. I don’t think you need to motivate an Irish player. My job to get them focused on what they need to do on the pitch.”
Well said.
Last edited by Stuttgart88; 22/08/2024 at 9:24 AM.
That's a bit of a leap from what he actually said which was simply that O'Shea is picking the squad.Originally Posted by ifk101
I share a bit of your disappointment, but I find it hard to believe he doesn't have a fairly good idea of who our better players are by now. Understandable that he wouldn't know who the wider group is - let's face it, you'd wonder if O'Shea even does (Marcus harness for example). It might just be that he doesn't really want to speak about them. But I'd have preferred if he'd said we have X good goalkeepers, PL centre backs, pace with Ogbene, a lot of good attacking options like Parrott, SS etc. .
Seems like Kelleher is in for a good run in the team!
Max O'Leary finished the season v well and had leapt ahead of Bazunu (when fit) and Travers in my opinion.
Last edited by Stuttgart88; 22/08/2024 at 9:28 AM.
Oh God, I fear we're in for another elongated "James McCarthy is shy" episode here.
Said myself when the idea of a home based squad was talked about that we should go with an U23S squad instead. Focus on young promising players and don't have a hard limit of calling up only home based players.
He says if only one player was found through these squads it will have been worth it. Think even if we had one player in North America that could be called it's worth calling them up.
The fact that it's outside a FIFA window also could mean calling up duals like Jack McGlynn for example. Think someone tried bringing him in to train but his club blocked it cause it was in season.
I think we can let McGlynn go, he made his senior debut earlier this year, albeit in a friendly, and played for their U23 side in the Olympics
https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/202...-stats-1-20-24
Isn’t the squad selected with a team and style of play in mind? If he intends to (fully) pick the team, would he allow somebody else (who he barely knows) to pick the squad? Maybe HH has given O’Shea some guidance in what he wants and to select the squad accordingly, but he hasn’t indicated that. No doubt he has watched players play, but evidently not enough – as suggested in the article you shared (didn’t mention any player by name - except Kelleher?) and yes agree, disappointing he was unable to mention something about the player pool that excites him. But anyways, seems to me he is happy to observe and let O’Shea to effectively continue as interim coach for the time being. Think it will be a while before we see his stamp on the team.
On the goalies, if Travers gets a loan more, I think he might be the best suited to a team that has a more direct and defensive structure. But it's Kelleher's jersey to lose.
I'd say it's possible, yes. The squad is "tell me who our best 25 players are" (maybe with some parameters suggested by HH). I'd expect the actual team selection would have more of the manager's personal stamp.
But just conjecture obviously. Maybe he's totally trusting O'Shea to make all selections while he sits back and observes, maybe he'll trust O'Shea but having clearly told him what HH wants in the XI. Maybe HH really doesn't have a rashers what his inputs are yet - which would be alarming and disappointing. The article alludes to the latter but I'd bet if he was specifically asked to reveal in more granular detail what he knows of the squad he'd have something constructive to say and some ideas to offer. I think the article raises as many questions about what he didn't say as about what he did say.
it makes sense that he lets O'Shea lead the way on squad selection at this stage. TBH id say most posters here could name 23/24 of a 25 man squad this minute so it doesn't matter who picks it.
But there is absolutely no way that the manager wont have put some kind of stamp on style of play etc for the England game. HH will know full well how important the first match is to set the tone for his tenure. No way he entrusts that to someone else.
Id say England might be in for a rude awakening..... new pragmatic Ireland manager, full house, evening ko, declan rice factor, england Euros hang over...... cant wait to be honest!
No doubt – surely curiousity alone would make him look into what he has to work with. But he does have secondary aspects to his role that extend beyond senior manager. Possible the secondary aspects have taken up a disproportionated amount of time to date in the job? If believing the FAI’s selection process – i.e. HH was head-hunted for the role as he matched their criteria more so than HH applied for the role based on how he could improve the team, and HH has secondary aspects to fulfill as part of the role, that he is allowing O’Shea to pick the squad suggests he’s not where he and we would want him to be in knowing the players and what those players are capable/ not capable of doing. If he is not picking the squad, I think that extends to not (fully) picking the team/ style of play. Understandable, but regrettable he’s not there yet given he is starting with a competitive game + against the backdrop of a long-drawn out appointment process and Kenny’s dismal last year in charge.
I said something similar to some others last night ifk. Hard to know exactly what is going on behind the scenes but there is no good reason he isnt up to speed on our top 40/50 players in some way - reports, highlights, preseason games, etc. This leaning on O'Shea - at face value - is borderline unacceptable to me. But I am reserving judgement for now.
I like high energy football. A little bit rock and roll. Many finishes instead of waiting for the perfect one.
He is up to speed lads with the core squad
He is just covering himself in case he was asked about Daniel cerkin or max O'Leary etc. he is 100% picking the team v England
Great minds lad …
Same. Just not keen on the O’Shea element which makes me question what otherwise has been broadly positive noises coming from HH. But looking forward to see us play.
The overall tone of last night seems to have been very positive and anyone that was there has come away from it energized and excited for the campaign ahead. Hallgrimsson seems to have a charisma to get people on side with him and that can only be a good thing in the dressing room.
The heavy reliance on JOS does bother me too. It's comes across as HH is using him as a crutch. If a fully new management team had come in with no connection previously they'd be expected to be up to speed on the players after a few weeks, but that being said I don't think there was a huge amount wrong with the squads O'Shea picked and it was more his lack of in game nous that was his main issue, so HH should hopefully rectify that.
There is one other thing I didn't particularly love from reading the reports of last night, the emphasis of talking about us as the underdogs. We are in most games to be sure, but I don't like that mentality being drilled in all the time. It's kinda the "little Ireland" mentality from Trapattoni. I don't want to start hearing "we don't have the players" on a regular basis.
As IFK said above, an open mind on him and looking forward to the games ahead, except England, there's nothing that excites me about that game
Its really not that complicated!!!
Highlights of last night
Last edited by tetsujin1979; 22/08/2024 at 3:37 PM. Reason: Embedded video
Its really not that complicated!!!
I had hoped he might mention Dan crowley
At the end of that video he talks of building a database of players eligible for Jamacia and how it took him a few months to build it, I think that to me shows that our concerns about him getting up to speed on Irish players will be very short lived.
Its really not that complicated!!!
I wouldn’t worry about the comments on not knowing the players. In a weird way it may be relationship building with the staff he’s inherited. With his first serious choice, his first squad — he’s asking his staff to select it which you’d imagine will build immediate trust.
The core group will be the same regardless of manager, it’s often just the tinkering at the edges that’s different. As for building an underdog mentality, nothing wrong with that as with this generation of players that is our reality.
If he sat down with most lads off this forum for 3 hours he would have that database . It's crazy that in the last 6 weeks he hasn't compiled or had compiled for him.a database of 60 or 70 players to be aware of with a focus on our problem.positions like full backs defensive midfielder s and creative 10s . I really hope he is just underpaying things. Hopefully he is watching drowley as we speak giving a masterclass for notts county as a creative midfielder a position he Hopefully realises we are horribly short in
I see he just grabbed his second in the L2 game against Grimsby. Crowley might warrant a look in some way but HH would be pilloried if he called up a player from L2 - even if it was in a position of weakness. You just need to look at the reaction to SK calling up McClean last year for the Dutch game as evidence of that.
I like high energy football. A little bit rock and roll. Many finishes instead of waiting for the perfect one.
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