Gavin Cooney

IRELAND MANAGER HEIMIR Hallgrimsson bemoaned his side’s lack of confidence in their 2-0 defeat to England at the start of their Nations League campaign. 

Declan Rice and Jack Grealish scored the goals in the first-half of a game in which Ireland were thoroughly outclassed, and Hallgrimsson partly attributed England’s superiority to Ireland’s diminished confidence. 

“We have to admit we were second best in this game by far”, he said. “First and foremost it is confidence in decision making, initiative, that was the biggest difference between the teams. The individual quality, I know we can talk about that, but when you are defending in a collective way you need to take decisions and you need to believe in action and reaction.

“We were not good at this compared to England, coming from a good Euros and winning the U21 [Euros in 2023]. All their passes, movements decisions were taken in the belief they would be successful where I felt we were always hesitating, especially looking at the defence: jumping, pressing, etc. It was more individual actions instead of a collective. 

“When we had the chance to cross we didn’t take it, when we had the chance to shoot we didn’t take it. We got into good positions and it was the lack of confidence to take the decision to do things. That was the big difference for me between the teams.”

Ireland’s next Nations League game is against Greece in Dublin next Tuesday, though Hallgrimsson suggested he will not make wholesale changes to the formation or selection. 

“You can react in two ways when you lose a game: you can restart and do something totally different, but that will probably not get you anywhere.

“We did much better in the second half than the first half, it was more initiative. We got a little higher, we were more compact, maybe easy to say when you’re winning 2-0 you take the foot off the gas, but I think we can learn and grow from this and improve step-by-step from what we were doing, instead of changing personnel and formation in the next game.” 

Hallgrimsson also said assistant John O’Shea had significant input into the team and formation selection against England, and said he hopes to have “more authority” in selections in the future. 

“We are all in it together and for sure I need a lot of help in the first one or two camps, not knowing the characters of the players. I am learning as we go, hopefully I will have more authority when time goes on, but I really like the staff, John and Paddy [McCarthy] have been fantastic, a big support.

“When you come to a new culture, you cannot think you can change everyone -  in my case to an Icelandic. You have to adapt to the players, the culture, and what they have been doing and using what is good. When you come into an environment and start to change things because you like it in a certain way, you can’t do that. You have to first see what is good and what is bad before you change it. My learning is now to see what is good, what we can change, I would say 95% of what I have seen here is quality.

“I have said again and again, formation is irrelevant. It’s about fitting the players you have and about the opponent you play. You need to be adaptable on that one.” 

Interim boss Lee Carsley, meanwhile, brushed away the controversy that erupted in the English press over his decision not to sing the British national anthem ahead of the game, as has been his style throughout all of his coaching career. 

“No, it’s definitely not affected my day or my preparations,” said Carsley. I found out about it this morning. I fully respect people’s opinions. It’s something that I’ve never done. I fully respect both national anthems.

“Today was one of the proudest days of my life to lead an England team out in Dublin. I don’t feel hard done by or aggrieved. I’ve played in teams where players are belting out the anthem next to me but I’ve also played in teams where players or coaches don’t sing. I don’t think it makes me any less committed. I was looking forward so much to today and it’s the proudest day of my football career. You couldn’t have written it really.”

Asked whether the reaction had put him off going for the permanent role, he said, “I would never judge anyone for singing or not. I had a great experience when I played for the Republic of Ireland and I’m having a great experience now: the responsibility that I’ve got of being head coach of the senior team. You have to accept that with that comes a bit of judgement. I don’t feel hard done by.”

Carsley also acknowledged he accidentally sat on the Irish bench ahead of the game. 

“I did go down the tunnel and turn right. As you know I’ve spent a lot of time on the bench so I know exactly where that is!”