HEIMIR HALLGRIMSSON IS unlikely to reprise Stephen Kenny’s motivational video ahead of tomorrow’s Nations League clash with England, saying his job is to “cool down” the Irish players ahead of kick-off.
Kenny showed his players a video splicing previous Irish goals against England with moments from Irish history ahead of a friendly at Wembley in 2020, which ended in a 3-0 defeat. The FAI subsequently investigated Kenny’s decision following a complaint, but ultimately cleared him of any wrongdoing. Then FAI chairman Roy Barrett admitted the FAI blew the incident out of proportion.
Hallgrimsson won’t be doing likewise, however.
“For us coaches it’s probably not necessary to motivate the players to play against England”, the new manager said at his pre-match press conference. “It’s probably the opposite for us, to just remind them what they should be doing on the pitch, focus on the tactics etc.
“That has been kind of what we have been talking about. It has probably been to cool them down more than to get them excited and motivated.”
England have dropped into League B following relegation in their previous campaign, and provide daunting opponents for Hallgrimsson in his first game in charge. The new manager did famously knock England out of Euro 2016 when he was in co-charge of his native Iceland, but says this edition is a much stronger England team. (England have made each of the previous two Euros finals since that Iceland humiliation.)
“It’s a totally different team”, said Hallgrimsson. “The individual quality, the technical skills, the speed, of this team is much higher than the one we played.
“That night was special. Everything we did that night succeeded, whether it was tactical, taking our chances, defending our goal, and nothing England tried that night succeeded. So it was just one of those days. Hopefully it will come again tomorrow. But we know, even if we have our best game, it still isn’t sure it will lead into a victory against a good team like England.”
Ireland have a fully fit, 23-man squad from which to choose for the game, and Hallgrimsson will inform of his players of the starting team later today. He was in no mood to let anything slip to the media, however.
“You will see when we kick off”, he said. “We’re not going to talk about how we play or our tactics.”
One possibility is the deployment of one of Ireland’s many centre-halves as a midfielder, given Ireland’s relative lack of options and physicality in the latter category. Hallgrimsson used this tactic to success in Jamaica’s two-legged victory over Canada in the Concacaf Nations League.
“A lot of them can play midfield, yes”, Hallgrimsson said of his centre-backs. “If we were considering it, I would probably not tell you.”
Style-wise, don’t expect Ireland to be particularly ambitious in possession.
“If Ireland has a chance to beat England that’s collective, for sure. Man for man, gung ho, probably nine [times] out of ten, England would win. So we need to play collective against them, and that is going to be the way to win the match tomorrow.
“Playing the game in your head statistically, looking at past games, I think England will have more ball possession than us and if we are defending 60 percent of the time, then we need to be prepared for that.
“But that is how I see the game. Probably we will be defending more than attacking. But when we get it, we have our solutions going forward. Hopefully we will score some goals. Whether we will have more possession than them is irrelevant if we score goals from our chances.”
