Gavin Cooney reports from FAI HQ, Abbotstown

JOHN O’SHEA INSISTS there is no confusion among the Irish players as to who is in charge of the squad. 

Having served as interim head coach for the March and June friendly windows, O’Shea has been retained as assistant to new head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson, but has been handed an unusually influential role for this double-header of Nations League games against England and Greece.

O’Shea and coach Paddy McCarthy selected the Irish squad for the games, with Hallgrimsson saying he wanted their support as he got to grips with a new job and new culture. Hallgrimsson stuck with the back five system employed by O’Shea for Saturday’s game against England. O’Shea then took the unusual step of conducting the pre-match press conference instead of Hallgrimsson. Uefa mandate that the head coach conducts the press conference the day before a Nations League game. 

O’Shea said the plan for him to conduct the press conference had been agreed ahead of the international window. 

“It’s obviously to give the boss as much time in terms of preparation, the quick turnaround in the games, that was always the case so there is no change in anything”, said O’Shea of his unprecedented media appearance. 

O’Shea does not believe the prominence of his role risks confusing the players as to who is in charge. 

“No fear at all”, he said. “The boss is the boss and there are clear lines on that. As I mentioned, this is the plan that was in place beforehand and we felt there was no reason to change it.

“It’s clear, I’m the assistant. I don’t know why there has to be this constant…the boss is the boss, it’s very simple. The players know that. So I don’t know why you have to keep going on about that. For me personally, it’s clear from the staff’s point of view and the players point of view.” 

O’Shea acknowledged Ireland “clearly have room for improvement” from the England game, as they seek to avenge home-and-away defeats to Greece during last year’s Euro 2024 qualifiers. 

While Seamus Coleman has left the squad following injury sustained against England, Ireland have an otherwise fully-fit squad from which to choose. Festy Ebosele has been included in Coleman’s absence. 

“It’s about us as well and how we go about things and make sure we have that compactness in the team, that aggressiveness in the team and that confidence to go and implement what the plan is”, said O’Shea. 

“The beauty of having a game a few days later gives everyone the chance to bounce back as quickly as possible and improve performances and improve everything about the performance.

“That’s the key bit for us, if you improve the performance levels hopefully that will eventually bring consistent results in our favour. Make sure we are hard to beat and then we go win some matches on the back of that.”

Greece sit top of the group after the opening round of games, having beaten Finland 3-0 at home on Saturday. 

“You reflect on the games against them [last year] because players will be familiar with them. But also understand there is a new manager in place. A Serbian man [Ivan] Jovanovic, he has managed in Greece with clubs teams, so he is familiar with their players. It’s quite similar in a sense of systems, what they’ve been doing, but little tweaks here and there, and obviously it’s just the one game we’ve had to witness against Finland.

“But it’s great in a sense that the lads will hopefully have that bit of knowledge to know that there is no underestimation of this Greece team now. They know they are a very good team, so the levels will have to be increased.”