2 weeks Ago
Heimir Hallgrimsson sounds more like a man on a journey to emotional recovery than a football manager when he speaks about taking time to step back, reflect and to “heal wounds”. His next engagement has serious consequences – relegation – in the event of failure. The Ireland boss has been given one advantage in the form of a favourable draw for Nations League play-off, against a beatable opponent (Bulgaria), who are also bruised after a recent 5-0 hammering.
He’s now fully aware of the gaps that exist in his squad and in the coalface of the Irish game, those fissures – in terms of the quality of the players and also their mental fragility as exposed in that timid and reckless surrender to England – in need of repair before things improve. “Hopefully time will heal these wounds. Now, it’s a little bit more of a quieter time for me, and a good time to look back and reflect and just gather every keynote that I’ve put in my diary, and go through it and gather my thoughts,” he said just after that promotion/relegation draw was made at UEFA HQ in Switzerland yesterday.
He’s also conscious that the March play-off against Bulgaria, home and away, is a phony war of sorts, as the real business starts next autumn in the form of World Cup qualifiers. Ireland’s presence in the March games in the Nations League means that Hallgrimsson’s outfit will be placed in a four-team group for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, so he will have only friendlies to cope with in the June window. , a boon for a man who came into his first camp in September with no friendly experience of his own.
“I think so,” he said on Friday when asked if being in a four-team group – and no qualifiers in that traditionally tricky June window – made him more positive about qualification even though Ireland will be third seeds. “The good thing is that we are in a four-team group, that is more or less 100% confirmed. “That is a good thing, then we can use June for final preparation, more relaxed.
We’ve talked about the June window for us. “The teams that we can face, especially from Pot 2, are not teams that are much better than us, even though they are higher-ranked. It gives me hope than we can do things.
No matter who we face, we will be ready when it comes to the World Cup, we can get results.” Of course that means a rise in the low standards shown in that Wembley debacle, and Hallgrimsson’s praise for Andy Moran, who impressed in his 15-minute cameo as a sub. He had the thankless task of being thrown into a side already 3-0 down.
There are hints that changes are on the way if younger talents like Moran and other U-21 players can work their way into his plans. “We have names in our head, that we are monitoring. I thought, for example, it was positive, the introduction of Andy Moran.
“He showed leadership skills, he was not afraid to take the ball in probably the worst moment for a sub, to come on in a game you know is kind of lost. But he showed good characteristics once he came in so that’s a good thing,” he said. “Losing with this number has been tough.
And criticism, you cannot answer that in any way. You need to take it in. Because when you lose five- zero you’ve definitely done something wrong.
We’re not hiding. The goals we conceded were very soft and strange but I think again it was down to the mentality and psychology, we lost our heads. “We lost a player, and we conceded a goal, a kind of mental breakdown, moments of madness, we conceded three goals in six minutes and it’s game over.
It’s tough to come from back that.” But Ireland have to at least try to come back from such a dispiriting defeat at the end of an underwhelming Nations League campaign. There is genuine relief in the Irish camp that they avoided a dangerous, talented and motivated Slovakia, instead getting drawn with a demoralised Bulgaria, who are 21 places below Ireland in the world rankings.
The fact that Bulgaria are not leaping for joy at being drawn with Ireland shows how they are at a low ebb. Rather like Ireland, their current side are a long way from the team which competed on the World Cup stage in the USA 30 years ago. The current Bulgarian team, largely made up of home-based players but short on genuine quality, must try to outwit Ireland and aim for promotion to Nations League B.
Their manager, home-grown coach and former international Ilian Iliev said: “The Irish are a tough opponent, they weren’t my favourite opponent” and conceded that his side needed to be a lot better than their last trip to this island, a 5-0 hammering in Belfast last month. Hallgrimsson is pleased to have the away leg – to be played not in Sofia but in Plovdiv – first. “I think it’s always an advantage in this.
The travelling, just new locations etc. It’s good to have a home advantage. It’s a tricky place to go to, Bulgaria.
“If you look at their results, it’s a lot of low-scoring games. Clean sheets is their strength. That is going to be a tricky thing, to break them down for sure.
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