‘Heimir Ball’ needs Ireland to be comfortable out of possession

“Geddis,” goes David Coleman on BBC commentary as the Ipswich Town winger staccato steps in field like Mikey Johnston last Thursday. “Aw, taking on the defender and winning … Osborne … 1-0.”
It’s May 6th, 1978 and Ipswich have taken the lead against Arsenal in the FA Cup final. Coleman remains silent for the next 23 seconds – aeons on live television – to let viewers soak up the sound of 100,000 spectators inside Wembley Stadium.
“Osbourne, this member of a family of 12 who have come on a special bus to watch the match, puts it away. Osbourne, one of the work men of the game, puts himself on the Wembley score sheet.”
Like the Irish, Icelanders have always embraced the romance surrounding the English game. Heimir Hallgrímsson was 10-years-old, so Ipswich’s solitary cup success is presumably etched in memory.
Osbourne’s strike past Pat Jennings settled the ‘78 final. Arsenal, with a spine of Dubliners in Liam Brady, Frank Stapleton and David O’Leary, came again in 1979, beating Manchester United 3-2 in another classic decider at the historic northwest London venue.
“We grow up with live games from England,” said Hallgrímsson. “All Icelanders have a favourite team in the Premier League that reflects the era you grew up in.
“My father was a big Ipswich fan. Everyone knows the history of football is connected to Wembley, for sure.”
Nowadays, the Republic of Ireland manager can visit Portman Road under the cloak of keeping tabs on Sammie Szmodics, Jack Taylor, Dara O’Shea, Chiedozie Ogbene and even Liam Delap.
After a useful baptism of fire, Hallgrímsson is tentatively finding his way in the new job. Two wins over Finland – on Thursday in Dublin and Helsinki last month – leaves enough credit in the bank for most Irish fans to accept the worst case scenario under the Wembley arch this evening.
September defeats to England and Greece at the Aviva Stadium are also forgivable as Hallgrímsson had so little time to prepare for the Nations League’s opening brace that he delegated squad selection to assistant coach John O’Shea, as Ireland stuck with a five man defence that conceded four goals and scored none.
The way Declan Rice and Jack Grealish dominated proceedings two months ago was particularly galling for Irish people who held a lingering belief that the national side could compete with England in the 2020s like they did in the 1990s.
“I think I am more prepared because I know my players better than I did in September so, for sure, I feel more comfortable,” said Hallgrímsson. “Maybe I was naive in September, not having done any work with the players prior.
“We’ve had September, October and now November camps, I’m lucky in that sense, the time between camps has been short and we’ve been able to use similar players from camp to camp, so I feel more confident in how we should play against England and I am pretty sure we will be more, how would you say, mature in the way we do things against England than we did against Finland.”
Rice and Grealish are injured, along with another eight English players, but Hallgrímsson conceded that barely reduces the individual talent Lee Carsley can choose from.
[ Kevin Kilbane: Hints of green shoots as Ireland find a wayOpens in new window ]
[ Lee Carsley focused on ‘getting job done’ against Ireland in final match as England interim managerOpens in new window ]
“I think the depth of the England squad is so huge it really doesn’t affect a lot as they have so many players playing at the high level with high individual qualities. But then again we probably have around 10 players missing from our squad.”
Aston Villa defender Ezri Konsa is the latest withdrawal from the England group.
“I don’t think it changes anything that England are missing players. They [secured] a tremendous result in Greece. For me it was a surprising result, 3-0 away against Greece.”
Hallgrímsson knows exactly how England took the Greeks apart last Thursday.
“When we played England at home we played three center backs [Nathan Collins, Dara O’Shea and Séámus Coleman], we played a 5-4-1 but I thought three centre backs didn’t work well enough. Since then we have played a back four and I think we have done better.
“If you saw the England game against Greece, they are three at the back in possession, three players up front: wingers [Noni Madueke and Anthony Gordon] pinning the opponent on the sidelines and then a striker [Ollie Watkins].
“So they have three set [up front] and three set at the back. But the other four are just all over the pitch. If we want to play man versus man against them, it will be really tricky with big spaces for talented players on the ball. We would like to limit some spaces, guide them to other spaces, and the formation will show what we want to happen during the game.
“Of course, I am not going to tell you what formation we will play but we have been quite flexible in whatever you like to call the formation. The principles should always be the same.”
Whatever tactics Ireland settle upon, West Brom’s Jayson Molumby and Burnley’s Josh Cullen are guaranteed a gruelling night trying to contain Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham, Conor Gallagher of Atlético Madrid and Liverpool’s Curtis Jones.
But Hallgrímsson can make use of the last two months as next year’s six-game World Cup qualification campaign is expected to happen in the same condensed September to November window. From the FAI board down, everyone agrees that his time in charge will be judged by these six results in 2025.
“Finland should have scored against us, in all honesty, but we have been improving, in my opinion, in defence. We are more in sync how we would like to defend so I feel like we are getting stronger in that area.
“But then it is about the psychology of not having the ball and having the patience to be defending and for a long time maybe you don’t get hold of the ball. You always of course as a footballer would like to have the ball.”
Parity of possession is never going to happen against England at Wembley, not in the 1990s and not in the 2020s.
“Playing a game in our heads, it’s definitely going to be more possession England than Ireland and we just need to be aware of that fact. Don’t be too agitated in defence. We will need at times to suffer and do a lot of running without the ball and we just need to accept that, that’s probably how the game will be played.”