Nov 23,2024
Heimir Hallgrimsson is confident the Republic of Ireland's second-half collapse England was "an outlier" that they can put right in March's Nations League B/C relegation/promotion play-off against Bulgaria.
The Boys in Green were pitted against the world No 84-ranked Bulgarians in Friday morning's draw.
They need to win over two legs to preserve their League B status, and though Hallgrimsson was initially scathing of his players following their Wembley meltdown, he offered a more considered assessment of the campaign today.
"I feel so," he replied when asked if he had a clearer idea of how to plot a way forward, having used 31 players across the six Nations League matches. Only Caoimhín Kelleher, Dara O'Shea, Nathan Collins, Evan Ferguson and Sammie Szmodics featured in every game.
"Saying that after a 5-0 loss is always kind of strange but if I look at the second half against England as an outlier; I think we have taken good steps.
"I needed contact time with the group, with the squad, to try to find the players who will fit how we want things to be done. So the number of players is probably according to what I expected in the beginning.
"Obviously, always it's better to do a bigger camp with the players at the beginning and select from there but this was how it was. I think we used it wisely.
"My contact time with the players is three weeks, three weeks and two days or something, so it’s not much. It’s good it was September, October, November. It was a continuity in what we were saying and our message was pretty clear in my opinion, and the players now know what we expect."
The head coach will use the Christmas period to fully analyse his first three months at the helm, airing his hope that "time will heal these wounds" following that difficult evening in London.
"Now, it's a little bit of a quieter time for me and a good time to look back and reflect and just gather every key note that I've put in my diary and go through it and gather my thoughts," he said.
"It's not my favourite, it's not the worst."
Bulgaria finished second behind Northern Ireland in League C Group C3. They beat Michael O'Neill's team 1-0 on a poor pitch in Plovdiv, but were hammered 5-0 at Windsor Park.
Ireland last played Bulgaria in the 2020 Nations League, drawing 0-0 in Dublin and 1-1 in Sofia.
"I think Bulgaria is an OK draw," added Hallgrimsson.
"It's not my favourite, it's not the worst. Slovakia was the highest FIFA-ranked team and everyone would like to avoid them. Yeah it's probably going to be an equal game like most of these set-ups.
"They were in a group with Northern Ireland and... they lost in Belfast but that is kind of an outlier in all the results. They had four clean sheets in that group and somebody had told me Ireland had them in the group in 2020 and it was two draws.
"You would expect a low-scoring game when you look at the goals and statistics."
Hallgrimsson also swatted away any suggestions Ireland would be better served dropping down to League C, where victories would come easier against weaker opposition.
"Well it's different opinions as to how important it is to be in League B, some say it's even better to be in (League) C to have more chances of winning games," he said.
"My opinion is that you should always play the stronger team and try to improve that way. That's my opinion and I think it's important that if we want to try to qualify for finals. It's always better to play better teams than not."
