Oct 15,2024
Former Republic of Ireland defender Stephen Kelly says he is seeing signs of a definite change towards a slightly more direct approach under Heimir Hallgrimsson.
The Icelandic native is now four matches into his tenure as Boys in Green manager, with last Thursday's 2-1 Nations League win in Finland marking a first victory of the new era as he stuck to the back-four system that he had moved to for the second of the September games.
Ireland came back down to earth in Greece on Sunday night in a 2-0 defeat in which they were largely dominated by the hosts, aside from short spells in the second half.
"Even just down to Caoimhín kicking the ball and you see how many times yesterday that from a goal kick he turned down the option to play it short, and played it further up the pitch.
"Listen, I'm all for us playing the right style of football but you do it at the right moments.
"Our best bit of play, we played across the back, (Liam) Scales played a forward pass. But it's playing forward, it's not a sideways, backwards, which cause you problems.
"The two goals we gave away, that we gifted to Greece and Finland, were playing sideways and backwards, and we got caught, we got pounced on because every single team in world football wants to press now.
"Every single team wants to be higher up the pitch and wants to apply that press because that's how all teams play now.
"So playing out from the back has a bit more jeopardy to it so you have to cut those mistakes. But there has been a definite bit more direct play and it's not just pumping it into the channel.
"It's playing it forward with quality. We lacked a little bit of it in the first half against Greece because Evan Ferguson and Troy (Parrott) were starved and you could see they struggled in it to get balls to feet, but I suppose Greece were dominant in possession.
"But there's definitely been a change in how we go about it. We're a bit more direct which I like to see because horses for courses, you play to your strengths."
While the defeat to Greece was a reminder of how far Ireland remain behind opposition of that ilk, Kelly is going into the November window with slightly more optimism when Finland visit the Aviva Stadium before the Boys in Green make the trip to take on England at Wembley.
"I'm going in thinking that we're not going to finish bottom of the group," he said.
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"We've got Finland at home and we know we can beat them. We should feel confident we can get a result there.
"Going away to England, it's a free hit. You're not too sure how they're going to turn up, (England) could be exceptional or else they could be mediocre like they were against Greece.
"So I'm hoping it's the mediocre side and we go and get a good result there. I've been very fortunate enough to play against England a good few times in my career and I've never lost to them so it's one of those things, it's one of those games you don't need much motivation for if you're growing up in Ireland and you've been an Ireland supporter your whole life.
"Listen, the disparity between the two squads is pretty big now so it's going to be a difficult one but it's still something you cherish.
"As a player you want to play against the best players in the world and you want to test yourself against the best players in the world and there's probably no better stage to do it with England right now at Wembley, so everybody will be looking forward to that.
"And then you can go, make sure we get a win against Finland, come away at least not getting relegated and we're in a position for that third-place play-off, we stay in the group we're in for seedings and going forward for the World Cup."
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