Opinion: Heimir Halgrimsson needs a win to justify methods and lift the mood of Irish football

Watching Lee Carsley managing England on Saturday was like looking at that girl you fancied in the arms of another man. 

A few Instagram story likes were exchanged and some informal texts and chats were had on occasion and while you were never officially rejected, you never pushed hard enough to find out what could have really happened.

Many of whom would have wanted to see Carsley in an Irish dugout did get their wish, albeit briefly, as the former 40-cap Irish international mistakenly took a seat in the home dugout on Saturday.

We can still tell ourselves that Carsley x England will never be true love - with calls for his head spewed all over the local media before a ball had been kicked - but there is no doubt that his credentials suited the mandate the FAI had put out when looking for Stephen Kenny’s successor.

Losing to England is never fun but this was a sign that some scars will never heal as Declan Rice and Jack Grealish both scored the goals as a cruel reminder as to what Ireland could have had.

The curtain for Heimir Halgrimsson’s first game in charge of the Republic of Ireland drew up to an atmosphere fit to rival anything Landsdowne Road has ever produced.

Hope was restored but it burst like a balloon just as quickly as the realisation that this Ireland team is not capable of delivering big occasions rang painfully true.

For Halgrimsson, only a smattering of fans were present for the new manager to applaud after the full time whistle proving that disgruntlement has already set in and events on Saturday and Monday have not helped matters.

Appointed in July as the man the FAI were supposedly hunting for six months, the Icelandic native came and went quietly from his first press conference as manager.

Saturday’s performance was very disappointing and while the excuse can be made that Halgrimsson only had 3-4 days to get to know his players because the FAI failed to name a successor to Kenny during either of the two friendly windows in March or July, his hands off approach both on the sideline and in the media is baffling at best.

While one can understand why he let John O’Shea pick the squad and handle the majority of team affairs, this is a competitive campaign that we face being all but out of after two games unless radical improvements can be made by tomorrow night at home to Greece.

O’Shea taking the pre-match press conference on Monday (against UEFA rules) was another eyebrow raiser as to who is actually running the show at the Republic of Ireland. To quote Steve Staunton, who is ‘the gaffer’?

Halgrimsson’s back to basics, hard to beat approach looks more of a make us easier to beat while playing even less football at the same time.

But his standoffish approach on the sideline while O’Shea and Paddy McCarthy deliver instructions just raises questions as to who was responsible for the tactics on Saturday that saw Ireland beaten so comprehensively.

Halgrimsson needs to step forward and take control. This is a competitive campaign of which you have been placed in charge for. Take charge.

While 2-0 is by no means a disastrous result when just looking at the scoreline, what is most discouraging about the performance against England is that there was no kick in the team, nothing that the fans can take into the Greece game as a beacon of optimism.

Can Ireland really get results in 2024 with a back five that includes three players in their 30s who are all lacking any pace of note?

Would a back four so we could get an extra body in midfield not be best practice to protect our weakest areas of the pitch?

There are several issues that make Ireland’s long term future very bleak but in the short term Halgrimsson and Ireland cannot afford another disaster tomorrow night.

Topping the Nations League Group was never going to happen but an all important improvement from third seeds to second seeds for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers - which Halgrimsson is contracted until - could give the short term boost Irish football needs.

Finishing second could also be crucial in potentially securing a playoff for the World Cup.

Even such low expectations seem very pie in the sky. Decades of neglect which everybody knows about at this stage have put us in such a poor position in the football pyramid.

Damaging results against Luxembourg and Armenia are no fluke. Our infrastructure stats are on par with these type of nations. We have chosen to be minnows.

We were once a team who could compete with England on the pitch. But now we can only dream of the great days where we would only sporadically qualify for tournaments and Halgrimsson’s start to life in Dublin has only exacerbated the fear that we are going nowhere fast.

Nations League Preview: Republic of Ireland -v- Greece https://t.co/EFL2WmO6Z6

— extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) September 9, 2024