Three talking points ahead of Greece v Ireland as Heimir Hallgrímsson admits to ‘scary thought’

The Nations League continues on Sunday night with Ireland and Greece meeting at Olympiakos’s home in Piraeus.

Football is a squad game these days, but Ireland head coach Heimir Hallgrímsson is desperate to nail down a regular starting-11 as he continues on his journey as Ireland manager.

In his three games so far in charge of the Boys in Green, he has started 18 players.

And that’s far too many, according to the Icelander, who wants a settled side but admits that is tough to achieve.

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Ahead of Sunday night’s clash with Greece at the Karaiskakis Stadium, home of Greek giants Olympiakos, in Piraeus, Hallgrímsson addressed a number of issues.

18 is too many

Hallgrímsson has picked 18 different players in his three starting-11s to date - and the former Iceland manager admits he would like to achieve a more settled side.

Those 18 players are:

• 3 (appearances): Caoimhin Kelleher, Nathan Collins, Dara O’Shea, Robbie Brady, Sammie Szmodics, Chiedozie Ogbene

• 2: Jason Knight, Will Smallbone, Jayson Molumby

• 1: Seamus Coleman, Andrew Omobamidele, Liam Scales, Matt Doherty, Josh Cullen, Alan Browne, Finn Azaz, Adam Idah, Evan Ferguson

Another six players have also featured in his three games so far as substitutes, including one of Ireland’s Helsinki heroes Festy Ebosele, Jamie McGrath, Troy Parrott, Kasey McAteer and two players who aren’t in the current squad, Callum Robinson and Jake O’Brien.

“That (18 players) is much higher than I'd want,” said Hallgrímsson. “I'd like to have 11 players in every game who tell me, you don't have a chance to take me out of this team. That would be the coach's ideal situation but life is not how you'd want it all the time, the reality is we need to have a lot of players for rotation between games and in games.

“Coming in as a new coach I am learning about the characters, the first time working with Josh (Cullen), for example, there are players I am getting to know for the first time. All coaches would like to have eleven picks all the time. If you look at the best teams, they’re pretty consistent, not 11, but 13,14 or 15 (players). All coaches are constantly looking at that to have a settled team, to see the big picture.”

‘Scary thought’

When Greece drove the biggest of all the nails into the coffin of Stephen Kenny’s Ireland reign, in June of last year, they did so by sprinting out of the traps.

And current boss Heimir Hallgrímsson admits it’s a “scary thought” that they could do so again, especially if Ireland produce the same sluggish start as in Helsinki on Thursday.

“I have watched that game,” he said of the 2-1 defeat 16 months ago. “Looking at it, they were really good, they created a lot of goalscoring chances in the beginning, in the first 20 or 25 minutes, and Ireland was lucky not to concede in that period.

“I think they scored, though, early on, if I remember right (a 15th minute Tasos Bakasetas penalty). Then the (Nathan Collins) equaliser came just before half-time, if I remember it correctly. But looking at that game and looking at our game against Finland, we didn’t start as well as we wanted. So that is a scary thought, them starting on the front-foot and we don’t.

“So we need to improve from our last game and build on what we did the last time, and improve it for this one. We have talked about it already, there will be a lot of emotion. They will be coming in on a high after beating England, so we need to be ready from minute one against this team.”

Nasty player

Heimir Hallgrímsson has declared his desire to make Ireland a team that other nations hate to play against - but does he have any particular players in mind?

He previously suggested at a fan forum that he was looking for a “bastard” - halfway through his second window, has he found one?

“Every game we learn, and this one was a tough one, being one-nil down (against Finland), you need reaction, you need characters," he said. "Like I said before, these times will show you who is a real character and who is not. Normally the characters will step up in hard times, and they did. There were players that stepped up in the second half of the last game, so I got to know some of them.”

Asked if there was an Icelandic example, he replied: “I took Aron Gunnarsson, the captain of Iceland to Qatar [Al-Arabi]. He is still in Qatar [now at Al-Gharafa SC]. He is the type of guy who steps up in all situations, a warrior. I would always use him as a role model; a player who was always important to the team, maybe not the best footballer, but he was always the most important to the team.

“I am looking for characters like that. Technical ability as well, but someone who steps up in times of trouble. You can look at him and he will rise and say, 'Give it to me, I am not afraid.' “In hard times you need guys like this. We have a lot of those guys, we just need to bring their confidence up.”

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