Brian Kerr laid out exactly what he sees as the next steps for Heimir Hallgrimsson after a thoroughly deflating defeat for his Ireland team against Greece on Tuesday.
Played two, lost two, scored zero, conceded four is the brutal record Hallgrimsson is faced with from his first two games in charge, with Greece handing him a second 2-0 home reverse in just three days.
The first half had been a vast improvement on Saturday’s defeat to England, but things crumbled once Greece opened the scoring just after the break, and their late second goal was a final sucker-punch.
After the game, Hallgrimsson said that his priority was to find his strongest starting XI as quickly as possible and get that group of players familiar with each other.
I said we’ll see [confidence growing] when the players start to play together more often and in the same structure with the same philosophy, with the same principles.
They’ll start to take decisions quicker, like you saw maybe the England players. All their actions were so quick, pass and move, they all knew what the other was going to do.
We look at some points like we’re not sure, so this hesitation will cause opponents to use the spaces that open or the misplaced pass and we will be punished.
We just need to work on doing the same things against and again, improving that instead of changing players all the time or finding new versions of playing.
He would drive home that point about finding the right group of players across several post-match interviews.
However, appearing on Virgin Media’s coverage of Tuesday night’s game, former Ireland manager Brian Kerr said he felt the Irish head coach should be doing more to reach that point.
READ HERE: Ireland Player Ratings As Greece Pile On The Misery On Wretched Aviva Night
READ HERE: ‘This Is Awful’: Kelly Doesn’t Hold Back With Criticism Of Matt Doherty’s Role In Greece Goal
Brian Kerr lays out next steps for Heimir Hallgrimsson after Greek tragedy
Kerr appeared alongside former Ireland midfielder Glenn Whelan in the Virgin Media studio, and the pair delivered a straightforward assessment of Ireland’s defeat to Greece – it wasn’t good enough.
🗣He has to go and assess these players. He has to get talking to them one on one
🗣Discussions with John and Paddy, yes but he needs to make his own mind up about these players and pick the right team
🗣We are out of the bloody group already
Brian Kerr after the game pic.twitter.com/ZdJLirm1hC
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) September 10, 2024
Brian Kerr would question Heimir Hallgrimsson’s efforts thus far to find his best starting XI. Kerr said that, off the back of two demoralising defeats, Hallgrimsson would now have to religiously attend matches and get to know his players fast, with another international window less than a month away.
The manager said something there about needing to stop rotating players and pick the best players and stick with that. That’s my summation of what he said.
Well, he’s only used 14 players to start, and I counted quickly in my head he’s used three as subs in both matches, Ferguson, McAteer, and Robinson. He’s only used about 17.
He then doesn’t want to be rotating? You have to keep rotating until you find an 11 or 12 or 13! When Cullen is fit, he’ll be back in the team. There’s not too many more who could complain if they were left out of the team.
There’s no one who could complain if they were left out on those two performances. That can’t be his team.
What he has got to do now, he’s got to get out, get busy, start going to loads of matches. Every day, there’s a match on. If there’s an Irish player, if he can get to two or three in a day, he’s got to go and assess these players, he’s got to get talking to them one-to-one after matches or before matches. He’s got to find out the lads who really want to do it.
I don’t know how many matches [he’s been to], I didn’t see any pictures of him in the paper, I didn’t see him on the telly at any matches since the league started in England…maybe he’s somewhere sitting watching the telly and watching loads of matches. But what he needs to do is go out and evaluate these players…and make his own mind up.
Discussions with John, discussions with Paddy, yeah. But now, he’s had two matches, he’s had a bit of a spell, it’s not a long camp [but] he’s gotta make his mind up about these.
It’s hard to argue with Brian Kerr’s assessment of Ireland’s performance against Greece and it certainly feels as though there is a big task ahead of Heimir Hallgrimsson.
He has under a month before gathering a squad together once more for the away day double-header against Finland and Greece.
SEE ALSO: HallgrÃmsson Fears Ireland Jersey “A Bit Too Heavy” For Some Players After Greece Defeat
