A new era of Irish football begins tonight when Heimir Hallgrimsson takes charge of the national team for the first time since being appointed in July.
A new manager will always bring excitement and it’s fair to say that the Irish fans need a bit of excitement back after what has been some difficult years during Stephen Kenny’s time in charge.
Although the now St Patrick’s Athletic manager’s stint in control of the national team was a failure, it has taught us a few things.
One of the major lessons should be that the team needs to play to its strengths and not try to be something that it isn’t.
Before Kenny took over the national team, Ireland were relatively successful in terms of qualifying for major tournaments or at least making playoff games.
However, many Irish supporters were dissatisfied with the team because of the style of football they played.
When Kenny took over it was seen as a new dawn for Irish football because he was a manager that was going to have the team playing possession-based football at all costs.
At first there was hope amongst the Irish supporters because the team were trying to pass the ball through the thirds, and after years of watching the team play what some might call ‘ugly football’, it was refreshing to see.
However, that optimism that supporters had at the start soon faded as Ireland failed to win games, and looked well off qualifying for a major tournament.
Kenny did divide supporters of those that backed him and those who believed he was never qualified for the job in the first place.
Those loyal supporters to Kenny believed in the ‘project’ of the former Ireland manager.
That he was building for the future, but after two failed qualification campaigns, three if you include the Euro 2020 playoff game against Slovakia, even the loyalists of Kenny backers couldn’t have argued against the decision to remove him from the national team.
I believe that Kenny’s failing have worked in the favour of Hallgrimsson, obviously in terms that it lead to the former Iceland manager getting the job but also in terms that should he decided to go back to basics, as he has already indicated he will, then supporters shouldn’t be critical if the football isn’t pretty on the eye because they have witness what sort of results the national team will produce if they want to try to be a possession-based side.
I’ve always been in favour of results over style and if Hallgrimsson wants to play a similar type of football that we saw Ireland famously play under the late Jack Charlton then so be it, as long as it brings some success.
Of course, I would love Ireland to be successful and play an attractive brand of football, but so far we have seen that we can’t have both.
It might be different for club football because it can be testing watching a side play defensive football.
If you were watching negative football every week, eventually you probably would get fed-up of viewing it.
But with international football because it is played so seldomly, the style of football shouldn’t be a major issue.
Will the players enjoy playing the type of football it is predicted Hallgrimsson will ask them to?
I suppose some will moan but Hallgrimsson has the argument that the players were given an opportunity to try to play a brand of football they enjoy and they were unsuccessful, so they must buy into his philosophy.
At the end of the day, players enjoy playing football in whatever way, so long as it is successful.
They want that winning feeling walking into the dressing room after the game.
If the players don’t want to get onboard with Hallgrimsson’s beliefs then they shouldn’t be selected to play, because Ireland’s past success has always been built on a united team.
Ireland can’t afford for some players to think the team should be playing a different way when others are happy to play ‘ugly’.
Whatever the results and performances against England and Greece in the upcoming Nations League games, we shouldn’t be quick to judge.
This is Hallgrimsson’s first time working with the players and he might have that the new manager bounce.
We should wait until at least after the final Nations League game against England in November before we start evaluating whether Hallgrimsson is the man to help qualify for their first major tournament since Euro 2016.
