Almost a year in and Heimir Hallgrímsson's message is sinking in

Irish Daily Mirror

a day ago

First, there was his January plan and a tantalising prospect of a winter trip to the Caribbean to blood players, mainly from the League of Ireland.
Heimir Hallgrímsson floated that one around the time of his appointment last July.
The financial reality of his employers, the FAI, put an end to that idea, which he had hoped would have given him extra time on the training pitch.
The Ireland manager has often expressed his frustration at the lack of 'boots on the ground' time he gets with his players - a situation exacerbated when his hopes for a May training camp were dashed.
So how has he managed to get his message across in the short space of time that he has had to date with them?
Keep it simple!
For many of the sessions he does get, there are restrictions on workloads because of proximity to club games and the tight turnaround between international games.
Yet his experience at international level - with Iceland and Jamaica - has taught him the most efficient ways to communicate his philosophy, and how to tailor his methods to suit the personnel involved.
So he has seen improvements and he has been able to identify areas in need of improvement.
Hallgrímsson said: 'I would say we have taken a step both defensively and in attack, we have tried to simplify things, some things we like to repeat all the time.
'Some things the players are starting to understand, what to think when you win the ball, where to look, our identity is clearer and clearer every camp we play and we try to hammer that home.
'As I have said often, going to a club, playing for your club for three months and then coming in for a week with the national team that's the most important thing, to try and sink in how we should think as a team, defend as a team, what are the principles here.
'That's the most important thing in a national team, that the principles are 100 percent.
'If you don't have the basics, then details don't matter. We try to hammer in the basics, in our principles defending and our principles in attack.
'Hopefully we see it, but we see it when we analyse the game, show them the clips of the good things that are happening.
'It's because they are thinking now more and more the same way.'
He added: 'We wanted to have a camp in May to add knowledge to more players, see new faces and rock the boat.
'We've been more or less picking a similar squad so when we lost out on the May camp we still opened spots for new players to come in.'
After the March play-off success against Bulgaria, Hallgrímsson is eager to keep Ireland's winning start to 2025 going and to keep momentum building into September's World Cup qualifiers against Hungary at home and in Armenia.
However, he said: 'I wouldn't mind losing both these games if we won both games in September if you are thinking about it that way.
'Obviously we want to win all of our matches and we go to every match to win it. We have a good squad now and we are going to go for it, for sure.'
One newcomer who hopes to play his way into Hallgrímsson's September plans is Stade Reims midfielder John Joe Patrick Finn.
The Icelander recalled how Finn - Spanish born and also eligible for Cameroon - quickly assured him of his commitment to Ireland.
'Yeah, we obviously watched him and analysed him before I went to meet him. My question was is he thinking Ireland or is he thinking something different,' said Hallgrímsson.
'That was probably the first question before we spent more time on him.
'He wanted to commit to Ireland, I think he had two or three other nations to choose from and that is something as an Association we need to look at because there are going to be a lot of dual nationalities in the future.
'And then coming into the camp, I think he was in a good condition, it was unlucky coming in they lost a play-off match so they got relegated on the last day of the season.
'But a good kid, he obviously has to grow a little bit more as a player to be starting for Ireland, but we thought it was a good moment to look at him, to see him and he's done well in training.
'But we see he needs to improve in certain areas and that is the message to take home.'