Heimir Hallgrimsson says Republic of Ireland must raise standards in World Cup qualifiers after flat Luxembourg display

The Irish Sun

4 days ago

HEIMIR HALLGRÍMSSON has warned his players there can be no more sloppy seconds.
Ireland impressed on
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Republic of Ireland head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson was not happy. after the poor draw in Luxembourg
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The Ireland boss says standards must improve before the World Cup qualifiers later this year
His side will begin their
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'It's good to keep a clean sheet but we all felt that in the first half we were sloppy, the game was boring in the first half.
"All the good things we did against Senegal were missing, all the quick movement, the press, the ball speed - so sloppy.
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'We were so different from all the things we want to represent. We lost duels, we lost ball, our rotations were slow, our pressing was more individual than collective.
'It was not tactical, I think it was just focus. We were not doing the things we did four days ago.
'We changed in the second half, we had more tempo, and won more duels.
'But it was not good enough. We always like answers to questions and this one is a negative one, so we at least know that.
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We can take a lot of things into account, mostly psychological and mental, we know it's the end of the season and going in the off-season the players are probably thinking 'I don't want to get injured'.
'But there is no excuse. We made Luxembourg look like a really good team. They are a good team but we made them look even better.
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"We go in September and play the higher ranked team first, like we did now, and then the lower ranked team away.
"So this is definitely something that we can learn from. We must play the same way against everyone.
'Whether it's a friendly at the end of season or a group stage game, we need to play the same way all the time.
"I think this game will just teach us a lesson.
"We had some chances but still even if we won the game we wouldn't be happy with the performance. We must look at the performance first.'
He said: 'We are the ones giving him playing time so he should be happy to get games.
'We all know what he can do and hopefully he starts the new season well. That would be a big plus for us. It's difficult to demand something from someone who hasn't had game time.
'He's been really sharp in training but he was probably tired at the end. We wanted him to play 90 minutes but we didn't want him to get injured.'
There was one positive with Max O'Leary keeping a clean sheet on his debut, six years after he was first called into the squad.
He said: 'He has always shown up and supported the keeper who has been no 1 who has been Caoimhín Kelleher since I came in and Gavin Bazunu before.
'He's just a fantastic team player but also a good goalkeeper and the fans got to see that.'