Eoin Harrington reporting from the Aviva Stadium
Heimir Hallgrimsson ... after his first game in charge of Ireland saw England run out comfortable 2-0 winners on their first competitive visit to Dublin since 1990.
Hallgrimsson was conservative with his debut team selection, opting for the back five favoured so heavily during the Stephen Kenny era. Veteran Robbie Brady was the choice at left-back, with Evan Ferguson ultimately not making the cut for the starting XI.
Ireland would make a bright start but, ultimately, the safe approach made little difference.
Once Declan Rice opened the scoring in horrifically predictable and poetic fashion, England had little difficulty asserting their dominance over proceedings.
🇮🇪 0-2 🏴
Shades of what might have been for Ireland as Rice sets up Grealish to cap a superb team move for England's second. A mountain to climb already.
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Rice would then tee up former Ireland underage international Jack Grealish for England's second, with the visitors entering cruise control for the remainder of the proceedings.
After a summer of uncertainty and maybe even hope from Irish fans, the manner of defeat was especially sobering on Saturday evening, with little sign of any progression from the windows under John O'Shea earlier this year.
Heimir Hallgrimsson spoke to the Irish press immediately after the game and hinted that he had chosen the back five as a result of the players' familiarity with it from recent windows under O'Shea and Kenny.
However, he had a blunt assessment of how well the tactical setup had worked for Ireland.
Given that we had five at the back, we were too open.
If you see the first goal, it's just a pass through the heart of the team. That should never happen at any level of football so, internationally, you're unhappy. But if you're playing youth football, you'd still be unhappy at this.
The second goal was four or five give-and-gos through us. That shouldn't happen at this level.
Because of lack of initiative, closing, taking the steps, we conceded like we did. We just need to improve from that.
The new Ireland head coach would admit that he had discussed with his coaches changing the formation at half-time but, ultimately, they chose to persevere.
Hallgrimsson went on to say that he and the coaching team were not wedded to the back five as their permanent tactical setup, but that they would tailor their gameplan to specific opponents.
Formation for me is irrelevant. What formation you play...it's about fitting the players you have, it's about the opponent you play.
Sometimes you expect to have more possession, you would probably like to have more players up front. Sometimes if you expect to have less ball possession, you probably need more protection. We need to be adaptable on that one.
England interim coach Lee Carsley would reveal in his press conference that he and his coaching team had prepared for such a setup from Ireland.
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Lee Carsley correctly called how Hallgrimsson would set up Irish team
7 September 2024; Republic of Ireland head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson reacts during the UEFA Nations League B Group 2 match between Republic of Ireland and England at Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Speaking shortly before Heimir Hallgrimsson faced the media, ex-Ireland international Lee Carsley explained how he had prepared his England team to face the hosts in Dublin.
Carsley said that his coaching team had determined that midfield would be their target area, as Hallgrimsson was likely to drop a man in the middle of the park in favour of an extra defender.
We prepared that they would play five or three at the back...we knew they were going to be compact and difficult to play against in terms of not leaving much space.
I thought that they may do that [a back five] because of what John [O'Shea] did in the past as caretaker. Understanding the role of [O'Shea], you've only got two days preparation really...I just assumed that they may play a five.
When you do play a five, there's going to be space somewhere because you've another back - it was trying to work out quite quickly the two or three ways that we could try and exploit what they did.
They've got some really talented players within the team, especially within the subs who came on as well. They've got their work cut out with a new manager who'll need time to bed in his own ideas but it's good that he has a couple of coaches in who understand and have worked with the team in the past.
I think, sometimes, the possession stat can be quite misleading...from a gameplan point of view, I remember playing here myself, sometimes against better teams, we would have to sit in and counter attack. I thought at times that Ireland did that well.
It didn't feel easy from the side.
Given the joy that Declan Rice and Kobbie Mainoo had on the ball in midfield, it's safe to say that Carsley's plan worked.
Heimir Hallgrimsson has only three days to pick his Ireland team back up from Saturday's damaging defeat to England.
The Ireland head coach said that he had already started work on lifting his players' spirits in the moments after defeat to England.
We've spoken in the dressing room already - let's try to look positive on the next game.
This was a negative, we cannot carry that into the game against Greece. Greece have shown that they [can] play good against Ireland, so they have the upper hand. We need to change that.
We can't be crying until we play Greece. We have to energise, use every moment to be ready for that one.
The Boys in Green host Greece on Tuesday evening, with kick-off in the Aviva Stadium at 7:45pm.
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