Squad turnover expected as Hallgrimsson ramps up preparation for Bulgaria play-off

Gavin Cooney

HEIMIR HALLGRIMSSON IS the latest to be hit with the berserk reality of Ireland’s housing market. He spoke on the Late Late Show last Friday of why he felt it was important to move to Ireland, but nine months on from his unveiling, he has yet to find suitable long-term accommodation: Hallgrimsson and his wife are currently renting AirBnBs around Dublin in between stays at the Castleknock Hotel.

These are hardly ideal working conditions, but it’s a good job much of his scouting can be done pretty nimbly on WyScout. 

Hallgrimsson will be at FAI HQ in Abbotstown this afternoon to unveil his squad for next week’s two-legged relegation play-off with Bulgaria in the Nations League. Ireland must prevail over two legs to avoid relegation to League C, a status with which Ireland have flirted dangerously for years without being forced to embrace. 

Expect a significant amount of turnover from the squad picked for last November’s games, against Finland and England. 

Caoimhín Kelleher is back on the bench at Liverpool, but can he retain the Irish starting spot ahead of Mark Travers and the returning Gavin Bazunu? The latter has recovered from his Achilles injury and is now playing regularly on loan at Standard Liege, while Travers has found regular football by dropping down to Middlesbrough in the Championship. 

Jake O’Brien is another cert to return, having found favour under David Moyes at Everton. Given Hallgrimsson’s proclivity for playing a tall centre-back at right back, O’Brien’s playing that precise role at Everton is good news for all concerned. 

O’Brien has been playing ahead of Seamus Coleman, who has recovered from injury but was an unused sub against Wolves last Saturday, a game at which Hallgrimsson was in attendance. Coleman would offer value off the field next week, but his lack of game-time may see him squeezed out of the picture. 

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That’s partly because he has competition from elsewhere as Matt Doherty has reacted admirably from his initial omission last November. (He was subsequently added to the squad following Coleman’s injury.)

Doherty has started all of Wolves’ last 15 league games, and now only Nathan Collins and Dara O’Shea have played more Premier League minutes than Doherty this season. That kind of consistency is deserving of a recall, even if Doherty has largely been playing on the right of three centre-backs, a role without an exact counterpart in Hallgrimsson’s set-up. 

Collins and O’Shea will be among the defenders named, with Watford’s James Abankwah in line for a maiden senior call-up, too. He will provide added cover with Liam Scales suspended for the first leg in Plovdiv because of his red card against England last November. Andrew Omobamidele is regrettably injured again. 

Shamrock Rovers’ Josh Honohan has been named on the provisional squad list, and he is an option primarily at left-back, but will face competition for inclusion from incumbent Callum O’Dowda, the fit-again Robbie Brady, and Ryan Manning, who dealt reasonably well with the threat of Mo Salah at Anfield last Saturday. 

Ireland will also be boosted by returning faces in midfield, with Will Smallbone – fresh from scoring against Liverpool – fit again having not played for Ireland since receiving his infamous man of the match award against Greece last September.

Jack Taylor of Ipswich, impressively dynamic in the defeat away to Greece last October, is fit for selection again, and will buttress Ireland’s relatively meagre midfield options. All of Josh Cullen, Jason Knight and Jayson Molumby have been playing regularly in the Championship – Cullen and Knight have regularly captained Burnley and Bristol City respectively – though Molumby, like Scales, is suspended for the first leg.

There’s other good news to be found in the Championship, where Finn Azaz has hit double figures in goals and assists for Middlesbrough, while Andrew Moran has continued to play regularly despite a change of manager at Stoke. Under new boss Mark Robins, however, Moran has been playing further forward, as opposed to in a deeper role under his predecessor. 

This squad may come too soon for John Patrick Finn, who has left Getafe for a loan spell at Reims, who are battling at the fringes of the Ligue Un relegation zone. Finn has been a regular starter since joining at the end of the January transfer window, keeping his place despite a change in manager. While he would be squad bolter, Finn has the athletic and physical ball-winning traits that have been absent in Irish midfields for much too long. 

Meanwhile, a loan move to West Ham has yet to jumpstart Evan Ferguson’s career. While Ferguson is the highest-potential player in the Irish squad and is certain to be named today, it’s more difficult to argue he should be starting in Plovdiv, given he has yet to start a game for West Ham and has not completed a 90 minutes at club level since a League Cup game for Brighton on 30 October last year. 

Ireland are also not at a point on relying on Ferguson, either. Troy Parrott has been the single biggest success story of the season so far, hitting 17 goals while carrying true Main Character Energy at AZ Alkmaar, whom he has helped to the Europa League knockout rounds and the Dutch Cup final. 

Adam Idah, meanwhile, has flickered at Celtic. He has 11 goals in 30 games since the last international break, the highlight being his Champions League brace away to Aston Villa. 

Meanwhile, with Szmodics injured, Kasey McAteer vanishing from first-team view at Leicester and Tom Cannon stalling following a move to Sheffield United, there’s room for more turnover among the forward line. Sinclair Armstrong is set to be named off the back of his record for Bristol City,

Callum Robinson may have earned a recall with seven goals in his last 12 Championship games, while David Sneyd of this parish revealed last weekend that Johnny Kenny is in the mix for inclusion, primarily due to his European exploits for Shamrock Rovers. Kenny has, however, played all of 66 minutes for Celtic since he returned in January. 

With Cheidozie Ogbene and Festy Ebosele injured, Ireland sorely lack pace and width among their forward ranks. Mikey Johnston offers one option in that area, as does Rocco Vata, who is expected to be named in the senior squad for the first time later today. 

Vata left Celtic for Watford last summer and made an early breakthrough into their first-team, primarily playing as one of the two number 10s in their Man United/Shamrock Rovers-style 3-4-2-1 system. Vata is the son of Albania legend Rudi, and is also eligible for Scotland and Montenegro.

The FAI have done a fine job in identifying his talent and keeping him engaged with several underage national teams prior to senior level, however, and it appears they’ll be rewarded for setting down these particular set of roots.