Nathan Collins believes Heimir Hallgrimsson’s style is ‘very easy’ to get behind
Damian Spellman, PA
Nathan Collins has admitted Republic of Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson is an easy man to get behind as he attempts to lead the nation to the 2026 World Cup finals.
The 58-year-old Icelander took charge in July last year and has since been gearing up for the qualifying campaign which gets under way on Saturday evening when Hungary visit the Aviva Stadium.
Hallgrimsson’s record to date is modest – he has won four competitive games and lost four, albeit two of them to England in the Nations League – in addition to two friendly draws, but he is confident the squad he inherited from Stephen Kenny has developed and continues to do so.
Asked what the head coach had brought to the table, Brentford defender Collins said: “I think a massive thing is his experience from what he’s done and where he’s been previously with other teams, you know what I mean?
“I’ve played with players that have had him as manager before and talking to them and they say it’s a simple man to get behind because his idea is that he makes everything as easy as possible for us players to learn about and to get behind.
“That’s something that’s helped the group get to where we are now, that his ways have made it very easy for us to be on the pitch and gel everything together, so I think the biggest thing for us is that he’s made life for us on the pitch a lot easier from where we were at the start when he first came in.
“To get behind his tactics and his ways on and off the pitch has been very easy.”
Ireland, ranked 60th in the world by FIFA, open their Group F fixtures against 38th-placed Hungary having not qualified for the World Cup finals since 2002 and without any tournament football since Euro 2016, with difficult starts to recent campaigns having cost them dearly.
Collins said: “The biggest learning from that is that it is a sprint, but a long sprint. A lot can change, so if we get a setback, it’s not fully over.
“If something doesn’t go your way, you can still get yourself back into the race. We don’t want to kill ourselves off from the start. That’s why it’s important to get a good start.
“We have experienced setbacks before that we weren’t happy with. We want to learn from that and put it right. Getting off to a good start helps everything.”
