By Mark McCadden

Copyright irishmirror

Heimir Hallgrímsson has been urged to start two centre-forwards against Portugal next month.

Former Ireland defender Kenny Cunningham reckons that could be the key to unlocking a “clunky” defence, as the Boys in Green scramble to salvage their World Cup campaign.

Hallgrímsson shipped some criticism for starting Jack Taylor against Armenia on Tuesday night ahead of Adam Idah, three days after the Swansea City forward scored an injury-time equaliser against Hungary.

Idah was sprung from the bench at half-time in Yerevan and he did make a key contribution with an assist for Evan Ferguson.

But it was too little, too late, as Armenia were already two goals up and looked far more likely to add to the scoreline as the game progressed.

The defeat leaves Ireland on just one point from their opening two games, and in need of a miracle to resurrect their hopes of clinching a top-two spot.

A positive result against Portugal is all but needed – and Cunningham believes two up front and a more direct style would give Hallgrímsson’s side the best chance of achieving that.

“I look at the strengths of the team,” he said, speaking at an event previewing Premier Sports’ upcoming Premier League, Champions League, Europa League and Conference League coverage.

“I think we have a core group of players at both ends of the pitch, particularly at centre-forward with Evan, Adam, Troy (Parrott), Johnny Kenny… I think we can build around going forward.

“I’d like to get two of them on the pitch, not one (up front) and one off. I’d like to see two of them high up the pitch. Two good targets for people to aim for.

“Maybe look to get the ball back to front a little bit quicker, get that penetration and wider, rather than look to be clever on the inside with a pass.

“That’s a personal thing. I thought that’s where we were heading.”

Looking ahead to the Portugal game, Cunningham reckons he knows how Roberto Martinez will set his side up defensively.

“Ireland against Portugal next month, you could potentially have (Ruben) Dias and Ruben Neves playing at centre half,” he said.

“If anything was to give you a little bit of encouragement going into a game, that’s it. I’m talking about two up front.

“If ever there was a game I’d love to see us play two up front, it’s against Portugal. Hit them on the counter attack against two centre halves who are a little bit clunky in their movement.”

Cunningham admitted that he was shocked by Ireland’s approach to the two games – and that the comments from within the camp in the lead-up to the matches convinced him that the style of play would be different to what unfolded.

He believes that the current crop of players are much better than the two performances and results would suggest, saying they were “way below” their levels.

“The opening half against Hungary, that kind of shocked me,” he said. “Not so much the fact we weren’t playing well, that can happen, but just in terms of our set-up and how we actually tried to play in the game.

“That was a big surprise to me, because I’ve been listening a lot to what was coming out of the camp.

“I listened to Paddy McCarthy talking initially about the mindset within the group, that the group was ready. He detected a change within the group (in) confidence levels. That was good to hear.

“John O’Shea spoke after that, and he spoke about learning to win, maybe ugly, being a little bit harder to beat, finding a way to win in any kind of circumstances.

“It was nice to hear that, in terms of we have to manage the games accordingly. I was emboldened by that a little bit.

“And then Heimer was the last one I had interviewed. He spoke well. I’ve got a lot of time for Heimer to be honest with you. He’s very honest when he speaks.

“So this was great to hear because I thought, yeah, this is why Heimer was brought in, wasn’t it? To move away to an extent from how we had played under Stephen (Kenny) who had a very fixed idea in terms of how he wanted the team to play.

“If you look at the success he had with the Iceland team that maybe people might suggest, maybe unfairly, was a limited group of players, but collectively he got the very best out of them.

“They played their own way with their own kind of identity, going against the tide a little bit, in terms of more of a direct style of playing.

“People made the comparisons with Ireland in terms of the group of players and I thought it was a fair comparison.

“So from that point of view it made sense; Heimer coming in and looking to roll out that particular way of playing. That philosophy kind of made sense to me in relation to the core group of players we had available to us.

“I felt we’d arrived at a point now, off the back of what Heimer said this week, that we were going to see it, that it was going to be rolled out in the game against Hungary.

“We were going to see this style of football, a tactical setup that got the best out of our players and best suited our players that we have available to us.

“But two minutes into that game we got possession of the ball for the first time.”

Cunningham described how his “heart sank” as he watched the first-half against Hungary play out.

“I was kind of flummoxed, thinking why this group of players, with the individual qualities that they have, particularly in key areas of the pitch, why we still think we can out-football teams and move the ball from back to front up the pitch in that central area of the pitch with the limitations we have.

“So that was a massive surprise for me. Because for me that’s never going to happen with this group of players.”

“Kenny Cunningham was promoting Premier Sports – the home of live football and rugby including UEFA club competitions, English Premier League, BKT United Rugby Championship, Investec Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup. Premier Sports is available as part of Sports Extra package on Sky, NOW and Virgin.”

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