By Mark McCadden

Copyright irishmirror

Heimir Hallgrímsson is still on the lookout for a “bastard” to toughen up his team – but he fears that a “fancy-pancy” approach to developing footballers is making one harder and harder to find. Ireland’s limp World Cup qualification display in Armenia last month highlighted a lack of leadership on the pitch. Hallgrímsson hopes the returns of Seamus Coleman and John Egan could help remedy that, but in the wake of the Yerevan display he was reminded of a remark he made to fans shortly after his appointment. In a Q&A with supporters at the Aviva Stadium , he described his players as “maybe a little bit too nice” and added: “Sometimes you need a bastard in your team. “I’m looking for him. Maybe we can develop him.” Asked if the search was still on-going, he replied: “I think we need someone who will not take anything for granted, someone who is a leader on the pitch. “You can use your own word, but I think everyone knew what I was talking about – a leader that would not accept anything below the standard. “I think that is one of the things we need in the squad and I think and I hope Seamus and John Egan will raise that thing and keep everyone sharp all the time. “But also just to win the duels, win the aerial battles, win the tackles, just take pride in winning all the small battles on the pitch. “I think that is what a true professional should focus on.” Hallgrímsson fears that some of those characteristics are being bred out of the younger generations – both here and in his native Iceland. “When you look at under-7, under-8, under-9,” he said, “who is going to be the best player? Is it the most technical player, are we just focusing on them? “Who is the potential leader? Are we looking at that? Is that one just too noisy and we put him away and pick this one, because he can juggle the ball more? “I think that is part of the problem in how we select youth teams. I am answering something I shouldn’t be answering, but that is how I feel. “I have examples from my own home country, we have had a lot of good defenders in the past; top ones, tackling, like you guys had here. “But now we don’t have them, because we have the indoor arenas and all the fancy-pancy, and nobody is going out on the gravel pitch in the rain and wind and cold in his shorts, playing football. That is where you build character. “I don’t know if that answers your question. Are we in the youth selecting them correct? I think we should be looking differently at what is a character, what is a leader?” Midfield is one area where Ireland have struggled in recent times – and that was particularly evident in Armenia. Jayson Molumby’s return to the squad highlights Hallgrímsson’s desire to add some steel to the engine room. And the prospect of moving Nathan Collins back into midfield – as he did against England at Wembley last year – is “one of the options” ahead of next weekend’s trip to Portugal. Collins could be a quick-fix to a midfield issue that requires a more permanent solution. “It’s not a problem, but we don’t have different kinds of midfielders,” said Hallgrímsson. “I said from the beginning that there wasn’t much difference between the midfielders we had, that is more the problem than the numbers. “That’s why I wanted to see Killian [Phillips] and try him. “Bosun [Lawal] and Killian in the future will be in contention to play for Ireland. They have different skillsets, but we always need the ones who will be in a position and control the area. “But we need to add something to that. It’s not a problem, but we have too many similar players.” Hallgrímsson described the Armenia defeat as “one of the worst” of his career, because he had been “so positive” before the game. “We were aggressive [against Hungary], we put in crosses, got into the box, so I felt confident before the game and that’s one reason why it did hurt so much,” he said. Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email .