In a deft balancing act, Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson hinted that he will slightly favour the need for experimentation over a victory when his charges face Luxembourg on Tuesday night.
Ireland are undefeated in four of their last five encounters after the 1-1 draw against Senegal at the Aviva Stadium on Friday, and while Hallgrimsson is keen to secure a positive result against Luc Holtz’s side, exploring options ahead of the World Cup qualifying double-header against Hungary and Armenia seems likely to be prioritised.
Kasey McAteer and Jack Taylor made their full debuts for the Boys in Green against Senegal, while Killian Phillips won his first cap off the bench, with McAteer scoring on his debut, and the temptation to blood more talent in what many regard as a meaningless end-of-season kickabout may prove too great for the Icelander to resist.
“The purpose of this camp was also to look at new faces, so we will make some changes, even though we were really happy with the performance [against Senegal],” Hallgrimsson told RTÉ Sport on Monday morning.
“We will make some changes for this game and hopefully everybody will have their time to shine.
“Of course we would like to keep some consistency as well and build on what we have been doing well.
“I think we played probably one of our best games as a team and we don’t want to miss that in the game against Luxembourg.”
Hallgrimsson added: “It’s always important to win. For every team, it’s always important to win, and just to get that winning feeling and make it a habit to do everything correct to win the matches.
“For all of us, it’s important to win the game tomorrow, even though in a friendly I would pick performance above winning.
“If we have a good performance, if we continue to improve in what we are doing, even though we are unlucky and lose the game, I would probably take that more than a win if we are continuing to develop the team.
“It was the wrong way of saying it, don’t make that a headline!”
With Holtz at the helm, Luxembourg shed their tag as a whipping boy in the international game some time ago, and their 1-0 win over Ireland in Dublin during a disastrous 2024 World Cup qualifying campaign under Stephen Kenny alerted fans on these shores to their impressive progress.
However, Hallgrimsson believes that the cohesive unit he faces on Tuesday are still underrated, citing their 1-0 win over Sweden in March as evidence of the threat they will pose.
The 57-year-old regards a win, or even a draw, as being far from a formality.
“They have shown in the past how quickly they have developed as a football team,” he said.
“They’ve had the same coach for a long time, really consistent in team selection, so it’s more like playing a club team.
“Their knowledge of the game and with each other is really at a high level.
“I watched the Sweden game when they played here and they beat Sweden one-zero, could have scored more goals against Sweden. I know a little bit about them and the strength of Sweden.
“I wouldn’t look to it as a shock to the nation if we would not get good results here.
“It’s that good of a team that a win here would be really good for us at this stage.
“I hope nobody is taking them lightly.”
The Ireland boss had good news in terms of personnel, with an augmented squad of 24 set to train on Monday, including call-up Bosun Lawal.
“Everyone is fit,” Hallgrimsson reported. “Everyone will be training now and everyone wants to play, and as a precaution because both Josh Honohan and Jack Taylor were doubtful after the game, we called in Bosun Lawal and he’s with us as well.
“We have 24 players training today and hopefully everyone will get through that, but fitness is good.”
Lawal has been on the radar of Ireland assistants Paddy McCarthy and John O’Shea for some time, although the versatile Stoke City player – who can play across the defence and in a midfield holding role – has endured a season ravaged by injury, making just seven appearances in the Championship for the Potters in the season just gone.
“Paddy and John have been talking a lot about him, but unfortunately I haven’t been able to see him play as he’s been more or less injured since I started,” Hallgrimsson said.
“It’s just good to see him and get to know the personality and see him in training sessions.
“He looks fit, even though it’s been a while since he stopped playing and training.
“It’s good to have him and see him and know a little bit more about the player when it comes to the September selection.”
Troy Parrott didn’t feature against Senegal after suffering a bug earlier in the week, but could have featured at the Aviva and is available for selection this week.
“He would have been able to play minutes against Senegal and probably if not for the injury to Robbie [Brady], he would have played the last minutes,” the manager said.
