Heimir Hallgrimsson says his Ireland vision now clearer ahead of 'tricky' Bulgaria

Heimir Hallgrimsson is confident the Republic of Ireland's second-half collapse England was "an outlier" that they can put right in March's Nations League B/C relegation/promotion play-off against Bulgaria.

The Boys in Green were pitted against the world No 84-ranked Bulgarians in Friday morning's draw.

They need to win over two legs to preserve their League B status, and though Hallgrimsson was initially scathing of his players following their Wembley meltdown, he offered a more considered assessment of the campaign today.

"I feel so," he replied when asked if he had a clearer idea of how to plot a way forward having used 31 players across the six Nations League matches. Only Caoimhín Kelleher, Dara O'Shea, Nathan Collins, Evan Ferguson and Sammie Szmodics featured in every game.

"Saying that after a 5-0 loss is always kind of strange but if I look at the second half against England as an outlier; I think we have taken good steps.

"I needed contact time with the group, with the squad, to try to find the players who will fit how we want things to be done. So the number of players is probably according to what I expected in the beginning.

"Obviously always it's better to do a bigger camp with the players at the beginning and select from there but this was how it was. I think we used it wisely.

"My contact time with the players is three weeks, three weeks and two days or something, so it’s not much. It’s good it was September, October, November. It was a continuity in what we were saying and our message was pretty clear in my opinion, and the players now know what we expect."

The head coach will use the Christmas period to fully analyse his first three months at the helm, airing his hope that "time will heal these wounds"