Roddy Collins believes his dream team of Roy Keane and Damien Duff are the ideal combination to resurrect Ireland if another qualifying campaign crumbles.<\/p>\n
Last month\u2019s defeat to Armenia leaves Ireland playing catch-up in a short six-game campaign to reach next year\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n
Failure to avenge the Yerevan loss in Tuesday\u2019s rematch will end Ireland\u2019s quest for a top-two finish, fuelling talk of the next manager.<\/p>\n
Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson\u2019s contract term correlates to this campaign and a parting is inevitable in that case.<\/p>\n
Collins, who led Bohemians to their first double in 75 years, has been impressed with the Icelander since his appointment 15 months ago but feels he lacks a vital ingredient when it comes to maximising his resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the manager because he speaks sense all the time and he represents us well,\u201d said Collins. \u201cHowever, I think there\u2019s a lack of fear of him among the players. They respect and like him but don\u2019t have any fear.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this team is better than they showed against Armenia. You can\u2019t judge the manager on a result away to Portugal but I\u2019d like to see progress after last month\u2019s disappointment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it doesn\u2019t work out, there\u2019s only two people capable of lifting this squad.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Keane was spoken to three times by the FAI before they eventually settled on Hallgr\u00edmsson.<\/p>\n
He was Martin O\u2019Neill\u2019s assistant when Ireland last qualified for a tournament nine years ago and has been open about his interest in the dynamics of international management.<\/p>\n
He also recently raised the notion of working alongside his former Ireland teammate Duff, who sensationally quit as Shelbourne manager in June, just seven months on from guiding the club to their first men\u2019s Premier Division title for 18 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019d be the bad cop and I\u2019d be the good cop,\u201d said Keane with a smile on an August edition of Stick To Football.<\/p>\n
Duff recently indicated he would be amenable to a fresh challenge.<\/p>\n
Collins considers the respective traits of Keane and Duff to be the perfect match for Ireland heading into a new cycle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think Duffer would have any hesitation about being an assistant,\u201d said Collins.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is for your country. I wouldn\u2019t see him as a No 2. It\u2019s a partnership, not about egos.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have different aspects to manage: Roy\u2019s strength is his motivation skills and man-management.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuffer is the coaching genius, a brilliant tactician. I\u2019ve studied him, especially his in-game management, and haven\u2019t seen him fail with any of his decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI watch dugouts and every time Duff changed players, formation or system at Shelbourne, he achieved. He\u2019s well clued in for me. They won the title last year from that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are my dream team and the players will respond.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roddy Collins believes his dream team of Roy Keane and Damien Duff are the ideal combination to resurrect…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1113,61,60,2539,5782,43,5783],"class_list":{"0":"post-72191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-fai","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-league-of-ireland","12":"tag-local-soccer","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-premiership"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}