Ireland's Midfield Dilemma: Filling the Cullen Gap
Heimir Hallgrimsson walks into his 16th competitive game in charge of Ireland on Thursday with a clear pattern already etched across his tenure – and a glaring hole right in the middle of the pitch.
Six defeats from 15, a World Cup dream ended on penalties by Czechia, and yet a team that has shown it can bloody the nose of bigger nations. There was the battling draw with Hungary in Dublin. The statement win over Portugal. Then that wild, swaggering night in Budapest when Troy Parrott dragged Ireland past them at the Puskas Arena.
Amid all of it, one constant: Josh Cullen at the heart of the side.
A Cullen‑shaped gap
Cullen has been the reference point of the Hallgrimsson era. Of those 15 competitive games, the Burnley captain has started 11. The other four? He wasn’t dropped. He simply wasn’t there – three times injured, once suspended.
The same ACL injury that robbed him of the Czechia play-off, suffered for Burnley against Everton at the end of last year, will also keep him out of the trip to the Stadiumi Fadil Vokrri. For a manager who has built so much around his metronome in midfield, it’s a brutal absence.
It does, though, open a door.
With a home Euros the dream scenario if everything falls into place, Thursday’s game offers a chance for someone else to plant a flag in the centre of the park.
The problem? The list of candidates is shrinking.
Since Hallgrimsson named his original squad, Harvey Vale and Jamie McGrath have both pulled out through injury. Two more creative options gone. Two more headaches for a manager already forced into compromise.
Knight and Molumby: from options to inevitabilities
Strip it all back and two names jump off the page for central roles: Jason Knight and Jayson Molumby.
Knight has become the next most trusted midfielder after Cullen in competitive fixtures. He has started eight of Hallgrimsson’s 15 line-ups and arrives in camp with rhythm in his legs. The Bristol City man has begun all eight of their Championship games this season, plus a League Cup tie against Walsall, helping the Robins into eighth place.
Molumby is just as embedded in the grind. He has featured in all 10 of West Brom’s matches this season, starting seven. Under Hallgrimsson, he has also started seven competitive games, a clear sign of trust.
Those two feel less like options and more like certainties now. Since Hallgrimsson took charge, they’ve only started together once – at home to Greece – but circumstances are closing in. With so many absentees, it would be a major surprise if an Irish XI is named on Thursday without both Knight and Molumby in it.
The real intrigue lies around them.
Shape, strikers and a crowded whiteboard
Everything hinges on the shape. Who partners, or plays off, Troy Parrott? Does Hallgrimsson stick with a back four, or does he flirt again with a back five and those much-maligned roaming wing-backs?
Conor Coventry has quietly moved into a strong position. If Knight is shunted to the right, Coventry looks well placed to anchor the middle. He started the recent friendlies against Grenada and Canada and has been a regular for Charlton, starting seven of their eight league games plus a League Cup trip to Cheltenham.
Then there’s Finn Azaz, who has gradually become one of Hallgrimsson’s go-to picks over the last 18 months. Since the Nations League play-off ties with Bulgaria, the Southampton midfielder has been a familiar name on the teamsheet. His form raises a tactical question: does he slot in behind Parrott as a classic No.10, or does he drift wider, allowing someone like Chiedozie Ogbene or Adam Idah to operate closer to goal?
Every tweak changes the balance. Every decision in midfield affects what happens around Parrott.
The Moylan temptation
And then there is Jack Moylan, the wildcard who is making himself impossible to ignore.
The forward has slipped into the Cardiff shirt with ease, scoring four times already this season, including a brace against Charlton last weekend. He isn’t just finishing chances; he’s knitting attacks together.
On the RTÉ Soccer Podcast, Keith Treacy made no secret of what he wants to see.
“I’d love to see Moylan up with Parrott,” he said. “The way he played for Cardiff on the weekend was outstanding. He scored two goals, had an assist, he could have had another two assists.
“He was unbelievable, the way he came off the front line and kept picking up those pockets – dictating play. We want to see an awful lot more of that from Jack Moylan.
“When there’s no Evan Ferguson, Parrott and Moylan look really good.”
That is the lure for Hallgrimsson: a front pairing with movement, invention, and the ability to drop into spaces that unsettle defenders. But pairing them means sacrificing a body elsewhere, probably in that already stretched midfield.
Thin cover and fitness gambles
On paper, Bosun Lawal offers versatility. The FAI list him as a midfielder, but he can also play in defence. In reality, his fitness makes him a long shot. The 23-year-old hasn’t featured in Stoke City’s last three matches after coming off with a hamstring problem in a 4-0 win over Charlton earlier this month.
Throwing him into a competitive international just days after that layoff would be a major risk. Thursday looks too soon.
Killian Phillips is in a similar boat. The St Mirren player only returned at the weekend, coming off the bench in a 3-0 defeat to Dundee United after a month out with a shin issue. To go from that straight into a starting role for Ireland, in a game of this intensity, would be a huge ask.
So the pool narrows again.
Big calls, fewer options
Hallgrimsson still has decisions to make in that middle third, but not the kind any international manager craves. This is not the luxury of choosing between five in-form playmakers. This is a puzzle built around who is fit, who has minutes, and who can be trusted to handle the responsibility Cullen usually shoulders without fuss.
Knight and Molumby look locked in. Coventry, Azaz, Moylan, Ogbene, Idah – they all sit on the whiteboard, arrows scribbled around their names, different shapes and systems branching out from each one.
The question now is simple: with Cullen out and the clock ticking towards Thursday, which version of Ireland does Hallgrimsson dare to unleash?
