National senior men’s football team Coach Heimir Hallgrímsson says he has a mixed impression of what he has seen of local football so far.

Hallgrímsson arrived in Jamaica last week to begin his work with the national team ahead of their Concacaf Nation’s League match against Mexico in March.

He was seen at Jamaica Premier League games this week trying to get an understanding of local players and the local football culture. Hallgrímsson attended the double-header at Stadium East featuring Portmore United versus Cavalier, and Dunbeholden versus Arnett Gardens. He then visited Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex the following day for Mount Pleasant versus Vere United, and Waterhouse versus Tivoli Gardens.

This was before his first local training camp with a 32-man squad at the UWI-JFF Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence in St Andrew on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Hallgrímsson says the games he saw were both good and bad.

“Sometimes there was too much power, less technique and tactics, but some really good matches,” Hallgrímsson said during an interview session with the media during the camp yesterday. “I’ve only seen four games live, so I’m not the man to judge but I will continue to look at the league and see the players. Hopefully, I’ll see some talents that are not on my list.”

Hallgrímsson says the two-day camp was an introduction period for himself and his coaches to familiarise themselves with local players and the facilities available to them.

“I think this is a good way to get to know everything as quickly as possible, to gather the players, and a big thanks to the clubs and coaches of the local premiership teams to allow us to have the players,” he said. “I think in most other places, it would’ve been denied to have players in the middle of the week, but big respect to them and a big thanks to the clubs and the coaches.”

Hallgrímsson says because the two-day camp was just an introductory period for the players, they did not get deep into tactical drills.

“We wanted just to introduce what we want in attack and we continued with that today,” he said. “The next camp will be more about defence, but the first day yesterday was just to get to know the players, play at a higher tempo, with more focus than maybe they are used to.

“When we select the best 30 players in the league, the standard should be higher and we just want them to know that we demand high quality in our sessions.”

Hallgrímsson says he would like local clubs to continue to release players for two-day training camps like this one every other week.