WITH critics and fans urging the Reggae Boyz to have an established playing style, Head Coach Heimir Hallgrimsson believes it may take a further year before he’s able to implement a consistent identity.

The 56-year-old Icelander is over a year into the senior men’s head coaching job, after he was appointed by Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) in September 2022. In his 15 matches Hallgrimsson has just four wins, along with draws and five defeats.

Speaking ahead of their Concacaf Nations League matches against Grenada and Haiti this week, Hallgrimsson told the Jamaica Observer that he’ll need more time, though he’s satisfied with the players’ effort.

“I think we are getting there slowly,” he said. “When you want to improve a playing style, you need to work with the same players. So I think we have found it always takes time to find the players you want to work with, so I think we have found a core of players that we think we can continue working with and then we can develop a playing style.”

Hallgrimsson has used 53 different players since his arrival, and that could increase with the inclusion of defender Michael Hector and midfielder Karoy Anderson, who are part of the 23-man squad in this international window.

He says the availability of players has been an issue but is hoping this will change.

“You cannot develop a playing style picking 12, 13, 14 new players every camp [because] then you always have to start from [the] beginning,” he said. “So, the first thing you need to do to make some kind of an identity is to work with the same players again and again.

“Being a national team coach, we have two trainings in a game and one training in a game so it’s not a lot of time you can work with the team on the pitch — so in that case I think we are doing quite well with the time that we have. If we want to continue to grow it’s important to go to the final, to go next year to Copa America and spend a month with the players — then you can grow the team both on and off the pitch.”

Hallgrimsson, who guided Iceland to its first-ever Fifa World Cup in 2018, says an all-round effort will be needed for the team to be competitive at the world level.

“We can, as a national team, improve a lot of areas [and] I think JFF as well can do a lot more so [that] we are closer to what the best national teams are doing,” he said.

The Reggae Boyz will play away to Grenada on Thursday at Kirani James Stadium before travelling to Trinidad to play Haiti on Sunday at Hasely Crawford Stadium.

Jamaica leads Group B of the Nations League A on four points. The top two from each group will advance to the quarter-final stage at which they will join seeded teams USA, Mexico, Canada and Costa Rica.