Just like in June, this October has seen the Republic of Ireland open an international window with a defeat to Greece before picking up the pieces against minnows Gibraltar.
Overall, Stephen Kenny's side have fallen out of contention in Euro 2024 qualifying even in spite of more positive showings against France and the Netherlands in patches, while hopes of a play-off spot have also been almost definitively hampered by the performances in last year's UEFA Nations League.
But ultimately the results against Greece home and away are what have coloured the perception of the Boys in Green's 2023 and aspects of how Ireland slipped to a 2-0 defeat to Gus Poyet's visitors at the Aviva Stadium last Friday highlighted the continuing cracks within the system according to former Sheffield Wednesday, UCD and Shamrock Rovers midfielder Paul Corry.
"I just thought we were very easy to play against with and without the ball," the ex-Ireland U17 international told this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast.
"When Greece have the ball, you don't see any real sort of pressure on the team when they're in possession, particularly when we're in our final third. It seems very easy to play against.
"They always seem to have an extra man, (Ireland) get carved open a number of times.
"Even when you look at the goals or the chance when (Gavin) Bazunu touched the ball over the bar, we seem to be chasing back and we don't seem to have any sort of real pressure on the ball.
"That's a big worry because if you go back on previous years, at least we were a difficult team to play against and we kept a number of clean sheets. That seems to have gone out the door.
"And then when you look at us when we're in possession of the ball, I think we're poorly set up if you ask me and you could maybe lean on saying that at times we may be poorly coached.
"Particularly when our two centre-halves have the ball, everything in front of them is so static."
Corry explained that a vantage point high in the stands within the Aviva highlighted the disconnect between the Irish lines on the pitch as the team struggled to go from back to front in a more fluid way.
"The two central midfielders (Alan) Browne and (Josh) Cullen were stood still, (Will) Smallbone not moving, (Evan) Ferguson wasn't moving and then you had Jason Knight who is not a natural wide man," he said.
"It was just very static and it's very hard as a centre-back then to pick out a pass and play through the thirds like Stephen, I'm sure, would want to.
"Because it's so flat and so static, there's no interchange or combinations, no ideas on how to create space.
"It goes back to the centre-back, it goes to a full-back and that invites the press for Greece to then squeeze up the pitch and ultimately turn over the ball.
"It's very hard to understand what it is we're trying to do both in and out of possession."
Corry added that, in his view, there doesn't appear to be a clear pattern of how Ireland want to attack, while a vulnerability on the counter-attack was also exposed by the clinical Greeks.
"I always feel when the other team is in possession of the ball, we're not engaging in a press, we're not shuffling them one side. It seems very easy to get out and in between our players and little pockets of spaces are showing up, particularly in front of our back four," he said.
"Josh Cullen always seems to be stretched. There seems to be so much space that he has to cover and whether it be wide players dropping into central areas, we just don't seem to be able to deal with it so there seems to be a disconnect between our back four, our midfield and our forward players."
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