Ex-Republic of Ireland midfielder Keith Treacy says the team are battling for second place in their 2024-25 Nations League campaign but argues they need to adopt a more pragmatic style of play to achieve that goal.
Ireland were drawn in a tough League B group alongside world No 3 England as well as Greece and Finland.
While the still managerless Ireland have unhappy recent experience of competitive football against both the Greeks and the Finns, it will, remarkably, be the first competitive fixture against England since the Euro 92 qualifiers, when Niall Quinn's equaliser delivered a 1-1 draw in Wembley in March 1991, a match often hailed as one of the most impressive all-round displays of the Jack Charlton era.
"We were always going to get a Pot 1 team, it just so happens it's the English," Treacy said on RTÉ's Game On.
"It will be a glamour tie, there'll be bums on seats in the Aviva and I'm sure there'll be a lot of Irish will want to travel over to London for the reverse fixture. How confident am I of getting points on the board? Not really.
"We're going to have a new manager in place by then and maybe there'll be a different style of play. We've a couple of friendlies between now and September so we can develop a style of play.
"The Finnish are in a playoff against the Welsh in March. We'll get to look at them under the spotlight. Hopefully we can see some weaknesses and places we can hurt them.
"But the draw has only been made and we're already in a race for second."
Ireland were dispatched 3-0 in a friendly in an empty Wembley in November 2020 - our first loss in the fixture since 1985 and best remembered for the mysterious pre-match motivational video which provoked a fallout in the camp and was followed by Damien Duff's departure from the set-up.
From an Irish perspective, it wouldn't be the most propitious time to be colliding with our neighbours. England are in the midst of a golden era in terms of the conveyor belt of talent, while Ireland have just completed their poorest qualification attempt since the 1972 European championships.
Despite that, Treacy is relatively sanguine that Ireland can prove an awkward opponent for England. However, that won't be the yardstick for the team at present.
Rather, it will be the games against Finland and Greece, against whom Ireland picked up zero points in the 2020-21 Nations League and Euro 2024 campaigns respectively.
"England are a world class team, probably have the best player in the world in their ranks at the minute in Jude Bellingham.
"I'm not too fearful of it. I don't think we'll win the game. But I don't think we'll get embarrassed in it either. I think the Irish will dig deep, we have that underdog mentality. I think we'll get beaten but I think we'll put up a right good fight and we won't make it easy for them.
"The Finnish and the Greek games, they're the ones where we have to poke ahead [of our rivals].
"The Finnish are a decent team, they're not to be looked down upon. But they also finished level on points with Kazakhstan in Euro 2024 qualifiers.
"Greece are good but they're not world beaters. If we go there with the right intent, the right plan and the right attitude, I think we can get something.
"The away game in Greece, the first 10-15 minutes of that game was absolutely shocking. We had 10 days in a training camp in Turkey and we thought surely the lads are getting patterns of play, they'll know how the Greeks are going to go about it.
"And for the first 10 or 15 minutes, we looked like absolute strangers over there. All of a sudden, Nathan Collins wins a header and we get ourselves back into the game. We lose 2-1 over there but when you look at the stats on how Greece kept the ball, we were chasing shadows for large, large periods.
"I don't think we can be as bad as we were against the Greeks, especially in the opening fixture. I do think we'll improve.
"England will run away with it but we need to look at Finland, we need to look at Greece.
"Just be competitive in the group, and get some sort of forward momentum. Because it seems like we're standing still if not going backwards with the Irish team."
In the meantime, Ireland need to get the appointment of a new manager boxed off, with rumours of an announcement coming next week.
Lee Carsley, boasting a lofty reputation thanks to his exploits with the England U21s, is thought to be the favoured candidate, though the UK press has reported he is resistant to the idea.
Treacy is more confident on that front but says Carsley may not be able to transpose the philosophy deployed with the England U21 side onto a struggling Irish senior team.
"He's someone that has his finger on the pulse of the English set-up. I still hold out a little bit of hope. Although he did dampen down expectation straight away, I'm hearing he's still very interested in it, there's still certain things that need to be worked out. Hopefully that'll be a runner.
"He is a very modern manager. He did very well with the English U21s. But how the English U21s play is not how this Irish team can play.
"If he does come in and thinks we need to play this progressive style of football and play through the thirds, I think that could be our undoing. And in a couple of months time, he might re-think that."
