Former Republic of Ireland international Keith Treacy is excited to see how some of the Boys in Green's in-form players fare in the upcoming friendlies against Belgium and Switzerland but has concerns about the strength of the Irish engine room.
A permanent successor to Stephen Kenny will be revealed by the FAI in early April but for this window, John O'Shea is taking interim charge with new faces like Lyon centre-back Jake O'Brien and Middlesbrough attacking midfielder Finn Azaz included.
Current Championship top scorer Sam Szmodics, who has netted 27 goals in all competitions this season for Blackburn, is also in line to win his first caps, while wingers Chiedozie Ogbene and Mikey Johnston come into this window in strong form for their clubs Luton and West Brom respectively.
Treacy told this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast that the potential is there to play a 4-2-3-1 with Evan Ferguson, whose form in front of goals has admittedly dipped, leading the line ahead of the aforementioned trio.
But the ex-Blackburn and Burnley winger added that puts pressure on the two central midfielders with few squad members being specialists in number six roles.
"The Szmodics one is the one that gets me excited when you think about how well Ogbene has been doing in a Luton shirt and then Mikey Johnston all of a sudden doing really well at West Brom and scoring a couple of goals and we all know Evan up front has a little bit about him," said Treacy.
"I'm sort of flirting with a 4-2-3-1 in my head with Szmodics in behind Evan Ferguson with Ogbene on the right and Mikey Johnston on the left and that front four does excite you.
"But then you're thinking we've only got two holding midfield players and I know it's only two but four at the back and only two in front of them, I think we need a little bit more solidity.
"I know Stephen Kenny played five (at the back) for a long time and it came under the spotlight but I look at the midfield players and if you look at (Josh) Cullen, (Will) Smallbone, (Jason) Knight, (Jamie) McGrath, (Callum) O'Dowda, (Mark) Sykes and (Finn) Azaz, they're fairly novice players and if you're playing centre-half for Ireland or left-back and right-back and you want to be a possession-based team, you don't want to be firing balls into those players because they're talented players but probably not players you would trust on the ball.
"They're coming into international football and the Belgians are a very good team, one of the best in Europe, and people think the Switzerland team are not quite as good as people think they are. The Swiss are a very good team, very decent, very difficult to beat."
Treacy added, "(The squad) does excite me but again the midfield players worry me."
Also speaking on the podcast, former St Patrick's Athletic and Shelbourne midfielder Conan Byrne said that O'Shea may well stick with a back three system given the strength in depth lies in that area and in the forward category.
"It's an area we're going to struggle in over the next 12-18 months because we don't have the players at the top level in the Premier League playing in that position, Josh Cullen aside," he said of the midfield.
"I'm thinking John O'Shea will probably do what Stephen Kenny did and go three at the back and put the wing-backs in because our defensive area is very strong.
"I think every player that he's selected in the squad defensively play at the top level apart from Robbie Brady.
"We're strong defensively and very interesting in attack given Szmodics has now come in. I'm looking forward to seeing him (and) nailing him down.
"But it will be interesting to see if he takes to international level, the speed of international level, considering he's playing in the Championship at the moment.
"But like Keith said, the goals he scored in the Championship for a team that are 17th in the (table), it'll be interesting to see how he gets on. But it's the midfield area I'd really be worried about and I think (O'Shea will) play Cullen and Knight close together - Knight with the legs and then probably Ogbene and Szmodics in front of them."
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