Republic of Ireland defender Nathan Collins says he would like to see John O'Shea get the manager's job on a permanent basis.
Ex-Manchester United and Ireland defender O'Shea was in interim charge of the Boys in Green for Saturday's scoreless friendly draw with Belgium and Tuesday night's 1-0 defeat to Switzerland at the Aviva Stadium.
The FAI are set to announce the permanent successor to Stephen Kenny in early April and, speaking after the Switzerland match, O'Shea said he feels "more than ready and capable to be a manager" following this month's experience.
When asked by RTÉ Sport's John Kenny if he would like to see O'Shea's interim role become permanent, Ireland and Brentford centre-back Collins was unequivocal, replying: "I would, yes."
The Kildare native also spoke positively of the impact of O'Shea's temporary backroom team which includes Crystal Palace first-team coach Paddy McCarthy, Glenn Whelan and former Ireland manager Brian Kerr.
"I guess it's a fresh start. I think you can see in the coaches and manager that they're youthful but we also have that twist of experience with Brian there," he said.
"So they give us that and the lads have worked hard. They've given us tactics and we've trusted them and it's worked out well.
"I know we haven't got the result, I know we haven't won, we drew (against Belgium) but I think you can see that we've gone both games where you think, 'should have won that'.
"Finding that cutting edge is the difference but we're close I think and the lads have been really good."
On Tuesday night, Ireland were undone by Xherdan Shaqiri's first-half free-kick which beat goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu in the 23rd minute.
However, despite that setback and the inability to get on terms on the scoreboard, Collins was satisfied by how Ireland performed for an hour against the Swiss.
"I think it was a really good performance, I genuinely do," he said.
"I think probably from after minute 30, we dominated the game. We probably started a bit slow but we tweaked things, got after it a little bit more and I think we dominated the game.
"I think Gav had one save to make after the free-kick. We created the better chances, we played better, we took risks and it worked out and I think we played really well."
In both friendly games over the past few days, Collins has started at the heart of a back-three, flanked by fellow Kildare man Andrew Omobamidele and Dara O'Shea in all Premier League-based trio, with captain Seamus Coleman and Robbie Brady occupying the wing-back zones.
"I think we have a good balance," he said of the defensive sector. "We have youth, we have experience, we have athleticism and we can get after players but even when (Switzerland) had the possession, I don't think we were in danger, I don't think they were creating anything.
"We sat in a low block, we defended the goal and we defended well."
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