It’s a friendly.
The next competitive fixture isn’t until June.
The next one after that isn’t until September.
Martin O’Neill has three friendlies challenge games now before the visit of Austria and the start of the second half of the World Cup qualifiers to see what else he’s working with. There’s an abundance of fresh, exciting talent lying in the Irish squad but, with the Euros in the summer and then straight into the thick of it with qualifier action, there was no real reasonable opportunity to try out the untested.
During the goalless draw with Wales on Friday night, fans were crying out for Daryl Horgan to be unleashed. He’s still relatively an unknown quantity, he still has no fear in him, and everyone on this island knows that he can be destructive at his best.
He might’ve scared Wales shitless, especially when they went down to 10 men.
The Preston winger wasn’t the only man who could’ve felt hard done by though. It was only last summer we were falling over ourselves about Callum O’Dowda, for example. And Conor Hourihane is proving what a top class and brilliantly solid midfielder he is at Aston Villa.
On Tuesday, the Irish have nothing really to prepare for but the future. It’s the last game before they depart again and it’s three months out from the next meeting. So Martin O’Neill could do a lot worse that dip into the resources at his disposal and try out a team like this against Iceland.
Keiren Westwood: He’s been playing brilliantly but he’s behind Darren Randolph so what are you going to do?
Cyrus Christie: Every time he’s gotten his opportunity, he’s taken it. You need to do more than that to push Seamus Coleman out though. He’ll have to make that full back slot his own now.
Alex Pearce: Otherwise what’s the point in continuing to bring him?
Richard Keogh: Him and O’Shea, Clark and Duffy are our four centre half options. No need to stray too far from that.
Robbie Brady: Because the crowd deserve him after watching that goalless draw the last day and because every time he gets played at left back he does well and it isn’t the worst idea anyway. He could well end up there like he did against Austria now the Republic have Arter playing and McClean firing.
David Meyler: Over the last 18 months, he has been Ireland’s most underrated player. Deserves a run in the team.
Conor Hourihane: Ripping it up for Villa. Very sound defensively and a wand of a left foot for deadly set piece deliveries.
Daryl Horgan: Set him free.
Aiden McGeady: Proved with just 10 minutes on Friday that his club form wasn’t just paper talk. In hindsight, we could’ve done with him sooner but this is another chance for him to prove himself.
Callum O’Dowda: Energetic, direct, skillful. O’Neill can play the like of O’Dowda and Horgan to see what they bring to the table but also to check if they can cope with the defensive demands. Then, when it really matters, like it did on Friday, he can trust these boys.
Shane Long: Because we never played him a pass the last day.
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