With all the chopping and changing that has gone on over the past few months it will have been difficult at times for some of the Irish players to stay focused on the task of getting through this group and qualifying for the next European Championship. If any of them needed a wake-up call, though, this evening's game at Lansdowne Road should fit the bill rather nicely.
For a long time now, Republic of Ireland teams have had a habit of raising their game when playing against more fancied opposition, but for most of that time our Achilles' heel has tended to be sides like the one we will face tonight, the mid-ranking, fairly well able and pretty well-organised teams, many of whom have emerged from what was the old Eastern Bloc.
In the last World Cup campaign we may have beaten Iceland and Lithuania away from home, but our failure to get the better of them at home might well have proven costly had it been a tighter group at the top.
This time around, it does look like being a lot more closely fought. There is, of course, still a question mark over whether Yugoslavia will still even be involved when the group matches are completed later this year, but so far neither they nor the Croatians have looked capable of taking control of this group and leaving the rest behind to scrap it out for second place as, for instance, the Swedes have done to the English and Poles.
Against that background and given the fact that he is without several first-team regulars, I'd have to say that I was heartened yesterday when I heard the side that Mick McCarthy had named for this game. True, most of them more or less picked themselves, but where they did not, there is the sense that the Ireland manager is determined to win this game and prepared to back that determination up with a little bit of a gamble. It's not the sort of thing we've grown used to seeing.
The key selections, as it happens, are those of Damien Duff and Mark Kennedy on the wings. Had Jason McAteer been fit, one presumes, he, rather than Kennedy, would have played on the right-hand side and that would have represented a considerable shift in emphasis within the team.
As it is, when we have the ball, this team will be playing in a standard 4-4-2 formation, but when we don't it will be more like a 4-2-4 and that, providing the two wide men perform to something approaching their capabilities, should provide Niall Quinn and Robbie Keane with the opportunities required to put the Macedonians away.
In addition to the positional differences, there'll be a need for everybody to work very hard when Ireland don't have the ball tonight. One of the regular problems we have had when we have dropped points against teams we would consider to be weaker than us is the fact that we haven't regained possession as quickly as we would have liked to. Across the back four, as well as in the centre of midfield, McCarthy has players who have shown themselves willing to and capable of working hard and I'd be surprised if that proved to be a problem this time out.
It goes without saying that you would like to see Roy Keane in the centre of the field, but the fact is that we could have been without him for bigger matches than this and in Lee Carsley and Mark Kinsella we still appear to have a partnership well capable of pulling the strings.
In goal, there will be an opportunity for Alan Kelly, always a solid performer for his country, to remind McCarthy what he is capable of, while Stephen Carr gets a welcome opportunity to sample the competitive international game. It's a well-earned reward after a season when he has come on in leaps and bounds.
It's hard to imagine either of them or anyone else among the defensive unit having too many problems tonight for I can't imagine that the Macedonians will commit themselves too heavily to attack. The bulk of their workload will be, one presumes, picking up the ball and starting off the moves forward.
Too often in the past that has meant, especially when things haven't gone too well early on, long balls hoofed in the general direction of Quinn or Tony Cascarino. With two men out wide, both of whom are capable of taking on and beating defenders before getting in decent crosses that, hopefully, will change.
Quinn, coming off the back of a fine season at Sunderland, should be the perfect player for young Keane to play off. Sure, the big Dubliner's height will be a factor and so it should be, but there is so much more to the 32-year-old's game than that.
He is always somebody who will cause opponents problems around the box and has picked up enough tricks over the years to pull the odd surprise on even the best of markers. Tonight, if Keane works hard and stays alert to what his striking partner is doing then there is every chance that he and the rest of the Irish squad will get to finish the season on a high.
If that happens then they will be able to head off for their brief summer holidays justifiably happy with the progress they have made so far in this group. If not, well, why bother dwelling on that sort of thing before what should be a good night for the home side?
In an interview with Emmet Malone.
