Despite qualification being beyond his Ireland team, the World Cup qualifiers at home to Portugal and away to Luxembourg are hugely significant for Stephen Kenny, the FAI and football in this country.

Never before has so much weighed on a pair of games that don’t really matter in the grand scheme of a qualifying campaign. I cannot remember a time when an Irish team, that couldn’t qualify for a major tournament, captured the hearts and minds of the public in the way this group has.

The Aviva Stadium will be sold out tonight and people who cannot get tickets will be glued to their TVs and radios. There’s a massive appetite for this game.

And it’s not because Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandes are in town.

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Ireland raring to meet Portugal backed by a full Lansdowne Road roar

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Andrew Omobamidele a doubt for Ireland’s date with Portugal

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Stephen Kenny planning for Ireland’s future as Portugal loom

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The reason is that this Irish team is different. Different in how they play, different in how they look, different in how they speak. But these players represent a nation that they feel very connected to.

And it’s not unique to the men. The women’s national team is experiencing the same feeling and goodwill from the public, and sponsors too.

Ireland have had glory days in the past but they always seemed to be framed as an underdog overachieving against the odds. It’s a comfortable space because you can never really fail if you’re not expected to achieve at a certain level.

There’s always been room for saying things were achieved despite the mediocrity of facilities, funding, resources and talent pools. That’s why this feels different. After all these years, the mindset is changing.

There’s a maturity emerging in Irish football where people want to take responsibility for setting the bar high and that brings pressure to succeed and space for accountability, something that has been missing from Irish football for a very long time.

The easy thing is to do what has always been done and go with the flow but it takes a different type of courage to do things differently and hold no fear in saying things can and have to be better.

You also need to have the courage to stick with the processes, as you see the improvements that others may not see, because you know that they will ultimately change the pathway to success.

This is what Stephen Kenny has done in relation to his new 3-4-2-1 system. Game by game, you can see it evolving from what originally looked very similar to Thomas Tuchel’s system at Chelsea.

New structure

In games where Ireland need to be more defensive it often looks like a 5-4-1 with the two wing-backs dropping in alongside the three centre-backs and the advanced midfielders dropping in either side of the two central midfielders.

It’s a robust defensive system that is deliberately difficult to break down but also one that facilitates fast counter-attacks.

In possession, it can be really aggressive as the wing-backs push on alongside the two centre-midfielders and the advanced midfielders push on to create a midfield box which overloads the opposition’s three or two midfielders that occupy the area in the other playing systems.

It causes opposition centre-backs a problem too.

Anthony Barry’s influence on the new structure is recognisable and whilst it wasn’t a clean fit for Kenny’s squad initially, it has evolved from a 3-4-1-2 to a 3-4-2-1 as the management team have learned what roles in this system suit the players that Ireland have available.

That subtle change has made a big difference.

Also, when Kenny played it as a defensive system (5-4-1) away to Portugal, it suited to have two defenders, Matt Doherty and Seamus Coleman in the wing-back positions because you know the players in those roles will have much more defending to do, in deeper areas of the pitch.

James McClean is a more attack-minded player, and that’s his strength, so when Ireland are planning to dominate the game more (3-4-2-1), the wing-back role is more suited to him because his natural starting position is higher, and bears more attacking responsibility than defensive.

In the 3-0 win away in Azerbaijan, you could see the distinctive shift to the 3-4-2-1 system where McClean was very effective in his attacking role, particularly for the first goal.

Ireland are demonstrating the capacity to transition in this structure from defensive roles to attacking ones with ease and awareness. And its purposeful too.

Against Qatar, albeit they were limited opposition on the night, Ireland demonstrated a new dimension to this system, whereby they could hold possession until the opportunities were created to break lines.

Irish players were willing to get into unorthodox positions to facilitate others to receive the ball in a way where one pass could eliminate a number of the opposition team, therefore reducing their capacity to defend.

The third goal was a brilliant example of it. Shane Duffy stepped in with the ball to take two players out of the game, and Qatar’s first defensive line. His run forward after playing to Andrew Omobamidele locked in a centre-back which allowed Callum Robinson to break free into the space which Jeff Hendrick spotted.

Hendrick’s forward pass eliminated all remaining eight of Qatar’s outfield players. Duffy’s role in the goal cannot be underestimated.

But this is what’s exciting about this Ireland team. They are taking calculated risks to achieve things that would never be possible if they stuck to what was the norm.

This is what Stephen Kenny said he would do. This is what Irish football needs and this is what Irish football fans want – to raise the bar and not be afraid to be uncomfortable in setting out to achieve standards all across the game that our industry here has never achieved before.

It may not be easy, but it will be worth it.