Looking at the list of absentees to date, it is worrying that Darron Gibson, Robbie Brady and Joey O'Brien will not get a chance to establish themselves in the preferred starting eleven. Brady has an outside chance of making it, but even if he appears in the squad for Hull in the FA Cup final, Steve Bruce may not be amenable to the prospect of his player going on an end-of-season tour after missing six months of football. Gibson is in the same boat at Everton; while he has returned to full training after his cruciate ligament injury, it appears, understandably, that Martinez would prefer the midfielder to rest until pre-season. While both players should be fit to return in the new season, their absence - along with that of Andy Reid - may discourage O'Neill from picking them in the qualifiers.
O'Brien's absence has invited scrutiny over his commitment to Ireland's cause, but it must be remembered that he only made nineteen appearances this season, owing to recurring injuries and persistent knee pain. Looking at the age profile amongst Ireland's defenders, the 28-year-old O'Brien would undoubtedly be an asset, but O'Neill must plan without him. Of the other absentees, Richard Dunne has opted to rest after a long season, and Sean St. Ledger is seemingly out-of-favour, having featured very little for Leicester this season, before being released. Kieran Westwood will also miss out on a chance to put pressure on David Forde, in an area where Ireland are uncharacteristically weak at present.
There is enough talent available for Ireland to be competitive in the upcoming games. Coleman, O'Shea, Delaney, Wilson, McCarthy, Whelan, Meyler and Long have enjoyed regular first-team football in the EPL, and should form the backbone of the side. McGeady, Pilkington, Hoolahan, Clark and Quinn will be eager to make an impact after stop-start seasons in the top flight, and it will be interesting to see how the likes of Jeff Hendrick and Shane Duffy fare if they get any significant game-time.
There are a number of underwhelming selections, however. Conor Sammon is recalled after scoring two goals in thirty-eight Championship appearances, while Stephen Kelly makes it despite being out of favour at Reading. Stephen Ward deserves his call-up after a good season with Brighton, but his error-strewn performance against Serbia in March will have encouraged no-one about his ceiling for improvement. Unfortunately, once injuries are taken into account, there are few - if any - players who can be considered genuinely unlucky to be omitted. The squad is not a particularly young one - the average age is twenty-seven, and includes fifteen players who will be thirty or over by the time Euro 2016 rolls around, not including the injured Dunne, St. Ledger, O'Brien and Reid. O'Neill has lamented the dearth of younger prospects staking a claim, and it continues to be a worrying issue for fans and management alike.
Tactically, O'Neill has room to experiment. Thus far, he seems to have favoured a 4-4-1-1 formation, with an attacking player - generally Hoolahan - floating centrally behind a main striker. The glut of strikers - eight in total - in the current squad could indicate a return to a more orthodox 4-4-2 at some stage. Alternatively, the maligned Trapattoni ploy of playing Cox, Doyle and/or Walters out wide could be looked at again, which is not wholly encouraging. In his Sunderland days, Keane used Daryl Murphy and Anthony Stokes as wide players, to little or no positive effect; it would be a frustrating throwback if such a policy was undertaken by Ireland in the attacking third. We were never going to use such phrases as 'tiki taka' or 'false nines' in conjunction with the Irish team, but it would help matters if the more natural attacking midfielders - McGeady, McClean, Quinn, Hoolahan and Pilkington - were used properly, instead of misusing cumbersome central strikers in those positions on the basis of their finishing and aerial ability. O'Neill has never been afraid to play direct football, but there must be a mixture of bravery along with pragmatism in the attacking set-up. It is interesting to note that Germany - an outstanding exponent of effective attacking play - only have two orthodox central strikers in their current squad.
O'Neill must also consider the balance of youth and ability in defence. Marc Wilson has not been a qualified success as a footballing centre-half, and his ability may be better-suited to left-back, at Ward's expense. O'Shea, Delaney and Clark should compete for the centre-back positions, with Seamus Coleman obviously nailed-on at right-back. In central midfield, Glenn Whelan will probably retain his position alongside McCarthy, but David Meyler's physicality and box-to-box play would provide a welcome alternative.With the scalps of Italy and Portugal to compete for, O'Neill looking to turn this squad into a cohesive unit, and Roy Keane overseeing training and preparation, there should be no excuse for players taking these games lightly. Many of the US tours under previous managers ended in farce; hopefully, this end-of-season series will be somewhat more productive in terms of developing an Irish team for the upcoming qualifiers.
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