Keith Treacy: Ireland front four potentially exciting but midfield a worry

Former Republic of Ireland international Keith Treacy is excited to see how some of the Boys in Green's in-form players fare in the upcoming friendlies against Belgium and Switzerland but has concerns about the strength of the Irish engine room.

A permanent successor to Stephen Kenny will be revealed by the FAI in early April but for this window, John O'Shea is taking interim charge with new faces like Lyon centre-back Jake O'Brien and Middlesbrough attacking midfielder Finn Azaz included.

Current Championship top scorer Sam Szmodics, who has netted 27 goals in all competitions this season for Blackburn, is also in line to win his first caps, while wingers Chiedozie Ogbene and Mikey Johnston come into this window in strong form for their clubs Luton and West Brom respectively.

Treacy told this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast that the potential is there to play a 4-2-3-1 with Evan Ferguson, whose form in front of goals has admittedly dipped, leading the line ahead of the aforementioned trio.

But the ex-Blackburn and Burnley winger added that puts pressure on the two central midfielders with few squad members being specialists in number six roles.

"The Szmodics one is the one that gets me excited when you think about how well Ogbene has been doing in a Luton shirt and then Mikey Johnston all of a sudden doing really well at West Brom and scoring a couple of goals and we all know Evan up front has a little bit about him," said Treacy.

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"I'm sort of flirting with a 4-2-3-1 in my head with