Players eligible for Ireland

Horgan is done at international level, not least because we no longer play wingers. Hamilton has played 12 minutes, so I'm not sure how far off it you could possibly look in that time.

Johnston joins a heap of other guys like Harness, Sykes, Curtis, Elbouzedi, Duffy, Sadlier, Scully, Shodipo, etc playing at pretty modest levels and hoping that we'll change our formation to accomodate them

But we don't really play with wingers much, so I don't see the point. 

Looking at his career stats and injury record, unless this guy either a) really steps it up from what he has achieved to date or b) successfully converts into a high quality left wing back I can't see him winning more than a small handful of caps for us.

Incidentally it's very much classic Stephen Kenny for him to go chasing after an Irish eligible winger when we don't play with wingers, and then going all the way to Portugal to see him play only for him to end up being an unused substitute in the game he went to.

As you say, that necessitates either playing with a proper 10 (not a Knight type) or with wingers. Johnston could be a useful asset against those types of sides, where the space tends to be out wide. 

Kenny can be accused of many things but he has done well to pluck players out of a lower standard than we'd expect (McGrath and Ogbene) and he's generally been proven right that they've been of international standard.

All the underage teams play with a back four, so you'd like to think some will emerge.
But then the FBs from the last U21's campaign have gone nowhere towards earning senior callups, so zero guarantees.

You are talking about the likes of Bagan playing PL2 still, Lyons just geting started at the foot of the Championship, Adamarola also in PL2 and O'Connor in L2.

Ireland's lack of full-backs is puzling, considering how strong we used to be in these areas.

EDIT to add - Sean Roughan is actually doing quite well, getting lots of games at FB in L1 with Lincoln.

So that's one to watch.

Furlong has also impressed me in his early games at Motherwell. I would agree generally that our lack of full backs is an issue if we want to revert to 4 at the back, but I do feel that our record in both creating chances and scoring goals vs so-called weaker teams has been poor when employing 3 CBs, so I would like to see some experimentation with a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1. 

Leaving aside the full back issue, I'd agree that we are possibly moving towards a situation where we might have the attacking personnel to attempt a 433/4231 again

Ferguson/Idah up top - Idah was good in some games but also lacked support from the wide areas in others, still think he can do a good job as a lone front man if required and Ferguson is obviously an option there also.

Ogbene/Sykes - RHS

Connolly/O'Dowda LHS (and now Johnstone)

Smallbone/Azaz/Ronan - #10

Agree re Ogbene being better wide. Dont think Parrott will ever be a true #10 and I'd be sceptical re Ronan's claims for a squad place right now, but Azaz and Smallbone are two lads that might provide a solution. We are still probably a wee way off it and we would need to find full back solutions also, but I think it's something the management team should be looking at. We need an attacking Plan B when we come up against teams where we are likely to dominate possession.

You clearly dont! Anyway, just putting it out there. Fwiw any time I saw him play for Celtic, he looked like a lad with a bit of flair, tricky but with a lack of end product. His stats arent particularly great in that regard this season, leaving aside the rating. He's still young enough, but it's hard to see him challenging for a spot in our first XI any time soon. Happy enough to have him on board, the more options the better and like any player his age, there might be improvement in him yet.