TEAMS ARE OFTEN talked of as being ‘defensively suspect’ but it’s less common for their flaws in attack to be highlighted.

Ireland qualified largely on the back of an excellent defence — they conceded just seven goals in 10 games during group qualification, which was better than Germany, Poland and every other team they played, in addition to once over two matches against a Bosnian attack that included high-profile players such as Juventus’ Miralem Pjanić and Roma’s Edin Džeko.

The attacking statistics make for less encouraging reading, however. If you discount the matches against Gibraltar, they managed just eight goals in eight games — they scored just one goal in two games against a distinctly ordinary Scotland side, for instance.

This issue is likely to be exacerbated by the expected loss of Jon Walters for the Belgium game.

With five goals, the Stoke man was Ireland’s joint top scorer in the qualifiers with Robbie Keane, although all the LA Galaxy star’s strikes came against Gibraltar, whereas none of Walters’ goals did.

Walters also managed a brace in the vital home play-off qualifier with Bosnia to send Ireland to the Euros ultimately.

In the 32-year-old’s absence, Ireland look less of a goal threat than ever. Of the players expected to start on Saturday, only Shane Long has got into double figures at international level.

With this in mind, the choice of Walters’ replacement against Belgium is particularly crucial.

Aside from Long, Walters and Robbie Keane, the top scorers in Ireland’s current squad are Aiden McGeady and James McClean with five goals apiece.

McClean is the man many are tipping to replace Walters, and it certainly makes sense on one level. Ireland are likely to go long periods without the ball against the technically accomplished Belgians, and in McClean, they have the classic work horse who will run his heart out to stop the opposition from playing, as he has done all season for West Brom in the Premier League.

Nevertheless, O’Neill has always been a bigger admirer than most of Aiden McGeady, who the veteran manager handed a debut to while the winger was still a teenager at Celtic.

McGeady would undoubtedly be the bigger gamble of the two wingers, given that he tends to be lax defensively at times, but arguably more so than any other Irish player in the squad, he is also capable of a moment of magic at his best, as he showed way back in September 2014 in the 2-1 win against Georgia — form he has struggled to recapture since for club and country alike.

There is also the option to play Robbie Brady further forward and slot Stephen Ward in at left-back. This strategy paid off to an extent away to Bosnia in the play-offs, as Brady scored a superbly taken goal, though Ireland also were badly exposed down the left flank at times.

What’s vital is that Ireland get the balance between defence and attack right — against Sweden, they were superb for the first 47 minutes, but were far too negative after scoring, and struggled to regain their attacking momentum after the Swedes eventually equalised through Ciaran Clark’s own goal.

Against Belgium, it is set to be a very different game, and the Irish are unlikely to be anywhere near as dominant as they were in the opening stages against Sweden.

Yet while much of the focus will need to be on the defence for large portions of the match, it’s equally important that Ireland are more clinical than they have been prior to now under Martin O’Neill.

O’Neill’s team selection will give some insight into just how ambitious he is willing to go in attempting to improve on the current goal-per-game ratio.

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