Mick McCarthy's squad may have been stripped of several first-choice players, but the Republic of Ireland manager knows he still has some critical selection decisions to make by Saturday.
Not least up front. Referring to his striking options, McCarthy admitted today: "It's fair to say Damien Duff has muddied the waters slightly with his recent performances. Quinny and Robbie have been permanent fixtures up front for a long time now, but suddenly I've got three possible pairings.
"I want to stick with the 4-4-2 system which has served us so well to date, so if I wanted to fit all three players in (Duff, Quinn, and Keane), I'd have to stick Duff on the left side of midfield. But I'm not sure that I want to do that, because I can't think of any team in the world that has the option we have of playing someone like Duffer down the middle - his pace and his ability to beat defenders can really cause 'em problems."
As in the run-up to the Portugal match at Lansdowne Road, the senior team will play a training match against the U-21s tomorrow, and McCarthy intends using that to assess Ireland's striking options further. And given that he won't know until tomorrow evening whether Ian Harte, who is still in Leeds receiving treatment on his injured ankle, will be fit or not, he will also use the practice match to look at several defensive line-ups.
"Obviously if Ian's not available, somebody else will have to fill in ... I'm reluctant to take Steve Staunton out of the middle, because that would entail making two positional changes to accommodate just one injury. So maybe we'll think about asking Stevie Finnan, or Gary Kelly to do a job for us at left-back. Again though, that's something we'll be looking at this week."
Such a role would be unfamiliar for both players, but if McCarthy insists on keeping the Staunton-Richard Dunne central partnership intact, then Finnan and Kelly seem the only real candidates for the left-back berth. Suggestions that Denis Irwin might be persuaded to resurrect his international career in his country's hour of need were scuppered by the fact that the Cork man is also carrying an injury and will be side-lined for the next three weeks.
Whatever team he selects, the Irish manager is adamant about one thing. His team will not be playing for a draw.
"That's not in our nature," he insisted, "especially not at home, and especially not against the Dutch - it would be to sit back and just let them have the ball".
Dutch manager Louis van Gaal was reportedly delighted with his side's recent 2-0 win over England, since he believes the English team played in basically the same style that Ireland will adopt. McCarthy, however, has read know such notion into that match.
"I think any international team would have dominated against a team who allowed them as much space as England did against Holland. I think Sven Goran Erikson didn't want any of his players getting injured so they simply didn't tackle or close down" noted McCarthy, before adding with a smile "and that's something our players will do, you can be sure of that!"
So Saturday's clash will be a passionate affair on the pitch, and McCarthy is eager to see the Irish fans at their raucous best too. With over 3,000 Dutch supporters expected to attend, in their customary Orange regalia and trumpets, the Irish manager is asking Irish fans to show themselves to be even more noisy and colourful.
"The Dutch and Irish fans have a great relationship and a rivlary that is healthy and friendly," he said. "We need to make an extra effort to outdo them ... and provide a background that is more green than orange".