John Giles believes Shay Given is still Ireland's best option in goal.
The veteran Aston Villa keeper was named in Martin O'Neill's squad for the upcoming qualifiers and will vie with David Forde for the No 1 shirt.
Speaking to Off The Ball tonight, John said: "I would pick him. He's still the best we've got. He's shown in recent times that he still has it. And you can only go on recent performances."
Meanwhile, John believes Jose Mourinho will eventually look at himself when calm descends after the wreckage of last night's Champions League exit.
Chelsea managed to exit the competition despite the fact that Paris Saint-Germain had Zlatan Ibrahimovic was sent off early on.
"He's not a fool. I think he's quite an intelligent man and a great coach in many ways. I think if he looks at the whole build up to the game, he has to look at himself and his own performance in it. I'd be surprised if he doesn't say 'a lot of it was my fault,'" said John, who felt Mourinho and Chelsea spent too much time concentrating on peripheral issues like pressuring the referee, rather than the performance itself.
"You saw the players last night. They were influenced by it. Fabregas, first tackle and he's rolling around. Ibrahimovic's sending off, they're around him. They're at it all the time. You can't do that and then concentrate on what has to be done in the match."
John also gave his take on Arsenal's FA Cup win over Manchester United, and focused in on Angel Di Maria's red card for pulling at the referee.
"He pulled the shirt a little bit. But you can't do that. Players know you can't do that. You can't defend it," he said, and feels that Marouane Fellaini is "playing in no position" based on the way Louis van Gaal has been deploying him.
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