rhys looked very ordinary last season.  i saw nothing that warranted an NT call up.

Yes but the article is suggesting that Williams is ready to return to something like his best form this season following numerous fitness issues. We'll see but if that happens he should certainly be under consideration for a back 3.

Australia and the 11 other sides who made the 3rd stage of Asian WCQ have all qualified for the 2019 Asian Cup (as the earlier stage was joint qualifiers), hence there won't be any Socceroos qualifiers next year.

They will be joined by the 12 sides who finish top 2 in the final stage of Asian Cup Qualifying - next Match Day is October 10
http://forum.insidesport.com.au/2428036/2019-AFC-Asian-Cup-Third-Round-qualifiers

lets see it happen first.  he has had plenty of time to return to form...

I don't know what you mean by the comment I bolded. After an injury-plagued time at Boro he had an unhappy season at Perth where he felt he was unsuited to Lowe's tactics. He can't be written off on that, imo.

unhappy at perth....  under performing at perth.  he was on the pitch and healthy.  against some pretty soft opposition.  he only has himself to blame for his individual performances at perth.   

So you were referring to his one season under Lowe in your "plenty of time" comment.

You can only go on what we last saw and that was very ordinary. He has the class but he needs to demonstrate it this season. If he does and if we make the WC then he has to be a chance. The same for Curtis Good. Both are quality players who by either injury, circumstance or whatever are now behind the eight ball

Here we go again with THE most overacted player in Australian football history. so boring. 

lol, curtis good too. why are you guys constantly talking about these irrelevancies?

he's 29 years old and at best an average a-league level defender. let it go. 

I'm interested to see what Muscat can do with him... wouldn't be surprised if hes super low on confidence atm. 

yeah.  a year of playing is plenty of time.  how many years should he get?

everyone on here would love rhys to come to form.  without the injury run he probably would have ended up in the epl.  his game for the NT at RB was one of the best RB performances ive ever seen for the position.

fact is though he struggled last season.  and most likely he will struggle again.  why are people even talking about rhys when a defender like wilko - or jurman - who is in form and miles above anyone in his position in the league is not getting a look.  we could bang on about every player that is not longer good enough for the team - hoping they will get better.  fact is, there are currently players that are good enough, that have good form, that play week in week out, that are not getting a run.  this is a much bigger issue than rhys williams fade out into mediocrity.

we dont have any rbs that are good enough

that and the fact we have wingers who cant finish (although leckie is coming good) is why we are forced to play a voodoo formation

Kenny Dougall would be worth a shout at RB if we were to go back to a back 4.

we dont play with RB's so that doesnt really matter.  we use wingbacks.  leckie is bossing it.  

our record with 3 at the back

"The widely-criticised formation has only yielded three wins in nine games, and has seen the team score 12 goals but also concede 15."

https://au.sports.yahoo.com/football/a/37252510/how-australia-can-beat-syria-with-four-defenders-at-the-back/


i would like to see us return to a diamond with rogic playing a false 9

----------------------------------------------milligan
------------------------luongo/irvine----------------------mooybourne city
----------------------------------------------rogic
--------------------leckie----------------------------------------------kruse/etc

fact is that milligan could drop between the back 2 and we have a 3 again. 

I've been wondering why he hasn't got a look in yet.. playing at a higher level than any of our current RBs

problem is he isn't an rb. He plays lb or dm

he's impressive when I've watched him play. Id take him over goodwin. Goodwin has a lot of popular support but from the few games I've seen dougall is a better player at the moment (especially for lb)

Interesting.. I thought I've seen him in lineups as right back. So left footer I'm guessing?

I've just watched most of the first three HAL games in the 2017/8 season .All six HAL teams viewed so far have had imports as central strikers.

I'm not sure if Blackwood will be starting for AU?

Taggart should be  one of the twin strikers for Glory.

Is veteran Santalab still a sub for WSW?

 Veteran Simon comes off the bench to rough the opposition up for SFC

It seems Australia's best ever goal scorer, Tim Cahill, won't be the target man at City, where he is most effective.

Other than these players there seems to be a dearth of Aussie  central strikers playing in our domestic league, who are also available for national team selection. With only 9 professional clubs, Aussie central strikers are struggling to play domestic professional football in the HAL.

whats more our exports in the number 9 position have done considerably worse than other positions when heading to europe

recently we have exported taggart, maclaren, babalj, bulut and juric. All to second teir leagues and all but the last couldnt make the starting 11 (so far)

this is in stark contrast to other positions

given our poor finishing it makes sense that this is a problem position for us.

Also in contrast to other positions, a player struggling for game time in a second division league can come to the a league and dominate if they are a number 9

if a foreigner came in and performed as well as maclaren we would say they dominated



also

Fair comments, Grazor.

they did dominate and both then went on to struggle at a second teir league (though taggart had mitigating circumstances with injury)

the foreigners who have dominated have at times struggled in the 2nd teir too

it seems dominating a league from midfield=big 5 quality
dominating a league from 9=struggling in 2nd division quality
The ntc looks like it might further improve our mids. Maybe we can play 1-0-10-0 formation when they mature :D

I think you put up some good stats last season that showed that Taggart, Maclaren and Cahill scored far more goals per 90 mins played from open play than Bobo, Fornaroli and Berisha, excluding penalties taken.

It annoys me no end when imported strikers take  a lot of penalties, and it boosts their figures.

Before Milligan went to the ME he was the MV designated penalty taker. He joked he was bullied out of it by Berisha! Yet, Milligan is  a more consistent converter from the spot.

Maclaren's conversion rate for goals has been outstanding in the HAL.

LOL!

An interesting phenomenon that probably should receive more light, is that Leckie and Kruse both move very well off the ball when the Socceroos are in possession. Their constant running into effective gaps, opens viable passing lanes for players to pass to in other positions.

They are often trying to receive the ball whilst running flat out and with their  body shape facing away from the teammate passing forwards to them. This is very hard to do compared to receiving if standing in a stationary position and facing the ball.

Kruse and Leckie's movement off the ball, in accelerated attacks, makes team-mates look better.

Another player like this in the past, was Brett Holman.

Going on club form, Tom Rogic is one of our best players.

Yet in terms of playing for the national team, Kruse and Leckie's energetic off the ball movement, checking, feinting and moving,  creates excellent options for fellow Socceroos to pass to is much needed. Even them creating unselfish  dummy runs which pulls opposition defences out of shape is good. This creates gaps in opposition defences.

The worst part of both Leckie and Kruse's game, is they often fail to score goals from good  shooting positions around goal. Many others don't get into those effective  positions though.

Maybe Troisi and Burns do too. Troisi struggles at times, but scored one of the best technical goals I've seen any Aussie score against Chile when he deftly chipped the keeper.

To Ange's credit in the Syria game, where the tactics looked reasonable until Risdon ran out of gas, he got it right playing Kruse and Leckie as wide attacking players, backed up by wing backs, Behich and Risdon, who have considerable experience as full backs. Until Risdon ran out of gas, Kruse and Leckie could focus more on their attacking play as the defensive duties were performed by Risdon and Behich behind them.. Rukay struggled in the same position when he came on.

Inexplicably, Rogic seems to have lost his ability at national team level, to receive with the outside of both feet,  simultaneously turning with a  reverse shoulder feint. This often beat his opponents  before he was better known. This was exemplified when we played Colombia early in Ange's tenure.

Under limited time and space and often with two players shadowing and closing down Rogic as he receives,   his first touch has bounced heavily off his foot facing towards his own goal in recent times.

Where Rogic has improved in playing for Celtic, is shooting and scoring goals with both feet, heading, tackling, body on body contact, both footedness and stamina. Nevertheless, his outstanding technical skills of the past, first touch, dribbling and ball carrying, are less effective for the Socceroos than they were.

I'm not sure if it was product of being in the Socceroo camp, but Williams had an outstanding game for Victory last night at CB.

 I also think he has been overrated. Credit where credit is due though. He delivered last night.

Goalscoring
1. Maclaren
2. Santalab - taggart
daylight
more daylight
5. juric - ruka


Other attributes (with and without the ball)
1. Taggart
2. Juric - Santalab
4. Ruka 
Daylight
5. Maclaren

Ange just decided he liked juric better and has never given anyone else a chance. For me he'd be well behind the other 3 in the pecking order.