I've seen a lot of  City players who are being mooted for the Socceroos, but none should be considered apart from Cahill.

Cahill has been amazing. This is because he has been forced to run all over the pitch at 37 years of age as an attacking mid, but he has still scored 7 goals in the HAL, which without taking any penalties and missing games, is close to top of the HAL scoring charts. If he had taken the penalties in stead of Fornaroli, he would be close to the top.



Brattan - Looks great on the ball, but as a 1v1 ball winner in tackling and dispossessing  an opponent with the ball at his feet,  50/50heading, 50/50 muscle on muscle duels, making intercepts through good reading of the the play and forcing turnovers, making blocks, delaying and jockeying,  Brattan can be as effective as a  training cone on the pitch.

His 50/50 tacking  is much better. He is very competitive when he gets to those contests, but doesn't read them particularly well. He needs to force more contests.

On the ball, particularly when given time and space, Brattan can be outstanding,  even though in a form slump of late. Also, his first touch under pressure in limited time and space is very high quality. His passing over range is often excellent too, as is  his vision. He is also an effective passer and mover in tight spaces.



Kilkenny - Same as Brattan's weaknesses, except even in 50/50 tackles, in which  Brattan is proficient whilst not contesting  anywhere near enough of them, Kilkenny is usually out-tackled. Unlike Brattan he often reads the tackling contests well, but still loses  most of them.

Basically all Brattan and Kilkenny do to break up attacks is foul players.

Kilkenny is usually very good on the ball and has excellent range of passing, and terrific handling speed. But unlike the likes of Milligan, Brattan, Bresciano, Grella, Mooy, Rogic, Culina, Caceres, Valeri,  he doesn't operate well in rapid fire pass and move football in tight spaces, probably because of his club football career. 

Brattan and Kilkenny are show ponies. They need to graft more like midfielders Jedi, Milligan, Rostyn Griffiths, Brillante, O'Neill, Broxham, Holland, Kantarovski and their teammates,  Osam Malik and Caceres.

It is no coincidence that City concede a lot of goals - they don't screen the defence effectively.  City will continue  to struggle until they have a CB pairing of Tongyik/Jakobsen, screened by the rugged Malik.


Franjic- Good going forwards. Had one brilliant game a few weeks ago, but needs to be more consistent. He is a good ball winner in 50/50 duels, but is still not good enough  at jockeying, delaying or tackling players with the ball at their feet.

Grant is better at this, but Franjic is technically better on the ball. Having said this, Franjic should be closer to national team selection than Brattan and Kilkenny.





 

Taggart is overrated. Juric should always start ahead of him, I'd have McLaren before Taggart too.

Right at this point in time, Taggart is in form.

Before this week's HAL game, apparently he had scored 5 goals from 6 shots!

This week he scored 1 from about 4 shots I counted.

Giannou, Juric, Maclaren, may all be better players, but they are out of form, injured or sitting on benches. Basically, they are not scoring goals ATM.

The players currently scoring are Cahill, Brosque, Rogic, Taggart, Santalab and Gol Gol.

the last time taggart had a decent run of games he got the golden boot.  all taggart needs is to play each week. 

Goodwin and Irvine have scored a few as well.

Taggart and Maclaren scored again. Troisi is in form. Cahill is doing great and Kruse and Juric should be going well come the end of March. Burns is always a wild card and a valuable player. Giannou is currently on the outer.

How are Maclaren and Taggart doing other than scoring? Can they play well in the way Ange wants?  The good news is Ange has introduced a lot of guys to the national team set up so it's not a completely unknown endeavour. Hell,  Taggart was even in Brazil. 

maclaren and taggart hitting some form

taggart last week gets his first full 90 mins in a senior side since jets.  an enormously underated talent on this forum.

kruse needs to actually get in a team.  juric has been out injured a lot. 

kruse must be down the pecking order by now.

Taggart did well tonight, saw a lot of the ball, played similar to how Juric plays tbh and scored.
Maclaren was a late sub, scored a tap in but likes to sit on the shoulder of the defence, so doesn't get involved as much.

certainly shouldn't start until he get's regular game time.

if ange actually follows through on his big talk. which he hasnt in the last few squads.  he's been a hypocrite.

Agree

Of course. Not only playing but also doing well. Juric has ample time to lift again. Hopefully he'll have played at least 5 full games come qualifiers.

juric always starts to look the goods but misses about 60% of every season with injury.  he cannot be counted on as our first team striker.  we need to work without him and throw him in the mix as a bonus when he is in good health.

Taggart isn't as strong as Juric as a hold up, target striker. Tagart also has more pace and is more nimble  on his feet.

In the game a week before Taggart displayed on instant of extraordinary skill. He made a fabulous first touch under close defuse pressure, then beat two players at once with a move  using a dribbling technique with two quick,  right left 45 degree successive touches, called La Croqueta. I've only really seen Nathan Burns do this in Australia as well.

Iniesta is brilliant at it.

Glory with Taggart, Castro and Marinkovic,  augmented by Harold and Risdon's forays  forward, are becoming good to watch. They play a flat midfield 4-4-2.

I meant movement wise, sorry, I could have been more clear.
Like Juric he get's involved with the play, he often came deep or picked up a pass out wide. He isn't a striker that waits in the middle, or sits on the defender's shoulder, which is more Maclarens style.
They both do this and maybe my example isn't a good one to express that.

http://ultra.zone/2018-FIFA-World-Cup-qualification-AFC-Third-Round#group=b

Handy simulator to save on the math. 

looks good.   if japan clean up and if we win our home games we should be through.

also ive punched in every team to win their home games 1-0 and that puts us on top of the pile by 2 points.  all we need is a better result than that for us to come home.  so if iraq and thailand pick up wins or there are draws for uae, the saudis or japan. or we win our away games. we are looking good.  basically i think the worse the saudis and uae do the better it is for australia.

UAE vs Saudi could be crucial. Iraq and Thailand will hopefully beat them. Entering tips for Japan in the ME is also difficult.

I put Australia as beating Iraq UAE Thailand and Saudi and losing in Japan. It appeared enough with Saudi winning the first 2, losing to us and drawing the last 2.

The dream is we win and UAE and Saudi drop points against everyone else. Kyrgyzstan beat Jordan somewhat unexpectedly and I feel Iraq or Thailand are also capable of such results especially when they can play for the fun of it in a somewhat dead rubber where they can take risks.

Beating Iraq would be a vital first step. Beating UAE and Saudi are a must.

I said it before that Thailand is probably very tough at home. we don't really know as they've only played us and Japan. I think they'll probably take points off Saudis and UAE.

This is so true. When you really look at the UAE and Saudi organisation, it still has a lot of issues and hopefully Thailand will exploit that. Thailand almost did that in the ME so it's definitely a chance.

Good point.

They've also improved.

Aren't the French helping them out in development and technical direction, or is it Cambodia?

The French have helped in Vietnam, big time, according to Nickk.

Must be who I am thinking of.

Nabbout is doing really well. I'd rather him in form than some lacklustre Ange favourite or say Juric with a slight injury. 

Cahill is a given. Troisi extremely likely. Currently from the A League Maclaren, Taggart, Oar and now Nabbout are all doing well. I say Oar also because of his international experience. 

under the ange system we need wings that actually score goals.  we dont play super wide with them any more.  dropping shitty crosses into the box does nothing for us.

i'd rather see troisi or goodwin on the left wing than oar, kruse or leckie at the moment.  but more importantly we need to stop playing 4-3-3 while we have shit wing options.

i'd like to see the diamond with a shift in personnel. with rogic as a false nine tucked in between a couple of strikers/wings/playmakers - who ever is in form.

goodwin---------------------wilko-----------------------jurman---------------------------------behich
---------------------------------------------------jedi
------------------------------mooy------------------------------------irvine
----------------------------------------------------rogic
-------------------brosque---------------------------------------------------------troisi

I'm not sure if Berni is close atm but if he has a good next season in Belgium and we qualify for the WC he looks like he is heading towards a spot , even starting

As far as A-League players go, bernie would be front of the list to break into the socceroos, I reckon...he's dangerous every time he gets the ball, and uses his attributes to beat people...something we sorely lack in the national team