Taggart is showing some veritable striking instincts ATM. He is also dangerous with both feet and head.

He is  currently playing as a second striker in a 4-4-2 for PG, which has made for interesting tactical viewing.

I'm very impressed with Taggart's dribbling skills and first touch in confined spaces. Whether he can play as a sole striker for Ange's Socceroos is an unknown.

In a Socceroo context, Risdon has also been good going forwards for Glory. Speed over the turf is his issue. 

I'd love to see Bernie played as a ST for Sydney. He has the size and strength to do so and started out as a ST for CCM back in the day.

Would be great for our national team.

when fit taggart is a better striker than maclaren

If the squad were to be selected today I'd love to see:

Ryan, Langerak, Federici. Federici will always be 3rd regardless of what others do.

Sainsbury, Wright, Smith, Behich, Rhys Williams, De Vere, Franjic 

Luongo, Irvine, Mooy, Jedinak, Milligan, Goodwin, Troisi

Cahill, Taggart, Leckie, Burns, Ibini, Ryan Williams 

Of course we won't see this. It'd be great to see Dougall, Amini, O'Neill and Elder to get some exposure at some point. 

It's frustrating but there's hope that Juric, Spiranovic and Kruse will be playing very soon. Jeggo and Ikon haven't exactly done anything wrong. 

I feel both Williams brothers offer something we need. Rhys is easily the most settled right back option. He won't be shaking with nerves. Ryan has a real drive going forward and has the Zlatan look with the hair at the moment. He's physically strong and would be great off the bench against tired opponents.

this kind of talk is what we need.  listen to the recording and hear them talk it through.   

http://outside90.com/rolling-socceroos-xi-surprise-packets-picked-520/



that's the kind of 11 that '2014 ange' would have picked 

I would also like to see jurman, corey brown, and michael zullo talked about as serious defensive options for the NT.

double

Given Sains looks like spending some bench time at a quality Italian club, I think Nigel Boogard could be  an Alex Wilkinson type selection for the national team as an experienced CB.

Boogard has been consistent for a long time. His major weakness seems to be red cards!

I've disagreed with you many times but this is quite simply the stupidest fucken post i have ever read from you decentric. I've seen some terrible players play for australia but this would take the cake.

In the A league alone the central defenders in front of that hack in no particular order Williams, Lowry, Wilkinson, McGowan, DeVere, Grant, Donachie, Djulbic, Cornthwaite, Aspro.

Boogard is a consistent red card waiting to happen. That's at the absolute peak of his game. It only gets worse from there

he is card prone, but he does have some cracking games.  it would be a ganble on which booogard you got.  but yeah he needs to get in line - wilko and jurman have done everything right.  

but cornflakes?  you gotta be fucking kidding?  possible one of the worst defenders in the league.

i still think jedinak need to be put in central defence.  and leckie at fullback.  and rogic as a second striker.

Should try Matt Ryan as holding midfielder. His distribution is first class :Whistling:

LOL!

Football is a game of opinions, NS. Your post seems like an overly strident response!

For the record I usually agree with most of your appraisals of players and general comments regarding football since you've posted as NS and undergone advanced coach education.

On Boogard, he wins a lot of 1v1 heading duels, is a strong tackler and generally outmuscles most of his opponents. He is a very good 1v1 penalty box defender, apart from card transgressions.

Recently Boogard has  made innumerable timely intercepts through good reading of the  game, and, under a modicum of pressure in terms  of being closed down, he has started to pass well over range in terms of diagonal switches of play.

In terms of fast handling speed and rapid fire passing ability under pressure, I'm not unequivocally sure about his ability in this area? 

A further positive aspect of his game is that he is a leader and an organiser.  As soon as he is missing with AU, and now Jets, his absence leaves a hole in the defence.

As you know, one needs to have a good grasp of one's game to organise others. Moreover, a CB is an ideal position to organise players in front of them, than a midfielder trying to organise players behind them.

I'm not sure what NS has been smoking this morning?  

I raised my eyes at Cornflake too.

Boogard is  a thug of a defender which is fine if that's what you are after. However he is a poor passer of the ball both short and long. I'm not sure how you have seen any different. Law of averages would mean at some stage he may fluke hitting his target and perhaps that is what you have seen.

He is mistake prone and would have to be pretty close to the top of the penalties conceded leader board in his career.

The only people that could really know what his leadership qualities are like are those who play around him week in week out or those sat in the stands close to him week in week out. I'll give it to you that he seems to yell a lot, that does not necessarily mean he is saying the right things 

I havent really been watching Boogard closely, so i cant comment.  But i do not see how he could possibly bring more to the table than Alex Wilkinson, who imo is the best CB we have by quite a way.  I think Ange needs to settle on Wilkinson as the no1 CB and allow Spiranovic, Milligan, Sainsbury and Devere to fight over the other birth. 

Jedinak is an interesting proposition also, but he is running out of time if he is not going to experiment with the positional change. 

If forced to pick, i would take Milligan and Wilkinson no most occassions.

I watched Boogard improve immensely under Gombau here into a competent passer when allowed time and a constant easy outlet in Isaias. However, that improvement came from a pretty low base and he was always more of a liability than an asset. His red card tally is horrifying. That doesn't include the 50 desperate tackles he puts in a season that are a hair away from further red cards. Some were his teammates leaving him in bad positions but not always.

He is a solid tough A-League standard CB who could be a very good A-League CB without the red cards and penalties. You have to accept that they just are part of his game though so as much as he improved in his time here I was never that sad to see him go.

If he ever gets close to representing the national team, even at some south east asian B grade comp I think I could never watch the Socceroos again because the badge would have become meaningless.

He seems like a decent guy and his improvements did make me think we could have held onto him for another season but I am so glad, in retrospect, that we didn't.

i'd like to see him as a jockey. he has the size for it.

i think milligan needs to be dropped while he plays in a substandard money league.  ange had the balls to cut ambitionless squadies in 2014. he needs to do it now more than then.  we have a world cup to get into ffs,.

I will admit that Milligan is at a dangerous stage.  For a long time, he was so good and consistent, but starting with i think it was the second greece game (where you could be forgiven for thinking he had a dollar on the greeks he was that bad) and more recently that poor game he had at right back (admittedly out of position), that makes 2 poor games in 12 months which suggests he is starting to show the signs of aging.  Obviously his choice of club may also have something to do with it. 

If anyone gets dropped, it should be because of form, not the league they are playing in (particularly if they are actually playing).  I would monitor his newfound lack of consistency, but i do still think he is the best option we have at centre back (given that Sainsbury and Spiranovic also seem to be struggling with form). 

In my opinion, Australia doesnt (and never has) had the talent available to leave out their best players.  I would have thought the last world cup proved this.  Imagine how we would have gone if Schwarzer had replaced Ryan in goals and saved 2 or 3 of the saveable goals Ryan left in.  Or if Wilkshire or even Neil had played and not got caught out of position as much as McGowan did.  Or if Harry Kewell came off the bench and produced one more moment of brilliance. 


Unless Milligan loses form or someone else steps up (as Mooy, Rogic and arguably even Irvine and Luong have), Milligan should be selected.

Top post Bender Parma. Our NT scenario for as long as I can remember your 3rd paragraph..

Can you some stop making so much sense, Davide?

Don't know what's got into you, but you've been making a lot of sense lately on a consistent basis. 

LOL!

Ange said after the game he wanted to put some pressure on players who were exhausted to perform. Milligan was one of them.

Missed the game as I was overseas, but I've not seen Milligan play a bad game for some years, apart from being a little out of position at RB.

Agree with this three as our top three current CBs.

Milligan is probably  better than anybody else if we dominate possession, but probably worse if the opposition has more of the ball than us.

DeVere has been good for Roar, but made a few mistakes against Shanghai last week.

The trouble is Milligan has probably been the most consistent Socceroo over the last three to four  years, even whilst playing in the Gulf.

I have watched a lot of Devere, because Roar are the team i follow.  Devere is very good most of the time.  Possibly even our best centerback (defensively) when he plays well.  Unforunately, he does seem to be prone to patches where he makes mistakes.  He needs to stop this if he is going to cement a position at cb in the national team.  Hopefully this will happen, but there are no guarantees. 

I don't watch Roar as regularly as you.

The games I've seen DeVere play this season have been very good in the HAL, apart from the ACL game. That was a great ACL performance by Roar!

DV is definitely in the mix for a Socceroo squad for mine.

yeah has to be,

especially considering Spira isn't playing at the moment, my top 4 CB contenders for the next squad in order are

CB: Sains, DeVere, Wright and Wilko.

LB: Gersbach Beich SMith

RB: Grant .... not sure there is a standout, maybe franjic, milos

McGowan, Milligan and Degernak are all better than Grant at RB.

Seems everyone has seen Risdon and Geria aren't ready.

Sains isn't playing either in Serie A.

I feel a bit sorry for McGowan and Degenek not being able to play in their preferred position as CB.

None of McGowan, Milligan and Degenek have Grant's engine to get up and down the pitch.

Risdon continues to improve.