If you think about it, Leckie and Kruse should now be co-captains cause of their goal scoring ability in Internationals. Socceroos ranking would get to 20 very quickly.

I didn't think it was possible for someone to be more fried than WaMackie but holy shit :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

What a ridiculous comment on so many levels. Firstly, I'd argue it's not true based on results and, even if it were true, you're saying the best of Africa is on par with the lowest 50 in Europe

Let's say that the current best nations in Europe are Spain, Germany, France, Belgium, England. Then you've got Italy, Portugal, Croatia, Turkey, Netherlands, Russia, Bosnia etc. the next level down.

Since the WC switched to 32 teams, Europe has had the following "not top 5 nations" get through to the quarters - Ukraine, Portugal, Turkey, Denmark, Croatia. The Netherlands, Belgium and England have all made it as well if you disagree with any of my original top 5.

How many African nations have made it that far? Senegal and Ghana.

Not one African nation has made it to the semis. Not one. Croatia and Turkey have both done it. Netherlands 3 times.

So now let's apply your logic to every continent. Let's remove their top 10% of sides.

CAF - Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria
AFC - Australia, Japan, South Korea, Iran
CONCACAF - Mexico, US, Costa Rica, Honduras
CONMEBOL - Argentina

How do these continents now compare to Europe?

This forum is hilarious and so far removed from reality at times.

ELo says , Ivory Coast (best right now in CAF) is = with the 20th best from UEFA Bosnia and Herzegovina, and = with 3rd bet in AFC Iran

my comment was in response to adrtho judging europe by some of its weaker nations. I was being conciliatory but trying to point out that it wasn't the best comparison to make
if you didn't catch that it isn't me with the problem

Needs to start working on a Plan B. Cahill was providing no option and counter to his apparent game plan (just one of many things wrong last night).

By the looks of it, when teams are not vastly inferior or just going through the motions we look like we have no idea on either what to do or how to string a few passes together. If we do not have the players to play his style, either find them quick smart or adapt.

i think the team went into this match very complacent,

Greece under performed in game 1, the greeks had not done their home work and didn't expect us to play the way we did, they reacted in game 2 .

Ange on the other hand did not prepare our guys for the greek response, similarly in the first 5-10 min when it was obvious the greeks were going to press high and were having success at it Ange did nothing to force our guys to react. All the talk leading up to this game was that the Socceroos believe they are able to compete with the best in the world, all about us, all very egotistical, no talk of how we would prepare for a different greek game plan.

i think the technical term is Ange go caught with his pants down.

this loss makes me think if we played England a second time they would have really pulled our pants down, we surprise teams that approach the soccer's as easy beats, but once a team has done their home work on us our level is exposed.

I think the constant chopping and changing of the starting line up needs to be addressed too. We should be using these games to gel our best 11 IMO. Last night's team was a bit of a hodge podge team.

Our starts tend to be the best times for teams to catch us asleep too ... he might need to gee them up before a game a bit better too.

He's ability to tactically create teams to break down solid defenses has always been a concern of mine too. Players like Rogic, Luongo and Mooy should be the x-factors here, but we seem a little lost when they aren't firing for us.

Kind of agree, but apart from the full backs and keeper that was probably our strongest available 11 (jedi & luongo may have slotted in if available), don't understand resting ryan? but i understand trailing the young left back. McGowan may have just lost his spot IMO, but RB remains a trouble area..

hard to read into tonight because of the lack of intensity in our game

i haven't seen us playout through an organized press without ryan
he makes a massive difference

Must add Thailand to teams he's drawn against.

He's not the Messiah.

Not good enough Ange.

3 points from the last 3 matches. Enough said.

He's certainly not in the same galaxy as Guus

As I said in the other thread, the refusal to play friendlies in the lead-up really shone through tonight. No composure, no fluency, no clinicalness. That doesn't happen if you had a decent hit out 5 days earlier.

Ange needs to either tell players like Kruse to get game time or they won't be picked in the next squad. Simple as that.

Except guus had the greatest aussie team ever put together..10 years on our talent is nowhere it. Will still easily get to russia

Nail on the head. Been saying this for ages. Although Thailand didn't either, we are always affected by this. Playing a friendly in the South East Asian conditions would have helped immensely. 

Has the side progressed that much under him? Or at least at a rate that any other coach would be able to do? Ange is a fantastic coach, but personally I have always been sceptical of his ability to work with a international squad and its obvious limiations with a coach who has/plays his style. 

The same selection mistakes and the same tactical mistakes are being played out in every match. How can we keep picking players who don't get a game? How can our players look so slow and move the ball so meekly?

3 points from the past 3 games. Thailand just got their first point. Ange is restricted by cattle but by contridicting himself and his approach to selection he puts himself in the firing line. 

One other thing of concern is that it appears Ange is struggling to motivate players. Successive games players have come out lethargic and with practially no endevour. 

They look like they coudn't care less. 

He said in his post game interview that he can tell them but it's out of his control what they do.

Only thing he can do is not choose them and bring in better performing local players that play every game

I don't think we've improved on the field at all in the last couple of years. We have a bigger pool of players to choose from, but it's also quantity over quality.  

We're constantly battling, and scraping wins against Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Jordan. We've lost to every high profile opponent we've played. The team has no motivation to win and no work ethic. 

Ange is in trouble

Anger should be sacked and Australia get a real European coach.

If they can't win games like that, then they are useless!

Postecoglou fits players in to a system.  That is the wrong approach. In international football the players available to the coach are limited so the system must fit the players.

As far as motivation goes, if a World Cup place won't motivate the players then they all need to be told to f- off.

Through his lack of motivating players he has created a side that everyone in Asia knows they can now beat. Look how much space/lack of pressing the Thais gave the Aussies, we should've murdered them - they knew we were toothless, would just tire and they wanted the game more. 

Probably Anges focus on supreme fitness is killing the team.He probaly flogs them to death after they fly in and they are too knackered to perform on game day.We saw how that can work when Brisbane lost 4-0 to Newcastle.Ross Aloisi cirtually confessed to the coaching staff probably training the players too much before the game and learning not to do that again.

1 friendly isn't going to make that much difference. If some of our key players got injured during that friendly the arguments would be that we shouldn't have played the game.

I think the question that has to be asked is what was the training like leading up to the game? Was the 10 day camp a little full on the physical side of things, because it looked as though the players were tired, which tells you they had a heavy work load leading into the match, and that's not good at all.

Lol at people saying that Ange isn't the Messiah. THese are the same people that wanted him gone months leading into the Asian Cup, then looked at what happened? Those same people were not to be seen until now, mainly because they had plenty of egg left on their faces.

We are stil undefeated and have more home games on the return leg. Japan are a very strong side and Saud Arabia are no mugs either, so you can't be totally shocked when we drew against them. The level of players that we have is limited. We are getting better in all departments other than in the forward line imo. We lack any clinical striker and always have since Viduka. (Cahill aside).

When does the Greek Job come up ?

Not afraid to say I have held the same view since day one. I admit I didn't think we'd win the Asian Cup (although I believed we should've considering who we were up against), but then I didn't think we'd have such an easy ride to the final either. The one game (leading to teh final) were come across a good (by Asian standards only) side we got done. 

Personally I loved winning the Asian Cup, but I don't really hold it in massive regards. I'd rather win a single match at the World Cup then win the whole Asian Cup. Not sure other people's feelings