Who gives a shit, pick anyone who is good enough and eligible. 

Fact is he’s not Australian. His dad was so young when he left here he couldn’t even remember it. This would be like selecting Richard Porta’s son in 20 years time.

Knowing our luck he'll probably get picked up by some Italian club and his value will go through the roof ultimately selecting Croatia. He's a long shot for Australia at best anyway. 

Sainsbury playing at DM might not be such a bad thing. We’re actually very light on in future depth of true DMs (as opposed to CMS) and I think he will be the best player in the team regardless of where he plays.

After this WC and maybe AC you would have to think Jedi and Milligan will be done. Beyond that we’re converting players whose best position is much further up the field like Luongo and Irvine. Dougall is the only true DM left. Perhaps O’Neill in League One

our transfermarkt 11 for kicks and giggles

--------------------------ryan--------------------------
--risdon-----jurman------sainsbury-----behich-
----------------mooy---------jedi---------------------
----------leckie------luongo-------oar--------------
-----------------------Juric----------------------------

video of susjnar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YrYND3PqI4

gee looks a player
technically decent physically strong and fast. He looks a step above that league but of course highlights can be deceptive

He's 21.
Highlights of Karacic.

https://vimeo.com/246605119

There's no chance of him getting a call up in the first place. A 23-year-old who plays for a poor team in a poor league, has never been to Australia and doesn't speak English. I think we can safely leave him to Croatia. He's not Australian and almost certainly not good enough to bother with. 

Is there any evidence Karacic would accept a call up?

Atm, I'd have

In - (7 defenders for WC)
Sainsbury (CB)
Susnajr (CB)
Williams (CB)
Chapman (CB) (RB)
Karacic (RB)
Behich (LB)
Meredith (LB)

Out
Jurman (CB)
Wright (CB) (RB)
Degenek (CB) (RB)
Risdon (RB)

for those interested he has played 1700 minutes for 1 goal and 4 assists

Fran Karacic, RB for Lokomotiva Zagreb, is apparently in the frame for a Socceroos call up for the World Cup. Van Marwijk is keen to have a look at him and is in line to be a real WC bolter. He's played for Croatia's U/21s recently and is 21 years of age. David Davutovic wrote an article about it for News Corp but I haven't been able to get access because of BS access restrictions. 

smart. getting a local coach in for the world cup experience rather than a short term foreign coach.

japan beats us again, even in a shit situation.

In terms of World Cup squad selection, how many spots remain up for grabs?

You'd think Ryan, Vukovic, Sainsbury, Jurman, Behich, Jedinak, Milligan, Luongo, Irvine, Mooy, Rogic, Leckie, Cahill and Juric are guaranteed selection barring injury. 

One more spot you'd think is between Jones vs Langerak for the 3rd GK position. 

That leaves 8 spots still open with the defence and our wide positions perhaps most open.

I imagine Degenek, Wright and Risdon are all in with a strong chance, whilst only one of Meredith and Gersbach will get the call up. I'd personally like to think Williams, Chapman and Susnjar would be considered too with Williams in particular perhaps favourable over Wright or Risdon. 

If only 4 spots remain I guess it's a battle in the final third between Kruse, Nabbout, Petratos, Arzani, Rukavytsya, Troisi, Maclaren and Borrello. I'd really like to see Borrello and Arzani in the squad, with the remaining 2 positions coming from Kruse, Maclaren, Nabbout and Petratos. I think this would be dependent on who performs in the next month at club level.

Rewatched some Arzani footage
It's hard to believe he doesn't have 30 assists by now some hopeless finishing in some of those clips from teammates but it reminds me of a young rogic treating players as traffic cones. It's hard to dispute he could add something to the national team

Patrick Shick from Roma is a great young striker. Will be good to face him in the Czech friendly. 

I think we have 2 more friendlies, against Czech and Hungary, planned in the first week of June 

It's easy to understand we being the new kids on that stage would be more nervous and error prone.

Obviously the European teams and players are well programmed to capitalise on errors. 

How many friendlies do we have before Russia?

yeah Japan beat rusia and tunisia in 2002 and drew with belgium

South korea also made the round of 16 in 2010 and were unlucky in 2006 where they got a win and a draw. In their incredible 2002 run they beat poland and portrugal drawing with usa before beating italy and spain in the knockouts

That's no easy group. Perhaps suggesting that both Japan and Australia have both performed well when switched on.

No distractions and when the manager has them focused / organised etc 

Yeah 2002 they did well in the home tournament making the last 16. 2010 they got through the group with Netherlands Denmark and Cameroon only losing to Paraguay on penalties in the next round. 

hmm Colombia, Poland.. don't like their chances of going through. Could surprise however. Have Japan ever gone through the groups... guess we have that on them if that's the case. They seem to do well against us..

Despite limited time this coach has got some good experience. 

Japan Football Association (JFA) technical director Akira Nishino will replace Vahid Halilhodzic as head coach of the Japanese national team just two months before the World Cup finals, the JFA said on Monday.Nishino, who spent 10 seasons in charge of Gamba Osaka and became the JFA’s technical director in 2016, will have little time to prepare for the World Cup, where Japan are drawn in Group H alongside Colombia, Poland and Senegal.Japan have three friendly matches scheduled before opening their World Cup campaign against Colombia on June 19.Halihodzic, who took over in March 2015, led the team to their sixth straight World Cup finals after they finished top of Asian qualifying Group B ahead of Saudi Arabia and Australia.However, pressure on the 65-year-old had been building and a draw with Mali and defeat to Ukraine in friendly matches last month did nothing to ease concerns about the team’s form heading into the World Cup.Kyodo news agency quoted JFA President Kozo Tashima as saying the Bosnian had been informed of the decision to replace him on Saturday.He is the third coach to depart from one of the five Asian sides heading to Russia after they had secured qualification.Australia and Saudi Arabia also changed coaches soon after they booked their places, while South Korea replaced German Uli Stielike with Shin Tae-yong for the final two matches of qualifying.Japan’s next warm-up game for the World Cup is against Ghana on May 30.(Reporting by Jack Tarrant; Editing by John O’Brien)

Had we beaten them or even drawn in Japan, he'd likely have been fired. 

Australia is such a trend setter

Oh wow, while he didn't have them playing that well surely he is better than getting in a manager last second.

Relevant enough here as our opponents affect the national team.
Japan have sacked their coach.

mcgree and caletti have both impressed me at times

de silva might come good too. A lot of these players take till mid 20s to come good since we dont play enough games year round