A clown once say you don't win anything with kids. Not entirely true :D

Recently England and the NSW Origin team have showed that a refreshed side can work wonders. I know, they're definitely more talented in their sport than our bunch but it could well be worth a try. They definitely seem to have better coaching but we don't know what Arnold is going to achieve yet. If we're realistic, a lot of our younger players handle the ball better than our veterans. There's been an obvious lack of skill on the ball and finishing technique.

Arzani, Petratos, Campness, Blackwood, Kamau Borrello, Hrustic, Ikonomidis, Mabil, Atkinson, Gersbach, Elder, McGree, O'Neill, Burgess, Susnjar,  Deng and anyone else you'd like to add all offer exciting times. It'd be extremely refreshing to see some of these players come in at the expense of Milligan, Jedinak, Kruse, Meredith, Degenek, Jurman, Wright and other older players who see to get in the way.

Won't happen but let's hypothetically go to the back 5. All players are good on the ball and Arzani and Ikon are definitely good at finishing when the chance comes.

                            Ryan
Leckie    Susnjar   Sainsbury   Burgess  Behich
                   Luongo  Mooy
                           Rogic
                Arzani          Ikonomidis

Alternatively and my personal preference for now.


                       Ryan
Leckie  Sainsbury  Susnjar  Behich
                Luongo   Mooy
                     Rogic
 Borrello   Maclaren     Arzani


I generally want to rid our squad of the clumsy, battering ram style centre backs. You know like those guys on FIFA? 39 years old with a pace of 17! Degenek, Jurman and Wright are in that category. At the same time, could we adopt something similar to Italy with their back 3 of old heads? Can we create something like a fortress? I understand their players have the higher skills but can we adapt it to ourselves? We're going to cut ties with Milligan and Jedinak sooner rather than later so it's not worth investing too much time in them I really like Irvine higher up. Good in the air and he seems to get clipped a lot which can win free kicks


                           Ryan
Leckie  Milligan Jedinak Spiranovic Behich
                        Sainsbury
                   Luongo Mooy
                    Arzani    Irvine  

It would be good for us.

Only around a month until the international break and we're still without opponents. Annoying. Can we just play Hannover 96 in Hannover?  Sorted :D

Opponents are wearing thin. Surely it has to be announced within 7 days. 

So about two weeks before Arnie's first squad should be announced. Something tells me it will end being just a training camp with a match against a club team behind closed doors in London somewhere. 

Maybe a non-event if the normalisation committee is installed because of the Lowy + mates stubbornness 

How about you and others substitute FFA for Lowy.

Yes, he is the figurehead and spokesperson but he is not the owner nor is he the dictator.

How do you know the members of the board are his mates?

He does need to go but so does the whole board.

Australia drop 7 places to 45 in the world. Japan still 55th somehow. 

Pretty much given up hope of any September friendly games. 

Pretty sad I think 

I will be pissed if we don’t play a game in oz somewhere!! Or even a competitive game in Europe!! Shame on FFA if they don’t pull something off!

I would have thought that Arnie would be keen as to get the most opportunities to get together with the team as he can. Suggests that there's no money in the kitty for even a camp. Poor effort from the FFA. Are they spending all our money on trying to delay/postpone the FIFA congress changes. And that's the thing, its our money they are using, for whatever purposes. 

I think people forget how young Degenek is. He was only 23 a few months ago. That’s a baby for a centerback. He’s doing much better than Sainsbury was at his age (not that I think he’ll likely be as good as captain Sains).
Unfairly judged player just cause he’s been around for a long time while playing out of position at rightback.

^ agree with the above. Degenek is still so young and has a great future as a CB.

We better have a third option for the striker position come NT games. Who will that be ?

Maclaren #1
Juric #2 (however, has so many problems with injury, we really need a better backup striker)
#3    ?

Taggart could be the backup striker

Maclaren-1
Nabbout-2
Taggart-3

Seriously!! Why the f#%k aren’t we playing an international friendly in September???
This is shit... I could understand if we had a cracking World Cup but we didn’t.... any more dea what’s going on?

So thinking now about the national team.. and how we need to plan for the future! With our fullbacks not fully world class is it time for Leckie to move to right fullback he will be older alittle slower but smarter and own that position and I was thinking Gersbach should be pushed to move away from Rosenberg and gain match time to filter him in early he is a machine and need to take the Socceroos to the next level!

Does he actually like that role ? He does play a hell of a lot better as a winger ? 

Taggart, he better have a ripper A-League season or I doubt he'll be anywhere near the NT

Surprised Maclaten is so many people’s automatic #1 pick for striker. And Nabbout is almost forgotten about.



Leckie slower? Wut?

Also, no need to hurry Gersbach into the team when Behich is doing so consistently well lately.

Been thinking a bit about Right Back.

How do people critically evaluate Josh Risdon's performance at the World Cup ?

How do you rate it? Do you think he went alright ? Any room for improvement? 

I thought he surprisingly held his own most of the time. We could clearly do with a better rightback though.

I’m open to using Leckie there if we have wingers who can replace him well.
Otherwise it might be a couple of years till someone like Atkinson or Pierias get to that level.

Yeah did hold his own. Which was very surprising for such a big event.

I thought Risdon could learn how to professionally foul a little harder/better in certain situations. He did try this at times, but seemed to lack some foul smarts and commitment. 

Fitness wise, run with his legs and not his hips so much. Perhaps some sort of quickness program. Like quick sprints/ take offs. 

He covers large amounts of ground quite poorly. Might not be physically capable . 

re-watching that french analytics video.. man Mooy is just playing in the 4th dimension and everyone else is in 2D.

I think we should consider looking at Anthony carter for the target man we crave. He is playing at a fairly decent level and could be the answer long term

Think he showed he can be a decent option if need be, in other words no longer a liability.

FINAL BALL is what let him down above everything else, which I should have mentioned above. He's great over short distances , tracked back violently.

Yeah I'd put it that way, bad games can not be afforded at international level unfortunately. 

There is always room for improvement for any player.

Risdon was much improved and did a decent job. According to BVM he improved more than any other player under his tutelage.

It seems no one will be stopping Jedinak and Milligan from prolonging their careers. If they deliver I'm fine with it but at some point I'd love to see Dougall and Susnjar enter frame.

I rate Mabil higher though a massive emergency could see Inman or Williams get a wing spot on current form. Kruse Leckie and Arzani are set. Petratos, too. Nabbout should be OK but it'll all depend on their form. 

And starting at a good club who are a second leg playoff away from champions league group stsge