Just on this I was struck by the role our wingers played in the match (and fullbacks to an extent).  For a lot of the second half when attacking our wingers were in the really high and wide position, basically on the touchline level with the edge of the box or even higher, creating space and pulling denmark wide.  Using the fullbacks extensively to move the ball forwards and using the wingers in those dangerous positions forced Denmark to be a bit more open and gave us some opportunities for attack.  Unfortunately our crossing was mostly poor, and other players positioning in the box was not great but it was a plan that clearly worked, we just didn't capitalise enough.  Also interesting how often I noticed Leckie and Kruse (Kruse especially) on the touchline on the opposite side to their position.  I was too busy fretting over the result to analyse this but it must have been a planned tactical move to either overload one side or screw with defences, open them up etc.  This was a well executed game plan by us, absolute credit to Bert for it and for the team for adapting to it so well.

The distance the Socceroos have come under Bert, Van Bommel, et al, has been remarkable.

France potentially are better than any club team, but a couple of EPL and Bundesl clubs are very good. Significantly, few Aussies play against them.

The Socceroos are playing far tougher opposition in Russia than most of our players ever play at club level.

From a coaching perspective, one Socceroo ( Nabbout?) said Bert is even working on footwork to turn into position and face forwards more quickly when receiving the ball. Moreover, Bert has done a lot of work on players thinking more quickly to support the ball carrier.

Even in Oz in  underage rep teams we are doing this. I can't believe Bert thinks it needs to improve given all our players are pros. It has though.

There is no doubt about it, Bert is one of the top coaches in the world.

Outside Arzani, we have a team of plodders and battlers at WC level, that he has turned into a cohesive unit in a position to go into the next round. He  has value added to a team of limited cattle.

We have no Socceroos in big clubs who make the last 16 of the UEFA Champ league, or even top five clubs in the European big five leagues, or the two big leagues in South America. Most of our opponents have heaps of them.

The Dutch usually love coaching Aussies because our teams have something their teams often lack - great mental strength, unity of purpose and will to win.

I couldn't get over how confident the Danes were before playing Australia, expecting victory.

Even Holland have always said they respect us.

No doubt about  it, Australia dominated the second half. We had a lot more possession. I'm not sure what the final tally was on shots at goal and on target?

There were quite a few balls played into the box where the likes of Kruse  and Juric were outmuscled, out-positioned or out-thought  by Danish defenders, that Cahill would've been more likely to score.

The most effective Danish players,  were Stinto, probably their shortest player, who was excellent on  the ball in ball carrying and dribbling, and, the enormous target man, Cornelius, just because of his sheer size and strength.

Does milicic have a notepad?

Interesting read.

A lot of these articles are not written by trained coaches or former pro players, so there is minimal insight.

The best point made about us was on Jedi's distribution early in the game when there was more condensed space in the Danish squeezing, compared to where there was more space available in midfield later in the game  and Jedi became more effective on the ball.

It was also mainly written from a Danish perspective.

Can't believe the critics on BVM all this cause of Cahill not coming on.For such a short time he has our side so well drilled and tactically aware.Players look more confident and more aware.Our defence looks so  much better now.We can match it with the best sides to.Go figure SBS were so critical of his appointment.

Would have been great for him to take us to Asia cup and wc qualifiers FFA got peanuts in there head not to wait to appoint a manager after wc why rush it.Good 1 year under Bert we would have flourished. 

Ange is not even capable to tie BVM shoe laces as a manager.

Craig Foster was.

Not SBS in its entirety.

Well said and all true.

I was still fan of Ange in the middle period of his tenure, but BVM is a completely different class.

Mexico singles Australia out for praise
https://www.socceroos.com.au/news/mexico-coachs-special-praise-socceroos

We are playing fantastic. Defending really well. Keeping possession and getting into attacking positions very well. 

I'm not a critic of BVM at all though I think he's fantastic. 

The thing we lack is attacking quality. Because none of it means much when you can't score. Thats why I think we need Cahill. Also why I'd have Petratos starting. We need players that can put the ball in the net and deliver the final pass. And theres no one better than Cahill at scoring or Petratos at assisting. 

Agree with all this, and, particularly the point about a lack of attacking quality - apart from Arzani's  all round  play  and Cahill's finishing.

Against Denmark, Rogic had the sort of game I thought he should've produced regularly. He  had a very good game, but this is his only one for some time.

Is Petratos still contracted to Jets for next season or is he off to the J-League? 

I don't think a lot of his poor games are often his fault though. Under Ange the high press, or as you call it the voodoo formation wasn't very great for him, often defensively he was caught out but ultimately he never got the ball in space and nor did anyone create any space. The only game he actually had space to operate was against Germany and he played well because of it. But ultimately it was an absolute mess of a system.

Under Bert he's looked so much better, in the friendlies while clearly lacking fitness he still managed to get into good positions and create chances. Against France defensively, which was a major problem of his he did very well, the issue was that he was screened out of the game by Kante and we didn't give him many opportunities on the ball. The game against Denmark was probably the first time under Bert we've seen him at full fitness and actually on the ball with genuine options.

Individual brilliance.

I wanted Timmy on against Denmark but I suspect BVM balanced the desire to win versus getting caught in the last few minutes and going home.  Look at Serbia going for the win and losing at the death. Can't see them beating Brazil so they are done.  Could easily have been us.

Thanks for posting.

Interesting read.

I found it poignant that he singled out Jedi for praise. Jedi struggled on the ball in limited time and space against France and Denmark, but has a lot of other strengths to counteract his technical weakness on the ball.

Also, Bert has sorted out Rogic and Mooy playing on the pitch at the same time.

 Instead of the attacking midfield triangle variation of the 4-3-3 that Ange used for a while, with Mooy and Rogic malfunctioning  as the twin attacking mids, and Jedi as preferred screener, with Milligan often benched, Bert has used  Milligan as a ball playing distributor at CB, with Sains the  man to man marker.

Bert has used Mooy to partner Jedi as a twin DM, with Rogic as attacking mid in a defensive midfield variation of the 4-3-3 / 4- 2- 3- 1.


...........................................Ryan

Risdon...................Sains..............Milligan..............Behich

......................Jedi..............................Mooy
.........................................Rogic

Leckie..........................Nabbout/Juric...................Kruse/Arzani


Bert has deciphered how to use four of his most influential players on the pitch at the same time, and, the team playing cohesively.  Ange never worked this out.

Importantly, Jedi and Milligan are the  most experienced players apart from Cahill. Both are veterans of previous World Cup Qualifying campaigns and have experienced WC tournaments.

Around Jedi in central areas  to compensate for his lack of handling speed and technique on the ball, Mooy, Milligan and Sains are all pretty  good distributors. All four of these players are good ball winners.

 Mooy has improved out of sight in his defensive play with Huddersfield in recent times, as he was deficient at Melb City and WSW.

The formation also has the potential to evolve into the classic tried and tested 3-4-3 midfield diamond, that Ange avoided.

Milligan could move forwards with Risdon and Behich tucking in to create a back three. Sadly, both our full backs are  on the  short side for wide CBs in a back three. This could easily be deployed in the same game.

......Risdon..................Sains................Behich

.....................................Milligan
...................Jedi............................Mooy
....................................Rogic

....Leckie...............Nabbout/Juric......Kruse/Arzani



Unfortunately, we lose Bert in a few more games.

@Decentric I think Rogic and Irvine would work well in an attacking triangle

Rogic draws players, irvine compensates for the defensive fragility and is great at finding the pockets of space rogic would create. Irvine is also a good finisher. We will probably need an attacking triangle against set defence in asia


----------------mooy------luongo----------
-----------------------rogic--------------------

away from home

--------------------mooy------------------------
--------------rogic---------irvine---------------
at home

Irvine is a plodder for mine.

He is almost typical of many European players we've played against over the the last  few weeks from Norway, Czech Republic, Hungary and Denmark.  

There are a lot more teams like this I've seen in the European Champs too from northern and eastern Europe. They all have too many overly tall, big players, slow on the turn, lacking nimbleness and agility.

Conversely, the top teams have more  players short in stature, quick on  the turn with a low centre of gravity. These players often have the ability to play neat attacking interplay.

For mine, Luongo plays better on the ball than Irvine, and Petratos has that long range shooting ability.

The thing that Jedi provides is phenomenal ability to concentrate whilst not having the ball. He is very disciplined shadowing, delaying and jockeying  players well for sustained periods. Jedi is also  a rugged ball winner and provides the height and heading  ability when Milligan has to play against very tall  forwards. 

Do you think this because Jackson Irvine is tall? Or because of how he plays? Sounds to me as if there's a danger you're susceptible to a confirmation bias against taller footballers. Which, frankly, is bullshit.

Let's start with central midfield. Mark van Bommel is 1.87m, Yaya Touré is 1.88m, Patrick Vieira is 1.93m. NB - I'm not suggesting shorter central midfielders aren't as good as taller ones. Andres Iniesta, Paul Scholes and Andrea Pirlo are fair bit shorter, for example, but are legendeary.

And then out wide and up front, let's consider fantasista footballers who usually need speed, agility, close control and 1 vs 1 ability to excel. Cristiano Ronaldo is 1.87m. Thierry Henry is 1.88m.

Frankly, these preconceived ideas about footballers not succeeding because they're too short (or, with your bias, 'too tall') is the sort of bullshit which has held Australian football back. Judge the football, not the height.

That's fantastic. It's always interesting to see what foreign coaches think about our players. Particularly when they aren't just laying it on because they are playing us or talking to our reporters.

Very good post Quickflick. Height is one of the most meaningless statistics in football. It's why I hate it when I hear people say we should no longer pick tall/strong players or that our defenders aren't tall enough.

I do agree with Decentric on Irvine though in terms of the position he is opted to play. He lacks 2 critical skill-sets as an attacking MF, being chance-creation and taking on players. He is a more box-to-box midfielder who has a wider range of skillsets without being particularly phenomenal at any of them. 

I see him as a holman like player but a better first touch

able to open up passing lanes, finish well and defend from the front. Having a player like that next to a playmaking number 10 allows you to play twin 10s

HIs skill set.

MDP the French MV defender was good on the ball and very tall.

CB's are tall to defend aerial threats.  It makes sense for them to be tall

As far as technical ability, I think shorter players tend to be better than taller players. 

 Ever heard the comment :" He has such a good touch for a big man".  It was said a lot about Viduka...because he was an exception, rather than the rule. Another is Ibrahimovic.  

Dangerous perception. If you go about it in too close-minded a way, then you risk wasting a lot of talent as some of the best in central midfield are still tall. But I agree with the idea that in central midfield height and speed are less relevant than anywhere else on the park. It tends to require the best in terms of ability to read the game and operate with a lack of space. So plenty of the world's best are small and not particularly athletic. However, it doesn't mean you can rule out taller footballers.

In the wide areas and up front, it's usually about speed and agility in combination with technical ability. Height has little or no bearing on this at all. Some of the quickest (and most agile footballers) in these wide areas are 1.85m taller (or taller). Similarly some are less than 1.75m in height.

The best way for coaches to go about is to focus on the football, not the height.

i heard fairly consistently that players considered spiranovic to be the most technically talented player in camp when he had NT duties.

What bvm has done is bring defensive shape and discipline. Ange was seemingly only thinking of going forward and seemed to have had limited idea about bpo transition, hence smith and behich  having no one to cover their space going forward and us having big holes in our formation whenever countered. We are still using overlapping wingbacks but now we are no longer afraid to use long crossing passes and are backing ourselves to take on the man. I remember risdon doing it in the last game and thinking how bvm has given the players belief.