Souttar, Maclaren, and Goodwin don’t have many caps, so arguably Arnie was experimenting, which is what many say he should be doing. He gave Hrustic some time too. And against Taiwan he will likely give Borrello and Jeggo a run.  Seems like he is experimenting but not in a reckless way?

Before this game, some might even say none.

Only saw the 2nd half and haven't read through comments so I assume I'm not the first to say this but geez Hrustic looked good when he came on.

I know it's only Nepal but you can see when a player is comfortable with that ball or not regardless of who they are playing against.

Haha, well exactly!

We were our usual slow and sloppy selves in attack. We simply don't know how to break down a team that defends deep with a packed defence. An own goal, a goal or two from keeper fumbles. A good goal to Maclaren from Grants header and Souttar smashing home a goal were the only promising attacking moments. 
If we can't get our attack going against minnows, how do we plan to break down much tougher opponents? Very little creativity. Even having a 2m tall player with a half metre advantage on his opponents and we couldn't isolate him more than once in the game. 

I noticed everyone forgot the game plan, 5 guys lining up in the front third waiting for a cross, if they had held their shape and stayed in position playing a proper passing game, as they did against Kuwait, they would have calved them apart and won 10 nil 

LOL....Yeah the pressure was immense. I couldn't sleep at night drawn with Nepal, Taiwan, Jordan and Kuwait.

Nepalling soccer, we did alright in hindsight good to see the Roos scoring goals at least

I noticed this too... I struggle to get my Sunday league team to not do that, surely at a professional level they shouldn't need to be told thats not how you play football. 

Giannou actually came out of that line to receive and lay the ball off (Irvine didn't do this either). Maclaren plays the last man, which isn't a bad thing but given the way we played last night only Leckie and Giannou knew how to play given the two teams set ups.

I think Arnold picked the wrong team for the tactics he employed.

He played in essence 4-2-4 in BP. He picked two players with a similar game, Goodwin and Behich, on the left. But knowing Nepal would play deep Goodwin was meant to play narrower (not his forte, a more striker orientated player was needed). Also Smith I believe is a far superior crosser than Behich (Behich better when we need to defend more).

Leckie did alright (seems able to adapt to play narrower quite comfortably... His ball control has improved).

 Irvine was deployed as a second striker to play alongside Maclaren, but he had no idea how to play that role. Giannou played the role better when he came on (Maclaren or Taggart to be the "poachers").

Milligan sat too deep to begin with, I feel a younger more mobile mid next to Mooy was needed. Milligan did push up later, but he isn't the best at picking out that killer pass needed from his role nowadays (his positioning is his key asset and not really needed last night).

Not sure why Ryan on the field, surely good chance for a reserve keeper to get experience (or at least talk to his defence) 

I notice this as well, people looking for the cutback but no one to cut it back to.  

I hope Taggart gets a run next game, he should have played up front with J.Mc.

Exactly Milligan won't/ shouldn't be at the next world cup and the game against Nepal just ended up being a wasted opportunity for Jeggo to build on his international experience.

Cambodia lost to Iran 14 - 0 last night.

Is this the sort of result which people were expecting against Nepal considering they lost 7 - 0 to Kuwait.

I get the feeling even though it was a comfortable win which gave a few fringe players a run, people aren't quiet happy with the scoreboard. 

We are too anally organised to get this type of result, even against Cambodia

I don't see the point to Behich, Grant etc to go forward when Leckie or Mabil or whoever the fuck can't even break down simple shite defending and helping setup a shot for Mooy etc

More so because we were shit, once again we were only continually threatening from set pieces against Asian teams. Our passing was incredibly sloppy, way too slow in the speed of movement, continual low % crosses in the box and our forwards not making any runs either.

Exact same problems which caused us to lose to Jordan and be shit throughout the Asian Cup. Our attacking movement is diabolical

Since the GG retired, when have we ever destroyed AFC teams?

We certainly never did under Ange.

2011 Asian Cup is probably the last time I can remember and back then we still had Harry Kewell playing. 

Interesting read going down this list: https://www.eloratings.net/Australia

Last qualification cycle there was one home game against Tajikistan that ended 7-0. In the same round however was another 5-0 playing Bangladesh who ranked similar to Nepal.
It doesn't look like Australia have ever scored 10 goals or more against an AFC team.

Yep exactly. These results are normal for us in a post-GG world. 

What’s GG?

We expect better because I want us to qualify and do well in the WC.

Why would you want to win a game of football by 10 goals? (Don't say goal difference as it won't be a factor).

Cambodia aren't terrible they certainly are improving considering where they once were the reason for that big defeat to Iran was that they kept playing out from the back and attempted to 'outplay' Iran for the whole match whereas most minnows would just sit back and defend and counter. They're probably better than Nepal technically and Honda is trying to get them to play a Japanese style. Will probably take some time for them to get it right.

As for the 5-0 against Nepal a wins a win and at least we scored some goals (imagine the reaction if it was only 1 or 2 nil) I wasn't impressed with the overall play but its 3 points. Really need to work on chance creation though.

'Golden Generation'

And I believe we must absolutely endeavour to win matches against this level of opposition by as high a margin as possible. No matter how one tries to dress it up, beating Nepal only 5-0 - even w/the relative joke that is the current Socceroos setup - is lazy at best.

I didn’t learn much from this game apart from the fact that our goal scoring chances have to be better.

That was a very poor opponent we faced too.

That is the bigger tragedy.  If we had have played a true B team then we would have a wealth of information now.

5-0 is perfectly fine. It was a painfully dull game from which nothing can be learned, but there should be no complaints about the result. We did the job with absolutely no scares or problems. The game was won in the first 20 minutes. The rest was just going through the motions. I suppose we could have been more clinical, but sometimes these minnows drag you down closer to their level when there's nothing to play for. 

Exactly. people being very dramatic with their criticism. After all even the GG under the 'great' Gus hiddink didnt smash the OFC sides in the 05 WC qualifying. In fact only beat soloman islands 2-1 in one match. 5 goals a clean sheet and zero hiccups is perfectly acceptable for this match.

then again wouldnt be an aussie football forum without ridiculous criticism 

Thanks - Seems rather obvious now. I was scratching my head thinking which coach had the abbreviation GG.

Agree with the result. 5-0 against Nepal should be improved upon and I think even Arnie knows it, throwing on the attackers to the end to get a better result.

Except Gus only came into the Position after we had qualified.

🤦‍♂️ someone needs to go do their research