Piscopo has great potential. Ryan i liked a lot but looks like he needs regular football. Degenek was solid without being exciting or dominating like i expected a player of his experience to be. Deng was good, although he had some moment, but i heard he was playing sick for the final match so should cut him some slack. Bouman was out of his depth. Glover was good too.
Need to teach players to learn to play forward in transition. Maybe heavy humid conditions might have made players want to slow things down? People bag out scottish football but if you watched them play khazakstan they were constantly looking to play forward and overlap to pressure opposition into a mistake.
Still have no real dead ball threat. Even many of our corners were high floating hopefuls rather than whipped in between the lines. Central defense looked shaky at times as well and our players still struggle 1v1 in bpo although it was good to see more players trying in bp

Degenek?

Glover is the keeper. We can't waste an OA on that and I doubt Ryan would want to or even be permitted to have 2 summer tournaments. Maybe Vukovic if he gets fit as he missed out due to suspension last time.

CB is critical. Souttar gives hope and I'd like Ryan to have the experience. I think we need Degenek, Sainsbury or Wright to boost that position. 

Apart from  South Korea , who played  an aggressive  three quarter press with intensive squeezing for large  periods of the game, the other teams sat off in the squeezing and played more languid half presses in the Thai heat and humidity.

Against South K, Aus was pressured for time  and space on the ball - most of the time. How South K were able to sustain it was admirable. They did play a higher defensive line though, which like Aus, made them more vulnerable on the counter attack in our Attacking Transitions. The likes of quality ball carriers , like Arzani and Wales, could have been decisive. Although winger Najjarine disappointed - given what I've seen in his Melb City HAL performances. 

The languid squeezing and accompanying more conservative half and partial pressing from Thailand, Bahrain, Syria and Uzbekistan, resulted in sustained periods in possession in the Aus defensive third and even some of the middle third. 

Also, when some of the opposition teams like Thailand, Syria, Bahrain and  Uzbekistan defended with four at the back, tucking in from the flanks,  Australia was also gifted possession out wide in the attacking  third. This  could have been a possible oppostion game plan, because opposition coaches perceived little aerial threat  from our aerial crosses into the box.

Against all the aforementioned opponents (apart from South K)  the ball circuation  needed to be quicker in possession in the central  attacking third.  The rhythm in Aus's  Ball Possession was often slow. What needed to occur were more rhythm changes, slow, fast, slow, fast, slow with more fast ball circulation in the attacking interplay.

Piscopo was quite good at playing in confined  space in the  central attacking third. However, he  received  little support. The likes of Daniel Da Silva, would have greatly assisted  this rapid ball movement in these  tight  spaces  created by most of the opposition teams,  who defended quite deep with a stacked defence.  I  also surmise that McGree could also have been effective in this condensed time and space scenario in the central attacking third. 

Moreover,  Gersbach's aerial  crossing was often very good, but there weren't many big Aus aeriallists, with a physical presence, like George Blackwood, playing in the central striking role. Regardless of where Verbeek plays him at AU , usually as a midfielder,  Blackwood could have been useful as a target  striker.

In addition, for stoppages, at both ends of the pitch, Harry Souttar would've been potent defensive and attacking weapon. The big Korean striker, plus many opposition CBs, won many easy heading duels against  our CBs, when they played long, high balls  or at stoppages. With Souttar it would've greatly strengthened our offensive and  defensive   aerial power. Having said this, Souttar's ability to jockey, show and delay, looked shaky with the senior Socceroos.  

One factor in qualifying that could've been decisive in qualifying, was having a very experienced coach, like Arnie, in charge. 

Ange criticises FFA  in the past for  constantly using inexperienced coaches, to learn their trade, as national underage team coaches. 

Arnie rotated some players, and not others. There are often fine margins in qualifying. Ours was very fine. The Arnie factor may have got us over the line.

As the  tournament progressed, the Aus defence tightened up, collectively. The distancing  between the back four, was often the ideal 10 -15 metres.

Also, even though  the individuals probably  didn't  play as well as we would have hoped, in ball winning,  making intercepts, and distribution, the defensive  midfield screeners improved their shape in terms of distancing within the defensive midfield  line, and, with their distance from  the defensive  line - in Ball Possession Opposition.

In short the collective sum of the defensive  parts, in a collective sense, became better than the individuals comprising the  defence - keeper, back four, and, the two DMs or  midfield screeners.

These are Arnie trademark strengths. However, it fell  apart at times against South K's sustained  pressure.

One stat that has arisen is that there have been claims that the opposition had  more shots on goal. 

I'd surmise many of those shots were well outside  the penalty box. The notable exception would  be  South K, who had many shots in the box after  they totally outclassed us - and probably every other team they played.

Before watching the South K game, I had previously claimed that Fleur looked good going forwards.

Against other opponents he looked good going  forwards, but against South K , like many of his team-mates, he really struggled going forwards, or defending.  Fleur  made  some   offensive ball carrying  forward runs late in the game, but it was too late.

Others have speculated Nathaniel Atkinson  was a decisive suspension. I would have thought that Deng is better suited to CB and Atkinson could have played most of the games at RB. It is a definite potential scenario.

Even though Souttar is suspect on the  ground in jockeying, showing and delaying,  a Souttar/Deng CB combo has two CBs with a complimentary skill set. Ryan probably  wasn't  posed as many  difficult  ball contests that Deng encountered, and  won, from difficult positions in terms of unfavourable body shape at RB.

One issue that concerned me was there wasn't enough muscular ball winning  from a  combination of our Attacking Mid (or number 10), wingers and central striker.

D'Agostino won  some hard balls, and maybe Toure did too, but generally Najjarine, Italiano, Bowman, Piscopo and Buhagiar were too easily beaten in tackling, heading and body on body and shoulder barging contests.


People will laugh when they read this, but Matt Simon's size, strength and physicality created a lot of problems for Asian defences in some underage  games of the past .

Also, the likes of senior attacking Socceroos like  Leckie, Kennedy, Emerton, Garcia, Tomi Juric, Dukes, Brosque, Cahill and Kewell, have thrown a lot of weight around and won many hard balls against defenders in the attacking third in the past. Essentially, our  Olyroo attackers  were outmuscled too much in the attacking third in Thailand.

Good points made, Charlie.

I don't do stats anymore  as I don't have the technology anymore and I can't be bothered, but I thought Deng, Bacchus and O'Neill were good 1v1 ball winners in defence.

O'Neill won plenty of hard ball when he read  the contests, but was often too slow anticipating where he could make a challenge.  Deng and Bacchus read where they could make challenges more often and more effectively.

Ryan made a few decent 1v1 challenges on the ground, but lost  too many heading duels, as did Mourdo, against big opponents. Mourdo improved as the tournament progressed in his 1v1s and Ryan often didn't need to make challenges from  effective defensive   positioning. He lost quite a few stoppage aerial contests  though -  an integral  quality for a CB.

Full backs and Def Mids can often risk 1v1 challenges , as they are  well outside the pen box more often. Conversely, CBs often need to avoid pen box challenges if they can, because of the   ramifications if they mistime one in the box.

Maybe we could ask the Olympic committee if we could change the rules to allow us to bring Soutter on for set pieces , sort of like the punter bloke in the NFL .