Baccus subbed off at half time

Watts finally back for Exeter as he's subbed on and he gets a red in added time. They're grasping onto a 1:0 away lead. 

Mcgree assist

Robertson looks promising as a 6....needs to improve his defense a bit to play that deep

I anticipate the squad in a few hours or Thursday. 

Robertson has to be secured. Probably means little but I wonder if Okon having a chat given certain similarities might get him convinced. Arguably the most talented midfielders of their respective generations. 

Robertsons Cardiff beat Milwall 1-0. Their first 3 points of the season. 

Cardiff and Portsmouth are bottom and second bottom of the Championship on 4 points each. I hope they can pick themselves up. 

I think Robertson would work better higher. Especially in the NT.

It'll be interesting to see what changes if any. 

Massive away win for Boro at WBA. Kudos to Oxford this season. Lots of draws against the big clubs. Baccus ending up there would be alright. 

Mcgree two assists in two weeks 👍 

That is a big call especially on Robertson, so young, I haven't seen enough of him.

I saw Okon control a match (Prilo style) in a game in Sydney for Australia v Ghana, just amazing performance by an Aussie, but he never kicked on in Italy or England.

These are the type of players Australia needs to get into the Socceroos, especially against teams where we expect more possession, the likes of McGree, Hrustic & Robertson, true it may not work against Japan, but we don't have players at that level yet.

I rate McGree and think Robertson will come into something but I'm a bit iffy atm on Hrustic, hopefully he can secure some good minutes in Serie B.

Don't get why some are so keen on Hrustic. He's done some half decent things in attack but disappears in defence. He was anonymous in his last few internationals, not unlike Metcalfe.

Let's see Robertson, Balard and Nisbet in there.

From my perspective, the frequency with which Hrustic loses the ball, combined with a poor attitude to team mates, rules him put as a start tee. 

Same age as Doku amd playing for the A League clubs on the agenda straight line to relegation to division 3. To compare him to Okon at his peak I'd a very long now. 

Robertson getting a similar sentiment online from Cardiff fans that he was getting with Portsmouth fans. It was only a matter of time 


https://x.com/noahccfc31/status/1841221021401043007

really excited for him doing well so far.

For the exact reason I provided. When you playing Japan, where we won't have much of the ball, Hrustic's lack of defence is a problem & Metcalf's running game would be far better. But when you are playing Bahrain, Indonesia (most Asian teams bar 3-4) the Socceroos need more that extra decent thing in attack that a Metcalf & Irvine together does not provide.

Very hard to disagree there.

probably some hopium on my part. But I've noted that the number of players who have broken through in europe or are breaking by u24 has jumped up for those born 2000-2003.  Well the uptick is mostly those born in 2003

2000 (3)
2001 (2+1?)
2002 (3)
2003 (5)

The list of 2002 players who have broken in by u24 wont be complete until the end of next season, with the 2003 player list complete the season after so those numbers could swell

in any case I wonder if we are not just seeing an uptick but an acceleration. If 2003 is the new normal I might be way too pessimistic about how football in australia will be in a few years

I guess if I take a double morning dose of hopium, the 2003 birth year still has quite a few promising talents

Rodrigues (injured), Beach, simmons, paull, hollman, alagich, priestman valadon, drew, grimaldi and dukuly

could easily see 3-4 making it in europe before they turn 24. If 8-9 isn't an outlier but becomes a new normal birth year then that really does look like the beginnings of a new golden generation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snuUn3Tr47U

Watts red card at end. Seems the attacker nudged the ball and it was deep into added time with a 1 goal lead. Cynical foul but maybe a red is a bit much there. He must have had an open foot contact. He should have checked though that there were plenty of teammates around and he was off the bench so he would've caught up.

its interesting if you write the players who broke through by u24 birth year by birth year

1984 - 2
1985 - 1
1986 - 0
1987 - 1
1988 - 2
1989 - 3
1990 - 1
1991 - 4
1992 - 4
1993 - 1
1994 - 1
1995 - 1
1996 - 2
1997 - 0
1998 - 3
1999 - 2
2000 - 3
2001 - 2+1?
2002 - 3+?
2003 - 5+?

hard to read the tea leaves for a couple more years I guess...we did get a couple of outlier years in 91 and 92 before which is probably due to making youth world cups under jan. Still the 2003 group will probably set an a league era record. 

To be honest whether to play Japan or minnows  Hrustic and Metcalfe shouldn't be near the Socceroos.  Metcalfe is already proven that he is useless don't care if he plays in Bundesliga.   And with Hrustic since when he is creative?  You should re-watch the last game he played against Lebanon. He was god awful. 

who would your xi be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GhdNxRmANA

McGree missed a sitter early on. Good game otherwise with an assist.

despite the miss mcgree getting some twitter love

Glad you could understand the post! 

I’m super bullish on 2005 & 2006. So many promising talents born those two years.