time to park the bus FC 

France's Nations League results this window:

France 1-2 Denmark
Croatia 1-1 France
Austria 1-1 France
France 0-1 Croatia

They're tired. Long season. 

The games in 5 months time :P

Any guess who will win?

1-1 😎

Poor by France's current standards.

Sometimes some teams can have so much talent and depth, that it is tempting to drop players or replace them with other similarly high calibre players, with only a mediocre performance or two.

These teams can struggle for  cohesion, because they don't quite have a  starting team line up who play a lot of games together.

Imagine if we were the ones that continued the World Cup Winners' curse...

As  long   as   they   look  "vibrant  and  cohesive " ,  doesn't  Arnie   get   a   new   contract ?

Your Etch-A-Sketch isn't very vibrant & none of your thoughts are cohesive at all.   

https://youtu.be/Zyli6TyIp7Q

Us Socceroos Need To Play Football And Not Head The Ball So Much. 2-1 Australia

Ryan

Karacic
Souttar/Sainsbury
Rowles
Elder

McGree/Mooy
Devlin
Hrustic 

Mabil
Maclaren
Boyle 

Devlin's a bit of a left-field pick but he's been playing very well for Hearts and I think we'll need a specialist defensive midfielder. 

I really rate McGree and IMO he's been criminally underplayed by Arnie - it's a toss up between him and Mooy for this spot. McGree brings energy and dynamism, Mooy brings experience and proven passing under pressure, but slower. I think gametime will be a deciding factor. 

I have a lot of confidence in Rowles and he's been playing great, for the question mark is between Souttar and Sainsbury, predominantly due to Souttar coming off injury and playing at a level. On the contrary, Sainsbury has performed great at previous World Cups under a lot of pressure and I think his passing game will come into play.

Boyle has to start, and Mabil is getting gametime in La Liga so I think those pick themselves as pacy threats on the counter. Whether Boyle starts up the middle, or he's pushed wide for a more traditional #9 like Taggart or Maclaren is also a big question for me. 

I like McGree, and would like him on the team sheet, as a dynamic spoiler sub, maybe at 60 minutes.  Mooy starts,. still as a class midfielder for the same position based on his qualifying performances. I will def take a draw, but please no thrashing.

No Good For A Draw We Need A Win.

Draw France and beat Tunisia and we through

??? Based off what?

I think we'd be better off playing for a draw and keeping our goal difference managable against France, while going for 3 points from Tunisia and a draw against Denmark. Tunisia is the only team in the group that doesn't both tactically and qualitatively outmatch us by a significant margin, so waltzing into the match against France or Denmark thinking we can just take 3 points from them is a recipe for disaster and a goal difference of -8

Hope that france start slowly... and pray that the curse works against tunisia not us lol

After all this I think I'd go with:

                       Ryan 
           Deng  Souttar Rowles
Leckie           Mooy                 Elder
          McGree  Rogic  Mabil 
                    Boyle

I really like this. I think for the France game, we need three central defenders + wingbacks.

We must make it as difficult for them to score as possible. It also fits in well with the idea of squad rotation so that we can have fresh players for the matches against Tunisia and Denmark (ideally with 4-2-3-1, I reckon).

I think Rogic should definitely be in the squad. We need him in Qatar.

But I still think it's problematic to have him + Mooy in the same central midfield.

I fear my midfield has no one who can really defend. Really pulling my hair out on what to do some perhaps some defence for Arnold as he doesn't know exactly either. 

----------------------------------------Langerak----------------------------------------

---------------Sainsbury----------Conundrum1----------Rowles----------------

Leckie-----------------------------------------------------------------------------Elder
------------------------------Devlin-----------Mooy----------------------------------
-----------------------------------------McGree---------------------------------------

--------------------------------Boyle----------Duke-----------------------------------




Conundrum1 = Deng or Souttar

Souttar might need those few extra days and a change in defence gives the opponent a bit of a conundrum themselves in pre game analysis. Souttar starting against anyone would be exciting for set plays. 

Agreed.

I feel my midfield triangle is the right balance between defence and attack.
Mooy can pull the strings and Devlin can make a nuisance of himself for the Frenchies.
As for strikers, I know that it's not Boyle's usually position. Could go with Cummins. But I feel Boyle sets the tone really well and always offers something.

I think Duke's fantastic. I don't care if he plays at J2 level. He turns up every game and presses really hard. I think it's helpful to think of his club situation as anomalous. Maybe the fact that he's in J2 will make it trickier for other teams to do their hw on him? Maybe they'll underestimate him.

I don't think its worthwhile having two athletic types in Duke and Leckie on the pitch at the same time. They could rotate, but it gives us a very unbalanced front third having both of them there as they are not creative enough to cause too many problems in and of their own play.

We need the speed in the wide areas. I think the defensive value of Duke's pressing is underrated. It makes it easier to defend from the front which is the game plan against France.

What we lose in creativity, we gain in our ability to close down. We still have other avenues to goal. We can then have the more creative players fresh for the matches against Tunisia and Denmark.

On the squad rotation issue, don't forget the last two WC campaigns.

Iirc, we had run out of steam by game 3. Both in Brazil and in Russia. Squad rotation is critical (and now, thankfully, we have some depth).

I'm wondering how much Guus rotated his players in 2006? They looked fitter and sharper over 4 games than the guys have looked over 3 games in the last two WC campaigns.

Perhaps, Guus' fitness prep was better? Anyway, that preparation surely can't be replicated in such a short window. So, squad rotation must be one of the main considerations for Arnie.

@ quickflick, couldn't agree more, and the problem we have is that the form you speak of was replicated last year in the Olympics under Arnie. I don't expect any difference. Hopefully I'm pleasantly surprised.

True that. I guess we have a bigger squad for the WC than the Olympics, right? Hopefully, that means Arnie can rotate his squad more effectively.