Officially our MOST SUCCESSFUL MANAGER IN HISTORY!!!

No one is ever allowed to say a bad word about Arnie ever again!

ARNIE = LEGEND

Best manager of all time. 

Now a fact.

But that's not important, what is is we have made the 16 Woooooooooooooo!!!!!!!

Humble pie time!

I thought he struggled in must win matches due to his gf performances. I was wrong

i thought he wasn’t rotating his squad enough. I was wrong

Others thought he shouldnt play duke, they were wrong.

others thought he played favourites (despite dropping his son in law!) they were wrong

he is now australias best ever coach who bleeds green and gold, super flexible and world class

Humble pie is fine when its a positive for Australian football.

I was wrong about Muscat, who has proven he is a quality coach.  Nothing bad about being wrong about Arnie either.

yer - my bad I wavered on Arnie having stood behind him for so long, I was starting to really doubt him coming into this and many of the players.
Happy to have been proven so wrong - happy that Arnie can look at everyone in the face after all the crap he has copped during the AL days.
The haters now are eating poooooop forever :)

ARNIE IS A FUCKING GENIUS!! 

Sign the man up on an 8-year contract extension! 😍

List of records Arnie has broken:
- First World Cup clean sheet since 1974
- First World Cup win in 12 years 

Back to back World cup wins. Feel like Alan Parish coming back from Jumunji. What year is it? Yesss! 

Insane think this squad has bettered 2006. Nobody would have picked that.

Crazy thing is that when i try and choose a best of from 06 and 2022 just on performances, the two fullbacks, cahill and maybe lucas neill for kye make the 11. Bizarre to think duke has performed better than viduka. But his pressing, hold up play and key goal were sensational

He winging it...

Fewest conceded goals in group stage ever with 4. 

These FACTS speak volumes. Arnold has proven he had a master plan (that appeared shaky to me at times during qualifying) but he really knew what he was doing all along - brilliant. Humble pie eaten at my place every day since Peru WCQ until Argies game. 

All true.

And the first team to score in the 4th round of the WC against a team with  11 players on the pitch.

In 2006, against Italy,  they only had 10 players for most of the game.

And we didn't score in 2006 against a 10 man Italy anyway.

Two wins at a WC. Two clean sheets and 6 points. Absolute bedlam. Results count! Congrats Arnie. You've made it a chore at times but you're passing your exams here and you're seeing gaps we can exploit and it works! 

Yep. As much as I loved the notion of trying to outplay top nations and scoring twice against the Dutch in 2014, honourable losses mean nothing. For us at this level, it is still about grinding out results. This side under Arnie has worked out how to do this brilliantly.

Never liked Arnie.... until this world cup. I'll eat all the humble pie.
Arnie = Legend for real now. That was amazing. Stoked for Leckie. What a goal and what brilliant defending.

Yeah he earnt  that contract extension 

good on him...

Arnold has definitely proved me wrong. 
But he has somehow got a team SPL players, 2nd division players, A-league players and bench sitters out of a group that looked well beyond the team.
Hiddink is a great coach and he has received praise for getting out of the group in 2006 with EPL players, Serie A players and the like. 
To do it with players of much less quality is astounding, shocking, stunning, most definitely a greater achievement than what Hiddink did as coach.
So Arnold has to go down as the Socceroos greatest ever coach.
Well done Graham Arnold you are a CHAMPION coach.

proved me wrong too 

i love when that happens 

Is this real? Just over 12 months since the China draw and then Feb brought the Oman draw. GET IN!!!!!

Yep Arnie picking his mates and favouring ex-CCM and CCM players certainly backfired didn't it?

Holy Shit !!!!

Graham finally got out of the group, on the biggest stage of all!

There is such a thing as timing your run to perfection. 

Arnie has done that. 

A true Aussie battler who never gave up. Inspirational!

Congratulations to him. A good manager makes the team better, and he's done that and more.

Having my humble pie with my fourth cup of coffee today...... Still think tactically he is a buffoon but cant fault his player motivational skills, they ran through a wall for the guy tonight...... Looks like Arnie is our manager for the next 4 years now......

I'm a SFC fan & thinks he does lack tactical nous, but yes this tournament has proved he is a great Motivational manager.

Please share that Humble pie with me. I've been very critical of me of late.

Sending some up for ya mate.... all good. We see things differently but we are ALL happy today right?

It's all the defensive structures 

The pie tastes fuckin good just sayin'

I hope Arnie stays on as Socceroo coach.

Very few coaches in world football coach teams to the last 16 of the World Cup.

Think of this. There are 7 big leagues in world football - England, Spain, France, Germany, Italy (could not even qualify for the 2018 and 2022 WCs), Brazil and Argentina. They each have about 20 teams per league. This equates to 140 current head coaches of the 140 teams in total.

Many of those coaches never get to coach at a World Cup at all, let alone qualify for the last 16 of the WC. They don't get the opportunity to coach on the world's biggest stage in football. To get to the last 16 means that arguments that it is easy to qualify through a weak continental football federation are refuted. Any team in a WC group of 4 has to play at least 2, even 3 teams, outside their own continental football federation.

Arnie, and his assistants,  Rene Meulensteen and Tony Vidmar, will have been appraised by the big leagues' technical departments, as superb coaches at coaching cohesive and effective defences.

I am glad you mentioned Meulensteen and Vidmar.Meulensteen from all accounts did a lot of scouting and player assessments in Europe for Arnie and obviously is a good judge of player strengths and weaknesses and also how a player fits into Arnie's style of coaching. 

I am glad Vidmar is so intimately involved in the coaching team.It was a great tragedy for him that he missed playing in the 2006 team because of a heart problem as he had been a stalwart player for the Socceroos for many years before that.

Also Andrew Clarke the fitness coordinator always does a tremendous job with the NT and is highly appreciated by Arnie. John Crawley received heaps of criticism and not without some justification for the non selection of  Mitch Langerak but he knew Ryan would come through when needed and with the unbelievable efforts of the defenders in front of him has had a relatively easy time in the last two games and has been able to more authoritative as the captain.


 

  

Meulensteen is very much being what Arnie was to Hiddink

I love that thought. 

To take our weakest ever 11 (most likely) to our greatest ever result is no small feat. 

Ill eat my words, well done Arnie, amazing achievement! 

Would still hate to watch GA-ball for the next four years but nonetheless well done Arnie on achieving the improbable.

Love eating this humble pie :)

I have to agree with that, I will confess that when Australia's World Cup qualification campaign started to fall apart, and Australia was then forced into two sudden death playoffs (against the UAE and Peru), I seriously began to question Graham Arnold's coaching, but he's made me eat humble pie, he has really turned the Socceroos around.

And when we lost the first game against France 4-1, I thought we were finished, but the Socceroos have shown incredible character, courage and maturity beating two very decent teams in Tunisia and Denmark, to qualify for the second round. It's great that the Socceroos are scoring from open play (and not just penalties), it's even better they have won two consecutive World Cup matches in a row against quality opposition, and we kept clean sheets in both matches.

Arnie was an outstanding A-League coach, and he was really improved as an international coach, well done Arnie and the Socceroos.

Forget the NC.  Scottish Australians and the SPL is the key to our future.

Yoogali Soccer Club the pioneers 

He might stay on, I'd be getting his agent to open up negotiations very soon as he now has some serious leverage. 

:D

Would love arnie to win the asian cup and go deep in the confederation cup

Is the confederation cup still happening? I thought it was being shut down for good. 

As far as I'm aware it's gone, and is being replaced by the repecharge (IDGAF how it's spelt) or whatever it is tournament being planned to replace intercontinental playoffs.

Irrelevant note, but I tried to put together a World Cup finals draw (plus this little extra tournament) if it did indeed get changed to 48 teams (next WC qualification numbers).

Italy still miss out.

EDIT:
Extra qualifiers this world cup would have been:
UEFA: Ukraine, North Macedonia, Sweden
OFC: New Zealand
CONMEBOL: Peru, Colombia
CONCACAF: Panama, Jamaica
AFC: UAE, Iraq/Oman (the other to intercontinentals)
CAF: 4 of Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Mali, DR Congo (the fifth goes to intercontinentals)

Intercontinental Playoffs (2 of these qualify)
Solomon Islands
Chile
Honduras
5th extra CAF qualifier (above)
Iraq/Oman
Syria/China

https://twitter.com/OptusSport/status/1598195690491895808

Great little bit on Arnie's origins at Sydney Croatia.  How anyone can hate this man is beyond me. 

Nice, thanks for posting........ reminds me a little of some of our past conversations eh" hahahahahahahahahahahahahah

Arnie is an old fashioned Aussie bloke .Looking at him and hearing him talk you would think he would be a Rugby League or Aussie Rules person( too working class for Union).He came from a football family in the Sutherland area-still the most Anglo part of Sydney but through his involvement with the world game he has embraced the other cultures and ethnic groups who play football.He played in the Netherlands and Japan and has worked with great coaches such as Hiddink.

He is passionate about football,especially Australian football and about youth development.The long,arduous and at times underwhelming WC qualification process was a learning experience for him as a coach and this showed in the UAE and Peru games.Even the French game showed that this team had some ability with that great goal by Goodwin and the lead up by Leckie and Souttar.That he and his staff were able to motivate the boys for Tunisia and Denmark demonstrated his man management skills plus his tactical nous ( and input from Meulensteen and Vidmar would have contributed).

With Maltese parents dude :)

Got a lot right and some stuff wrong. I think he should stay for the next Asian Cup at least.

Yep, he’s earned that right. Things I might have changed today is Irvine off at half time and Leckie off earlier for Kuol. Possibly Cummings instead of Maclaren. We needed players who can fight and possibly do the unexpected, not a tap in merchant.

I never expected this team could look so comfortable against a top side as we did in the first half. That is down to Arnold.

Irvine reminds me of myself. So passionate yet can't get fundamentals right. He was distraught tonight. Seeing the video after the Denmark game of the players' families, it's much bigger than what we just see on the pitch. Behich was being consoled by Devlin post game. Their body and mind has been through a lot the last 4 ears to get here. Arnold needs a holiday in the sun too. It's nearly killed him

It is actually great that they are distraught. It means they truly believed that they could beat one of the best teams in the world. 

Arnold has aged 15 years in the last 4. You can really see it in his face. I'm really hoping he can go and chill for a couple of weeks and just relax somewhere.

I have my doubts whether he would want o continue to be honest.
I think at most he will stay on for a shot at the Asian cup and finish the generational transition.

In many ways though, that's almost a hiding to nothing really.
Even winning it will not be as big as what's just been achieved

Arnie has taken the opportunity to raise very publicly when everyone was looking the same issues that Ange continually railed against. If he can see there is a chance to change youth development in Australia and have proper, constant and relevant international competition for our younger NTs and a chance to influence through the APL and FA the standard of academies at ALM, NSD & NPL levels I believe he will want to stay on - even if that is not as NT Manager     

Yeah I agree and hopefully someone actually listens this time.
We can all debate their strengths/weaknesses as coaches but both these two only want what's best for australian football.

I thought Arnie's timing in bringing that up in the press was impeccable and the fact we went out and did the job made it all the more powerful as more and more people were listening.

That is Merrick's job isn't it.

We went from almost going out to UAE to pushing argies. Fair play. 

Better than Guus

And Bert ( the Socceroo coach with the biggest reputation on the biggest stage).

I have absolutely no doubt that if Arnie was blessed with technically gifted players that we wouldn’t be a low defensive-block counter attacking team. 

arnieball should be studied documented and made natiional curriculum. 

Sadly, I think there is an inherent inferiority complex about our own domestic  Aussie coaches.

They are now trained very well inner Football lAus coach education. Ange, ikon, pOpa, Muscat, Kisnotrbo ( coaching in a big UEFA five league),  are coaching overseas. There are also a number of assistant Aussie coaches coaching overseas.

Arnie is a master coach who cares passionately about Aussie football. Recently he stated he had too few players of sufficient calibre for international football at the end of Bert's short tenure at the end of 2018.  So to his credit, he took on coaching the Olympic team, for no remuneration, to develop the next generation of talent for the Socceroos.

And something Arnie has discovered is that the younger players in the Aus Under 16s, under 17s and under 20s, have technical skills no previous  generation of Aussie footballers have.

The reason we got so far in Qatar, is because Arnie fast-tracked  Rowles, Souttar, McGree?, Tilio, Baccus, Genreau, Kuol, Metcalfe, Devlin, et al, from the youngsters, to step up to international football. No  foreign  coach would have done this. They would have walked away from the Socceroo job.

Arnie is also partially the Technical Director of Aussie football, with Trevor Morgan  focusing on youth development and coach education,

Arnie  deserves  great credit.

We are very lucky to have him. He is one of the best coaches in world football. And the best coach the Socceoros have ever had, including Bert ( World Cup  finalist with Holland in 2010) and Guus (UEFA Champ league semi-finalist with PSV).

I think Arnie's mini-apprenticeship under Guus has now paid dividends for our national team. Sure, it couldn't be done for the 2007 Asian Cup, but I don't think I've seen in my lifetime (Farina onwards) our national team adapt as well to opponents, as they did under Guus, and then under Arnie.

Don't forget  Arnie's lengthy apprenticeship under Pim too. 

Arnie states working with Pim completely changed how he related to players. Initially, in the Asian Cup 2007, he said he was authoritarian, and  it did not work. He thought he needed to change and admired Pim's softer approach.

Pim also  oversaw  Australia's first massive Asian WCQing campaign. It was our our most successful too.

I completely forgot he worked under Pim to be honest.

D2 what are your thoughts on Rene Meulensteen?

He seems to be an important cog in the coaching staff. 

I know he's considered a legend amongst ManU supporters.

 Most Man U supporters know nothing about football. Their opinion is irrelevant.

When I was coaching years ago at the lower echelons of the Football Aus system, with rep teams, a guy called R Brown, then Dirk Van A, put  up some fantastic training ground exercises in the Performance section for  coaches on this forum. It was a godsend for me.

Arsenal, Chelsea, Ajax, PSV Eindhoven, a Brazilian club, Santos?, and finally Man United, listed all these wonderful training  ground exercises  performed in their academies.

Rene Meulensteen was the progenitor of the Man U  content .

It made me as a coach, to cover for gaps I had.  Meulensteen's Man U drills were fabulous - like all the other 5 clubs.   I used them successfully  from ages 13-14 up to senior NPL level players. Players of any age loved doing them and thought they were fantastic. So for youth/development/senior footballers  his exercises were fantastic!

It may be the case, like one of the greatest football coaching combinations  of all time Brian Clough, was never as good as a coach as he was without his mate, Peter Taylor, his talent spotter and scout, and right hand person to keep Cloughy's quirks under control.

For all I know, Meulensteen, and Tony Vidmar, could perform similar  roles  with Arnie, as  Taylor did with Clough.  

About right Flytox, the disruptor lol has been quiet since on the job.

Getting results and that's tournament football. Less than pretty. Watching the replays it's somewhat clearer what wants to be achieved but I can't help compare to other teams at the Asian Cup and we seem so lame and the players are in the shackles of a disjointed message. You can see the frustration with everyone.

I feel there's a massive lack of attacking initiative. We needed Souttar to charge forward. The Uzbekistan game will hopefully be one where we'll see something that plays into how we typically can and want to play.

Glad others are noticing the tactics. Our tactics are designed to not lose against weak teams and give us a good chance against top teams. We dont like committing too many forward and we set up in posession so we have players that can quickly cover if there is a turnover. This means we sacrifice attacking impetus.

But we actually did play a reasonably technical game given we were so conservative and conceded overloads in advanced areas. We broke their lines pretty easily most times and are topping the cup for touches in the pen box but 15th for shots. We have been good enough to avoid having to comitting more forward

Against top teams we will have 3 main scoring avenues
1) set pieces (this improved this game but isnt quite good enough yet)
2) transition (we are top in winning positionl
3) turnovers in the front 3rd (we are 2nd in this)

We will generally try and get a shot away against top teams before their defense sets so we wont need to beat a low block unless its the last 20 minutes of a game and we are behind

2 and 3 we're implemented very well last year and that's what excited many. I think we have to really look how those situations occur. They don't occur when we have the ball and teams sit deep. It's transitions and turnovers where we appear very dangerous. It happened on occasion in the past two games and my
'this looks better' came out. It's about using those type of moments to our advantage. 

Yeah which makes it tough to judge us until we play against top teams. We might ugly our way through wcq again unless the younher technical players come through

You make a good point about getting results which is the only thing that matters in tournament football.So far we have looked very ordinary against tight defensive units but  at least we keep chipping away though creativity is lacking.

Boyle's driving run finally resulted in the goal even though there was an element of luck.If you are prepared to attack defenders then their best laid plans are pulled apart and goal chances result.

Bos,particularly on the left, in the first half backed himself and  caused  problems for the Syrians.Silvera also ran at the defence but unfortunately turned the ball over several times.However the fact that he made the effort was the important thing.

McGree also backs himself and that is the strength he brings to the team.At this stage he is not at Rogic's level in tight spaces but he is getting there with his experience in the Championship.

O'Neill is not an Aaron Mooy replacement but will grow into that position as the fulcrum of the team.

O'Neil to me is the most overrated player in our squad. He does nothing, makes the Socceroos. Unreal. Plays for Australia, does nothing, people begging for him to start. What am I missing? Any goals? Assists? Crucial Tackles? What does he give us literally anyone else doesnt? Super Safe passes backwards? He has zero go forward and zero vision. You put him on to kill a game maybe.

His role is definitely not one to score regularly. You can just see he has a football brain. I don't think there we many duels to win against Syria but the way he swept and distributed everything against Ecuador was the best centre midfield debut I've seen for the national team. Secondary assist against Bahrain. Superb 40m diagonal ball to Boyle in the box against Syria. A few other lob attempts which are of decent height needing defenders to clear in a rush. He draws fouls well because he can use his balance and weight. We got some free kicks in good areas from that. His positioning and movement into the right spaces creating triangles is excellent. It's the way he gracefully gets around unlike the hectic other midfielders is what makes him superior. I wish we could partner him with Genreau.

Genreau might get time next season as it looks like toulouse are going down
He is an interesting player, doesnt get a lot of touches but is quite influential nonetheless

Beg to differ.

 O'Neill has been outstanding. 

What about Gethin Jones? How is he getting a run? And he's practically Welsh. Why are we bending over backwards to put these hacks into our teams.. And straight into RB too.

In December 2020, he was asked in the Bolton Wanderers official match day programme whether he considered himself Welsh or Australian to which he replied:

"I'd have to say Wales, obviously I was born in Australia but I've lived in Wales pretty much my whole life and speak the Welsh language. I'm 100% Welsh."