I thought Cahill looked really rusty for City a few days ago, even against NPL opposition. 

You can play them both if they both have defined roles. Mooy plays 8 and Rogic goes 10. 

Bang on the money.

He is also a lot more experienced, more consistent  and a leader on the pitch.

For some inexplicable reason, Milligan seems to lift players around him and seems to play cohesively as part of a team unit with other players better than most.

I think it's more that Luongo in his club doesn't play a high pressing game, so when he comes into the national team, he can make mistakes in the press. But as we saw in the Asian cup, the more time he has in the team, he get's better and adjusts. He is also second to Mooy on the tackles ledger in the championship this year, so I would say his defensive qualities have improved.

Would imagine we'd be starting like this:


Would like to see Irvine, Gersbach and Luongo come off the bench.

I hate repeating this but the Championship is utter rubbish. I've seen a lot of games on TV recently and the style of football most teams play is virtually useless for international football.

Hardly any teams can possess the football for more than three passes in the attacking half of the pitch.

Most teams lose the ball far too quickly if under any off the ball pressure.

The main strength  of the Championship appears to be the high quality of goal conversions  from some quality strikers.

It is like going back 20 years in time. No international teams  who qualified for  the Euros play like the teams I've seen in the Championship in the last few weeks, even those coached by continental mangers.

With BEIN, I've watched of a lot  of the Spanish, Italian, Brazilian, Portuguese and French top divisions of football which are all outstanding leagues for developing a skill set for international football. 

I know there are exceptions and that Bournemouth and Burnley have played some decent football on their way to the EPL, but if there are good current Championship teams I've yet to see them.

All Aussie players in the Championship, apart from any central strikers we have, should leave it ASAP if they have international aspirations.

I think I read somewhere that Quickflick was pretty impressed with the young Iraqi team in the Brazil Olympics who frustrated Olympic winners, Brazil, playing at home  in front of a huge crowd.

It sounds like they could be a tough nut to crack.

Everything is going for our team too. Perth usually has a very good playing surface and the temperature should be ideal.

Depends what team you play for, there are a few continental coaches and young coaches who try to play possession football this year, but it's still a small portion of teams. Wagner (was assistant to Klopp) at Huddersfield seems to be one of these coaches, so it's not to bad for Mooy, but Luongo's team and Jedi's do not.

One thing many forget, is no matter how good some payers are in club football, there is nothing that equals international experience.

If we look at the Euros, England's team of champion EPL club players should be realistic title prospects.

They always are, but they never, ever deliver.

In the Championship, the ball is constantly in transitional phases of play compared to most other professional scenarios. Players are constantly battling for the ball, as opposed to either team having clear possession.

I've seen Norwich v Ipswich, Wolves v Villa?, plus a few others, and the style of play was simply shocking. 

England's style of play doesn't exactly shout success, when I watch them, they still play old school. Although I didn't watch the Euro's, I was enjoying the Copa America much more, so I can't comment on their style of play during that tournament.

I dont know where you expect all these players to go. 

Also, of course the UK is a magnet for Australian players. 

One or two teams can play the ball across the back, if, there is little  opposition off the ball pressure.

As soon as as any intensive squeezing is applied, teams usually lose the ball in limited time and and space. Conversely, in the other leagues I've  watched recently, teams would  simply play through those Championship defences in the  centre of the pitch with slick combination play.

Championship teams are far better at winning the ball back than maintaining possession.

Those teams do play football that's anathema to what we want to play, Wolves probably the best out of that lot, but still pretty counter attacking. It also comes down to the English thinking, that physicals are valued higher than technical quality and it is more prevalent in the championship.
Last year Leckies team played horrible football, did you watch any of Ingolstadt's games? Truly horrible, punt the ball long, hope to win the second ball and take it from there.

It really bothers me that this is the case. Having said this I'm very impressed with Rogic's Celtic ATM. I've seen them play some  wonderful football, even in the European scenarios.

I'm starting to think unless Aussies play in a few of the powerhouse  clubs in the mediocre Euro leagues who feature in UCL football, if they are not good enough for the top leagues in  Spain, France, Portugal, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Germany, or  the best technical   leagues in  the world , Brazil and Argentina, apart from the longer seasons, they should stay in the HAL.

Turkey is apparently a good league, like Greece, but  they have a lot of disorganisation  in clubs.

I know that Croatia, Serbia, Switzerland, Ukraine, Poland, Israel, et al, often have 1-3 outstanding clubs with European pedigree, who may be good options, but the domestic leagues where they play  are often mediocre. 

 I'm giving Germany  the thumbs up for an outstanding national team, excellent  German players in big Euro clubs, and the good German  teams who play in the UCL. I'v seen no  German  domestic club football.

Leckie's Ingolstadt were often cogently cited as a team who played poor football in a quality league.

Having said this, Leckie 's technique is often poor. He is our worst starting player in the Socceroos, technically speaking, but our best athlete.

I am guessing but I imagine it is most Australian players dream to play in EPL.

A good way to get there is playing for a Championship club and being picked up because if you are outstanding you will be in the media or play for a club that earns promotion. The second option, which Leckie did in Germany, means there is a possiblity they have cemented their place in the starting team. 

Gersbach has a better chance of going to a bigger club from Norway than Sydney. That is why he moved. 
Jamieson will never play in a top league but probbaly wanted an adventure.
The guys in Denmark would also be looking to be challanged by playing in a different league.

If what you said were to happen there would not be enough spots in Australia for all the players. In principle every player who is good enough to play in the A-League  but is somewhere else is helping give another player an opportunity. 

Pretty much agree, although I think you shouldn't discount Japan, I watched a bit last year and they play pretty good football. We just haven't had anyone go over there relatively young, so there is no way to comment whether Aussies will develop over there.

Good points mate

The boffins from FFA are very impressed with Japanese football, technically, but we are well ahead of them, tactically.

The overseas leagues that impress  me are where I see Aussie players play in them and improve from their previous level when they turn out for the  Socceroos.  

Don't think its the quality of players... we would have the same issue in Aus if we were in their position, our media and theirs are very similar we would be harping on about how we should be the best in the world, they would be bagging the team, calling for heads, then expecting success all the time..

Luongos passing stats for this year: 42.6 passes per game with a 69% success rate, Absolutely horrendous. He has the 2nd most tackles in the league too but that doesn't impress me it's just a sign his team is constantly needing to win the ball back. Constantly needing to win the ball back, because they are constantly giving it away. QPR is a cancer on luongo's career. 

 I think you've nailed it. 

Imo, that's just possible in theory, but I have misgivings about it. I'm not satisfied with Mooy's ability to work as a box-to-box midfielder in terms of his defence (or rather, his defence when he is backtracking). I think he's not quite quick enough across the turf which leaves the CDM a bit isolated. He's plenty good at CAM (I've been persuaded despite my earlier opinion).

As has been pointed out before, playing 4-3-3 with aggressive fullbacks (crucial to Angeball), you then need the CDM to tuck in with the central defenders when the fullback goes forward. I have qualms about this formation/idea ipso facto. I think Jedinak is crucial to breaking up play in front of, rather than alongside, the central defenders. But it becomes, imo, wholly unbalanced when Mooy, who's not the quickest, has to occupy that central defensive midfield zone all on his ownsome.

It might be just fine. But there would be some real defensive chinks in our armour which opponents can exploit. A fast and skillful CAM/striker pairing would have our measure.

You're second formation/line-up seems to accommodate for such problems, however. That diamond midfield with the overlapping fullbacks looks proper decent. I think you had Jedinak as CDM and Irvine and Mooy as kind of box-to-box midfielders while Rogic as CAM. Neither Rogic nor Mooy is likely to get exposed. Irvine is very dynamic (although there have been question marks lately next to his defensive skills for his club side). I suppose Mooy would have more of an attacking role and Irvine would have more of a defensive role. That gives Mooy and Rogic more free rein while Irvine can act as a real dynamo, mopping up with Jedinak, carrying/distributing the ball and making late runs into the box.

Mooy has looked like a fish out of water defensively for Huddersfield.  He has seemed unsure about where to be when defending.

I haven't seen them play. I was asking if others know much about them.

I'm impressed by the fact that they drew with Brazil in Brazil in the Olympics. But I don't know anything about the match itself.

I do, however, remember Iraq at the last World Cup qualification campaign and they posed us some problems.

I also so footage of their youth team a few years back against England in the U20 World Cup. They won that match, if memory serves. They had some seriously decent attacking players who had a fairly lethal dose of skill and pace. Possibly, we faced those guys in the last campaign? Either way, I strongly suspect that if they had grown up in North London or Paris or somewhere like that, rather than in a Middle-Eastern war zone, they'd be doing some special things for some of the biggest football clubs in the world. So I admire them, feel sorry for them and fear what they could do to us.

its not a fair estimate of his passing ability.  i think luongo is a better passer of the ball than rogic.

in qpr he is instructed to send the ball forward.  that means lost of contested balls and this drags down his passing percentage.

Must be all the money Iraq spent on their National Curriculum, SSG's, foreign TD's, playing out from the back etc, and coaching badges.  

Good that Uday Hussain stepped down-he was a good motivator but somewhat unorthodox with his methodology-  I don't think beating the players heals with steel pipes if they lost is anywhere in the La Massia Coaching Manual, not that I've read it from cover to cover, but it certainly was effective.

this will be the team

------------------------mateeeeey
degenek------wright-------sainsbury-------smith
--------------------------jedinak
----------mooy-------------------------irvine/luongo/milligan
--------------------------rogic
-----------kruse-----------------------juric