Wilkinson, Wilkshire, Zullo and Brillante are all worth a look.

May as well post this article with the impending Arnold appointment. 

Brosque worthy of Socceroos recall

FORMER Central Coast Mariners coach Phil Moss is banging the drum for Alex Brosque to get a recall to the Socceroos squad, and after taking a look at his record, I reckon the 33-year-old could be in line to play for his country for the first time since 2013.

Before getting sent off in the 2-0 win over the Brisbane Roar, the Sydney FC skipper had been in sparkling form, scoring the opening goal in that clash to take his Sky Blues 10 points clear at the top of the A-League.

It was Brosque's 24th goal in 52 games for Sydney FC in his second spell at the club, after scoring 28 times in 104 games between 2006 and 20011.

He is one of the in-form strikers in the A-League this season, his eight goals from 13 games putting him third on the list to win the Golden Boot, with only Bruno Fornaroli (10) and Besart Berisha (nine) ahead of him.

"He's in outstanding form and there's a few I've heard say career-best form,” Moss told Fox Sports News.

"If Ange Postecoglou is looking at the A-League for a form striker, he is head and shoulders above anyone else.

"He's got to be in the frame.”

And if you compare his goal record for the Socceroos against those players he might be up against for a place in the squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Iraq and the United Arab Emirates in March, then you would think he is a decent chance to get a gig.

The Socceroos have struggled for goals from their attacking players in the past few games and were lucky to get a 2-2 draw against lowly Thailand last time out.

The pressure has been rising on Mathew Leckie, Robbie Kruse and Tomi Juric to raise their goal input for Australia, particularly with Tim Cahill coming towards the end of his international career at 36.

Leckie has only three goals from 37 games for his country despite getting into good positions to score in a number of games.

Kruse has only four from 48 games in a Socceroos shirt and has not featured in the Bundesliga for his club side Bayer Leverkusen this season.

Tomi Juric has been the main striker for Australia in recent games, but his strike ratio is not that good either, with only four goals in 20 games.

Brosque has a better record than all of those mentioned, having scored five times in 21 games since making his international debut against Fiji in 2004.

Granted, it's not an earth-shattering record, but when you have been struggling for goals in open play, why not go for a player such as Brosque?

He is on fire at club level and we have already seen what A-League players can do if given the chance.

Brosque recently joined Archie Thompson in scoring 50 goals for one A-League club and received the praise of his coach Graham Arnold before Friday's win over the Roar.

"The club is No.1, team is No.2, individuals No.3,” Arnold said.

"Alex is a wonderful leader for this club. He drives and inspires this side with both words and actions.

"His teammates have a lot of respect for him.”

Maybe, just maybe, the same could be said at international level if he is given the chance.

Brosque worthy of Socceroos recall | Sunshine Coast Daily

Ange assembled a good group and there really should be little need to drastically change that squad. Naturally there should be changes at the edges, due to fitness and form, but the wider squads had taken shape after Ange had trialled and given opportunities to dozens of players. There's a reason Ange didn't promote some of those Sydney FC stars earlier and too why Wilkinson, despite his A-League form, had dropped from the NT's pool of players. Ange had his group of CBs he was bringing through, a younger generation lead by Sainsbury, with Jurman, Wright, Degenek etc... and more recently, Defenders capable of playing in a Back Three. With the new coach, will that Back Three formation be retained?! And too, the midfield formations, including the Diamond that accommodated the talents of Mooy, Jedi and co best? Leckie saw his best form as our right-wing back, was more effective for us than ever in that role and arguably one of the reasons Ange had made that formation switch.

Will that all be thrown out now, to go back to some kind of 4-4-2 and 9-10 men defences against opponents who dominate the possession (and the chances)?!

We do this quite a lot” – Stop putting pressure on the ‘bolters’, Daniel McBreen says


Fox Sports Football expert and Central Coast Mariners great Daniel McBreen has called on the Australian football public to ease its expectations on players dubbed Socceroos ‘bolters’.

Now that Australia have secured qualification to the 2018 World Cup, attentions have turned to who will don the green and gold in Russia.

And with that, there has been extra attention to which ‘bolters’ – A-League or otherwise – could join the ‘regulars’ from left-field.

RELATED: “Nothing offered” – Graham Arnold dismisses Socceroos job offer reports

At home, the likes of Danny De Silva, Dimitri Petratos and Josh Brillante are just a few names linked to selection, in fine form for Central Coast, Newcastle Jets and Sydney FC respectively.

But flourishing just 10 rounds – nearly 11 – into the A-League season, McBreen believes it is simply too soon to be branding players as ‘bolters’.

“When I was a player, seeing them talking about players, especially younger guys, I always hated it because I thought it put undue pressure on them,” he said.

“On the flip side of that, people say, ‘well they’re going to be under pressure if they do make it so they need to have that pressure.

“Dimi Petratos is putting his hand up, young Danny De Silva, people have spoken about him, he’s exceptional.

“But it can’t just be after 10 games in a season that we say these guys are Socceroos bolters.

RELATED: Liam Reddy at a loss to explain lengthening Perth Glory injury list

“I think we have a big problem in Australia, we do this quite a lot, is someone will come in, play five games, have three blinders and all of a sudden, they’re Socceroos contenders.

“You’ve got to think about guys who are already in the squad, who have got that experience, who are still doing well in their leagues, who are doing well overseas.

“I just think we put too much pressure on them too early in their careers, especially the young ones.

“Danny De Silva went overseas, came back and now he’s played 10 games in a season and he’s getting spouted as a Socceroos bolter.

“He might well be, but if he’s consistent throughout the season, 27 games and finals if they make the finals, then maybe he’s a chance to look at.”

Ultimately, the Newcastle Jets under-16s coach simply wants to see players – particularly younger ones – thrive, rather than wilt under pressure.

“You speak to some of the older Socceroos of my generations and they say they had to work two, three years before they broke into a national team to really show they’re consistently at that high level,” McBreen added.

“I’m very hesitant always to throw out names for bolters and put that pressure or all those eyes on them.

“Just let them play and grow into the players they should become.”

RELATED: “That to me is hard and fair” – Adelaide United will not change after double send-off

The Socceroos are without a head coach following Ange Postecoglou’s resignation in November, a week after he led Australia to World Cup qualification.

FFA has targeted mid-February 2018 to announce a new appointment after it receives recommendations from an independent three-person panel consisting of Socceroos greats Stan Lazaridis, Mark Bresciano and Mark Schwarzer.

On Thursday morning, Graham Arnold denied he had been offered the position by FFA after Fox Sports reported such a development on Wednesday night.

http://dailyfootballshow.com/we-do-this-quite-a-lot-stop-putting-pressure-on-the-bolters-daniel-mcbreen-says/

SBS world game Facebook has just gone live. New coach media release? You'd think Socceroos official would have their own media day however. 

Stream up for 5min with sbs logo only. Nelly Yoa new sbs analyst? Perth coach gone? 

Looks like the Facebook kid pressed the wrong button. 

L'Equipe posted an article about Bielsa and Australia... https://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Article/Et-si-marcelo-bielsa-rebondissait-en-australie/864166

some of the comments ripping into Bielsa lol... they don't like him in France. 

https://youtu.be/A9yNlcYd6fw

Highlights of the Japan game in 06 with German commentary. There's quite enough a few interesting videos on this channel. Definitely interesting have this perspective as I'd never been to Germany back then. I didn't realise how many early attempts Australia had against Japan. 

The March friendlies are out only pre World cup opportunity to practice. We'll get 2 more games before the tournament. A home send off and something in Russia. If we're smart we'll organise an extra one like when we played Denmark USA in 2010.

With all of this in mind I expect the coach to bring in everyone regardless of where they're located. A League players will need to shoot over to Europe while Degenek and Langerak should be selected and will have a direct flight. Jurman I'm not entirely sure if he'll get selected. 

I expect Rogic and possibly Jedinak and Cahill to miss out. I hope to see Meredith and Mabil come in.

Against Norway it'd be great to see

Ryan
Wright Sainsbury Williams Behich 
Luongo Irvine Mooy 
Leckie Juric Oar

Perhaps Oar will get invited back. Ruka and Kruse stake very good claims. I like Oar due to his ability cross the ball. Goodwin is another option. I'd be surprised if Jeggo, Mrcela, Ikon among others get a mention. 

maybe a little more experimentation to test those potential backup spots.

Vukovic
Degenek/Williams/Spiranovic/Meredith
Irvine/Mooy/Luongo
Mabil/Petratos/Oar

No..
Ryan
Sainsbury
Wright
Behich
Jedinak
Milligan
Rogic
Kruse
Leckie
Cahill
Juric

as I've said before we have always sucked at finishing

dukes and kewell who were some of our better finishers weren't great finishers they were only ok. They were world class at creating opportunities for themselves and others however which meant their scoring rate was decent (actually one year for leeds I remember kewell was a good finisher but apart from that one season i remember him being pretty wasteful). I don't have any stats to back this up just my memory and impression

It'd be great to see only we have so few opportunities to practice. 

it's hard to call a squad or formation until the coach is announced and we know what kind of setup we will be looking at.

im expecting a lot more inclusions from sydney fc

Can't do that, the new manager will need some matches with the team he'll play with at Russia

It'll be the coach's only week with the squad before making the final decision.

Another thing, how much advance notice are FAs supposed to give clubs of a call up? Two weeks? If so, with the new manager being hired allegedly mid February, and the friendlies in mid March, that means they only have two weeks to get familiar with our talent pool and choose the squad for this single time they have together.

Cutting it fine, to put it lightly.

No doubt the new coach will be pretty heavily advised by the remaining coaching staff on selections.

Also any contender for the position worth their salt would be researching australian players already

In all seriousness, there isn't much that really needs to change from the last few squads - our talent pool is so shallow that most of the best players are already in the squad.

The first three may be a little old.

Definitely Brillante though.

True Decentric but in the case of Wilkinson his reading of the game/consistency at 33 isn't a risk but a sound back up imo defensively.
I like to see Brillante tried out in a warm up see how he settles in the game and performs.

'A tougher job than Prime Minister'

The Mediterranean archipelago nation is ranked 185th in the world. The team has won four matches in five years, three of them friendlies.

Saintfiet's squad contains only five players based abroad and Maltese Premier League clubs field up to seven foreign players in their starting XI.

With this shallow talent pool, it is understandable Malta, grouped with England, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Lithuania in the recent World Cup qualifiers, picked up a solitary point and scored three goals.

The hunt for players sees Saintfiet and his assistant, Ray 'Zazu' Farrugia, watching any competitive football match they can across Malta's three islands, hoping to uncover a diamond in the rough of the local leagues.

"Last week we saw seven games in three days," Zazu, a well-known former Maltese player and coach, said.

"I've been with the federation for 12 years and I've always said one thing - being head coach of the national team of Malta is a harder job than being Prime Minister."

Saintfiet, whose remit includes youth development coach education, says Malta is working hard to develop players. He cites a football academy opened in 2012 where promising youngsters train three times a week. The under-21 team also picked up a record 11 points in their qualifiers for last summer's European Championship.

And he has initiated a global search for potential players of Maltese descent.

Saintfiet pulls up a spreadsheet with dozens of players, most in youth academies of professional English clubs, on his phone. One earmarked for the future, playing in Australia, is only 13.

Tom Saintfiet: The minnow master daring Malta to dream of Euro finals - BBC Sport

Not  to mention Wilko already has three WC games under his belt.

It's interesting that Meredith doesn't get as big a mention as other championship players. He's of the grade and has 3 full seasons behind him now. I guess it's left back that we're so adequately supplied at, he gets forgotten.

Remember the days of McKay at left back as we had no one else? Now we have Behich, Gersbach Meredith, Smith, Davidson, Elder. 

Elder was listed as a bolter online. If we can train one left back to be a right back we're on  a winner. 

unless we continue to play with a back 3/5 then the fullback issue is not such a problem

Right back options?
Wright, Degenek, McGowan, Wiltshire, Risdon, Geria, Franjic

Youth RBs
Atkinson, Strain, Koutroumbis, Cowburn, Deng

Franjic would get injured walking out.

If Arnold is involved Grant might get a look in. Read he is s training full again or close to.

LOL

For me Wright and Degenek in the squad either way. If we are playing 3 at the back leckie is an option so we could probably go with only 1 specialist right back if needed. Risdon played in the two play-off first legs but overall I am not impressed with him. I would like to see Geria if we are going to experiment in the friendlies.

Wilkshire would probably be good if we need a last minute replacement, he also spent 7 years of his career in Russia so could even go as an extra staff member to help the boys settle over there. He was dropped for attitude problems so you would want to have a good chat to him before calling him up. Four years out of the setup hopefully has humbled him and the fact he is still playing shows he is at least treating his body well. 

We will never play 3 at the back again and would be very surprised to see Leckie played so deep ever again. 

I'm expecting the dutch based Socceroos may get a better look in.. hopefully King Kenny might get a cap.

Germany will play Austria in Klagenfurt during their world cup camp and host Saudi Arabia in Leverkusen in a friendly.

Not going to bother looking who's available now  but we're going to have a send off match no doubt plus one possibly two games pre tournament.

I expect we'll land in Russia right away and play practice games there. It'll be against teams at the tournament. I doubt anyone will fly into Russia for a friendly.