Mark Milligan admits the appointment of a new national team coach added an element of unknown but his move to Saudi Arabian giants Al Ahli has him well-placed to remain on the FIFA World Cup radar.

World Cup drove Milligan's Victory exit | : The World Game

Saudi Arabia> A-League 

food for thought

on the cricket analogy the person who made it was saying that he is like gilchrist because you get excited when he is on and want to turn the tv off when they get out

Of the west asian teams I've always thought iran and saudi arabia are better than the a league

One player whose form seems to have slipped since the fantastic goal he scored for the Socceroos against Chile in the Confed Cup, is James Troisi.

Unless he has played very well in some games where I haven't seen him for Victory, he seems to have gone backwards since June.

Dropped off a bit despite scoring now and then. He is versatile and experienced. I'm not sure if that'll be enough for Van Marwijk who may prefer Oar, Dougall, Borello of others. 

I feel roughly 13 squad spots are pretty safe with 10 more open. Fitness permitting these players should be in Russia. Nothing is guaranteed and van Marwijk needs to make it clear. I do believe he'll want to maintain decent piece of the origin bunch, however. 

Ryan 
Sainsbury 
Milligan 
Wright 
Behich 
Jedinak 
Luongo 
Irvine 
Rogic
Mooy 
Leckie 
Cahill 
Juric 

I'd say that is almost spot on and i'd only add Kruse as a lock to take it to 14 leaving 9 free spots

Yeah Kruse is still sitting pretty. Geez I hope Irvine gets a great education from van Bommel and becomes an even bigger gun midfielder. 

Troisi has a thunderbolt scoring ability with miles of speed. Arzani has not shown consistant goal scoring. We need goals, there are other starters with creativity in  Rogic, Leckie and Irvine. No need to carry the young guy as another creative type for a learning experience at this point in time, on this stage. Why would Spira go in ahead of Jurman? Still don't know why Juric is a shoe in. Could pick a number of others that might find the goal after striking the ball.

Irvine has creativity? He's a workhorse. And I wouldn't say Leckie has creativity either. His strengths are his speed and strength, not picking a pass or 1v1s.

I've been a big fan, but by his own standards he isn't what he was a season or two ago.

Spira has more class, but Jurman has done quite well for the Socceroos and probably has played above expectations.  Importantly, Jurman continues to improve.

Fair play to Jurman.

Maybe Spira has slipped or stagnated, playing lower standard club football.

In the Asian Cup the Spira/Sains central defensive pairing was as good as we've had, including Neill and Moore.

A few seasons back Terry Antonis was playing at a similar standard as Milligan was in the HAL, whilst a much younger player.

Yet perplexingly,  Milligan continued to improve at an age when many players stagnate, whilst Antonis has stagnated  at an age when players usually  progress - rapidly.

Another  like Antonis,  is James Holland.

A good analogy!

I was happy with most of Ange's tenure. At the same time I'm pleased about BVM's appointment.

However, having seen the same attacking players fail to convert so many goalscoring opportunities  that have been created for the Socceroos over the WCQs, I can't see us scoring a sufficient quantity  goals in the World Cup to progress from the group -  no matter how many opportunities we create with our current crop of attacking players.

The same attacking players may have plenty of other defensive and attacking  attributes, but scoring goals consistently  isn't one of them.

When former Socceroo strikers join in the discussion, they contend they just aren't practising enough at specific scoring drills through repetition.This is because workloads are forever being  scrutinised by sports scientists in order to avoid injury. This is currently paramount.

We'd need a dramatic improvement from Maclaren, Taggart, Juric, Gol Gol, Kruse, Leckie, Rogic, Mooy, Blackwood, et al, in goal conversion in the next few months to be competitive. In most cases it will be unlikely to occur.

I'm not sure if the stats support my theory, but watching a lot  of CCM games this season , they could be on top of the league if they'd taken their goalscoring opportunities similar to what SFC do.

A player like CCM's Andrew Hoole is just about the most effective  player in 1v1 attacking actions ( take ons) in the HAL, and, is as good or better as other Socceroo wide players. Yet he can't hit the side of a barn on a consistent basis when shooting for goal.

Irvine is also slow on the turn,  on the ball, and when jockeying. Moreover,  he struggles to play effectively when receiving and passing in tight spaces and  limited time on the ball.

When he plays for the Socceroos he appears uncomfortable with the amount  of football played on the deck when the team is in possession. He doesn't seem able to consistently move into effective space quickly enough, and often enough, over a sustained period of time that the Socceroos require in Ball Possession.


 Irvine is a decent, muscular ball winner.

He manifests as a player similar to Cahill was in the early and mid 2000s - a classic, box to box midfielder and a good scoring outlet from his aerial ability. In recent times he has appeared as one of our better goalscoring threats - amongst a mediocre bunch of peers.

Vidosic... Bosanic

Australian coaches ... useless. Putting players in the wrong positions. Bozanic is muscular and has tonne strength, but for me not a midfielder , I think he's be a legit good RB or LB

If bvm is talking about flexibility and attacking on the transition, plus our current lack of goalscorers, i can see a place for ruka, irvine and luongo. 

Bang on the money.

Talented players who got to their early  or mid -twenties and plateaued.

I like the idea of setting up the team to play in transition,  That would suit a player like Jamie Maclaren,  when at roar he punished teams on the quick transitions/counters exploiting the space behind the defence.  I don't feel Juric has that in his kit bag, Juric is more of a target man inside the box , with questionable hold-up/back to goal ability.

Burns is another player in the attacking third I think a counter attacking style suits better.  

I'm not sure why you would feel a need to say this, New Signing. 

I'm disappointed to say the least.  You are better than this comment.

Not long ago you were denigrating Quickflick's suggestion that Australia  play a back three before Ange deployed the system, predicated on what you perceived as a  consensus that most forumites differed on this course of action. This trend, three at the  back,  is a frequently recurring phenomenon  in contemporary football, being interspersed with four at the back in the same games.

We need more posters like Grazorblade and QF who tend to debate points with considerable dialectical acumen, play  the ball at all times, not the man,  and see bigger picture issues.

Quite simply I normally just pass over his comments because i find little value in them normally. Plenty of others like him. It's not personal

I didnt so much denigrate the use of three at the back as i did the lack of understanding of formation fluidity and transition shown by Quickflick. If nothing else he certainly starts conversation and activity.

You want to talk about bigger picture issues, lets talk about the fact Australia is nowhere near where anyone would have hoped when the plug was pulled on the drain in the first place. We're no nearing to winning a world cup now than we were in 2005 despite the amount of amateur football lovers money being blown. There are now soooo many 'qualified' coaches being paid who are not even remotely to the standard of their predecessor volunteers that players cant afford their bloody fees.

You and i might hold badges and what not but let me tell you that does not make me an expert. It sickens me to see people in positions of power over our next generation who are so undeserving while the people like Ron Smith are ignored. I was prepared to see this whole thing run its course in the hope it was going to be the golden egg but guess what it hasnt worked and football in australia is currently poorer for it  

Agree 100 percent with tactical flexibility, NS.

Opposition teams only had one Ange game plan to nullify in the end. given their frequent technical superiority , and, their increasing tactical acumen, it became harder to win games.

With your second point, Ange became too much a selector of favourites, rather than have consider the odd player based on merit, like Mitchell Duke, and someone else playing in a decent league whose name escapees me.

Ange also played people playing little club football. He previously claimed he would only select players on merit, and who were playing regularly. He contradicted himself.

Rather than publicly posting the names of people whose comments you find little value in, it might be an idea to stop posting them. It isn't helpful, or, specifically respond to what they advance that you disagree with. Or just simply ignore them.

It can be perceived as arrogant, publicly naming people whose comments you find little value in. 

You are usually  a poster who makes a lot of erudite and interesting  comments regarding football. In a different way, you add quality to 442. Most of the time I'm sure plenty of others , as well as me, look forward to you expressing your opinions when they pertain to football. 

Bert has expressed he likes CBs, and defenders in general, who position  themselves in front of attackers in Ball Possession Opposition.

He doesn't like defenders defending from behind.

In Williams' case he has been part of a defensive unit that has conceded a lot of goals in the HAL.

 Wilko has already been successful in international football and has played at the highest level with three World Cup caps against really tough opposition.

Agree that Juric is a real presence off the ball.

It would be interesting to read your thoughts as to why BVM will select Jedi over Millsy?

I'm not disagreeing with you, but it would be interesting to see if they are the same as mine.

Leckie and Irvine aren't renowned for their creative prowess. In any case...

there's different types of creative and attacking ability. Rogic definitely has one type, Mooy has another. But Arzani brings something entirely different. And something which none of the others bring. Mooy and Rogic can dictate things from midfield. Rogic can beat his man.

But Arzani will drift between the lines and cut inside when he gets the ball. He can literally make a beeline for the goal, on his own, with speed and with the ball close to his feet. None of the others are quite in this mould. And it's invaluable to the team. For one thing, it makes Rogic and Mooy far more effective as it gives them more to work with.

While playing in similar roles for australia at times they are very different players. Jedinak is less mobile and is aware of it. As a result he is very good at maintaining his position and thus the shape of the team. Milligan is far more mobile and tends to roam or play more as a number 8 than a number 6. We have Luongo, Irvine and Mooy who play or are capable of playing that role and IMO are playing at a more competitive level than Milligan.

What we dont have is a like for like swap for Jedinak which may pose a real issue if he cant get through the three games in such close proximity

Ha, ha... decentric telling posters not to sound arrogant by naming other posters they disagree with. What a hypocrite...!