Interesting post.

Games coming ever closer. For Norway I'd like to see

Langerak /Jones

Wright  Sainsbury Jurman Gersbach
                Luongo  Mooy 
                       Petratos  
Leckie        Juric        Nabbout



Against Colombia

                         Ryan
Wright Sainsbury Milligan Behich
                   Jedinak 
          Luongo     Mooy  Irvine 
 Leckie                Rogic
                    

Hmmm. Tricky calls. I'm not sure about Degenek and Wright has proven himself at club level. Susnjar should come off the bench. Rogic up front would be interesting. 

Terry Antonis at last played to his ability last night against Kawasaki Frontale for Victory in the ACL.

Saw nothing of the game. Good performance was it?

Very - I'd have Antonis as MoM he was that good.

It must be close to the greatest performance ever by any HAL team in the ACL.

The football on show last night from both teams, was a much higher standard than any HAL game. Earlier on Kawasaki played some exquisite football for the first 20 minutes. It is no fluke they are J League champs.

At that level of football it exposes HAL players' weaknesses much more than the HAL. Some of the HAL imports look great against mediocre HAL opposition, but look inept at ACL level.

The exciting  thing last night, other than Kosta and George, it was the Aussies who performed for Victory. Hope, Athiu and Theophanus were wonderful MV subs too.

Kawasaki put so much pressure on in BPO, with aggressive squeezing in the Victory defensive half for the first 20 mins. They forced mistakes with MV players having less time and space than they were used to. Impressively, MV rode the storm with Thomas pulling off some great saves.

Agree.

A little technique Antonis used a few times was La Croqueta, the Iniesta signature move. It  features two quick right/ left, or left/right, inside of the foot touches that got him out of trouble.

The young Theo fellas was outstanding when he came on

Pretty happy with the squad. Quite lucky to have no injuries. The younger players who missed out shouldn't worry too much. They'll be in the squad either in the UAE or afterwards..

Squad definitely not completely fixed yet. I do find it a bit odd to cut 3 when they'd still have benefited from the cap,  especially Gersbach and Maclaren who are located very close.

 In one instance Theoharos  looked like he performed  a Reverse Elastic, or Elastico, a move you and I  have both struggled to master after a lot of trying.

It could've been a Matthews Cut, with two touches, but it looked too fluid. He beat his man all ends up and split the defence open.

It is excellent to see young players have these 1v1 attacking moves in their tool kit.

Another young SFC player, Kallic, performed a Ronaldo in Brazilian Soccer School parlance. He didn't beat his player in this instance, because he started on the wrong foot, but at least he has it. One could call it a roll across the ball with one foot, then an outside stepover executed by the other foot.

Great to see the new gen coming through who show efficient 1v1 skills, lots of good young players coming through the system now.

A shame Kalik hasn't seen much game time ahead of someone like Carney, the season that he was a regular with Dynamo Zagreb he was linked with AS Monaco at one stage, how things change quickly in football. 

Arnie does back his older players alot. 

Though I'd throw this question out there, in hope it would stimulate some conversation in this thread.

Which position @ the World Cup will Australia fall short in, or need more of? (name best players, and skills that you think will be missing)

I have a suspicion that our wingers will not be sufficiently talented enough. This is what I envision happening in this years World Cup.

Area's like physicality and speed, we appear strong in (ala AFL / charateristic Aussie sports traits).

But i'd argue that when it comes to attack these winger abilities have not been sufficient enough in the last 2 or 3 World Cups.

Did we have better wingers in the Golden Gen in 2006? (remembering also now, modern game has faster more physical players)

Both Kewell and Emerton were better players than Leckie and Kruse.

We dont yet know exactly how BVM will set up or what instruction he will give but i feel as much as i like Juric we will lack a truly potent centre forward to play in the system im expecting

Comparing recent squads with the Golden Generation, back then we did attack from the wings more so with Kewell. In saying that though, it was a vary cautious build up and attack. 

Defences in that World Cup were quite slow and compact despite trying to draw any comparisons to modern day transitional counter attack. (which is a lot quicker)

At the last World Cup 2014, which seems a lifetime ago, we used Oar and Kruse as wingers in a quicker transitional build up.

But they remained predominantly ineffective. I believe Ange even tried Oar in a more central role (which he played more with his club then), which was again, very much so, completely ineffective. 

My thought here are that if we use Kruse and Leckie will we expect more of the same. What can Rogic or Mooy offer that is different, or even perhaps Juric.

It'll be the wingers in Russia who fall short I think. 

I've been thinking a bit about the side. It'd be interesting to see.

                        Ryan 
Wright Sainsbury Milligan Behich 
            Jedinak Luongo 
                   Mooy
                   Rogic 
Leckie                     Kruse

Rogic as a false 9. I'd have Borello instead of a Kruse there. I think Juric is good also. Can those 4 in the middle play together? One of the three always miss out with it being Rogic or Luongo.

Milligan is the cool head for the defence and his speed is still ok. I trust Jurman also. If only Spiranovic were playing regularly.... 

/-----/-----/Ryan/-----/-----/
/-----/Sainbury/-----/Jurman/-----/
/Wright/-----/-----/-----/Behich/
/-----/Irvine/-----/Luongo/-----/
/Leckie/Rogic/----/Mooy/Petratos/

I think with Van Marwijk were more likely to see a return to 4-5-1. This might not be such a bad thing with Leckie and Kruse/Borello pulled back, inviting their FBs forward. It will give Leckie the space to do what he did against Chile.

We also might see a flat midfield in a 442. I could see this working well if it is Juric up top with Rogic in a 2nd striker role - put our most dangerous player in front of goal. Then two of Mooy, Jediank and Luongo in midfield and Kruse, Leckie our wide.

——————————Ryan

Wright — Sainsbury— Degenek- Behich

————-—— jedinak —————-
————————————-Mooy—————
Leckie———-——————————Kruse

————————-Rogic——————————-
————————————Juric—————————

Brendan Rodgers tried to use Rogic @ striker once and he learned to never did it again.

He is completely ineffective with his back even slightly to goal. He only does good work in the middle with space to run @ defenders.

You can't get him to chase and defend that much, he can manage one or two tackles a game. Generally, this wears him out fast.

He would be completely fine sitting in front of Milligan and Jedinak, but my fear is Jedinak and Millsy can not play the ball on the deck consistently well enough, with balls often flying around in the air predominantly - looking amatuerish. 

This would open up the DM position suiting more Luongo, Mooy or Irvine. But we know they can't offer the same physicality that Jedinak or Milligan offer.

I suspect BVM will definitely play Jedinak in midfield, but I'm curious how he will use a better passer alongside or in front or him. Assigned the task hopefully of feeding Rogic better balls on the deck than these flying headers/crazy chest downs in the air.

This midfield will probably be what will happen, with cautious defending and build up.

A slower style that will probably suit Mooy's turtle like defending capabilities. Jedinak will crash and bash with ball going every where.

This is where we fall short to score goals in my opinion. Leckie & Kruse

Both skillset not good quite at that level for wingers. Each cross will be under pressure and each possession will be either:
Kruse - out of control to the sideline, pushed off ball easily and end deliveries hopefully better than his past 5 or so NT games. (queue facial expressions)
Leckie - almost too physical, doesn't get free enough to actually do anything purposeful. Will get caught up in a physical game with defender. Probably because his first touch and control are that of a rapist 

If we can at all trial Nabbout or Borello @ some point. Perhaps they have something better to offer ?

Ryan

Leckie R.McGowan. Sainsbury Smith

Brillante Dougall

Petratos

Mabil Golgol Rukavytsya

Leckie has played CF a few times before and could add some real pace in transition and move opp defences around.
Kruse is good at runs and holding possession. High rate of assists for Aus
Rogics is not good in the middle with Mooy but tends to do so much of his best work picking the ball up on the right at Celtic cutting in. We need his goals 
Ruka and Juric.....Tim?  to add to the forward rotation

Mass or Jackson in the middle 3 to add more grit.....same system as we had at the Asian Cup.

Defence is a worry but Sains and Aziz pick themselves.........Millsy should be Australia's version of Philipe Lahm at this stage of his career. 
Wright is soooo slow but playing every week at RB has to count for something.
I heard that Jurman hasn't been playing...is he Injured?

Hard to compare to Socceroos and Celtic, I can't see us dominating games at the world cup.. which gives more space for him in those counter attacking positions... playing balls in behind for him isnt going to work - the idea for him at false 9 is to play balls in behind for leckie and Kruse to help us up the field.

Tommy can definitely not play as a central striker on his own.

But he could play in a front two if he is the more withdrawn of the pair. Juric or Cahill hard against the CBs with their back to goal, playing balls back to a withdrawn Rogic.

This puts Rogic up front near the goal where he can do the most damage and still receiver the ball facing goal. Alternately he’s there to receive a cutback from Leckie or Kruse. It would be like playing him an a more advanced A.M.

False 9's are not target men, they are not sole strikers, they are attacking midfielders put further up the pitch... hazard, messi, etc.

They are there to bring defenders out of the line and provide a passing outlet in the final third(player needs to have a good touch and passing ability) they also create space in behind the defensive lines for quick wingers..

Where I would compare Socceroos to Celtic is their wingers. Roberts and Forrest (throw Teirney in there as well).

These players can run AT defenders and trick them into going a different way.

If we have atleast ONE winger who can run full pace with the ball and change direction, even invert there run centrally, I think we have a winner winger.

For me, the problem with Leckie and Kruse is they are so one sided. I think this is worth closeler investigation/scrutiny.

Oar is a Culprit of this also.

Rogic's greatest quality is is passing by far. (ok he can hit a ball.
Where I think he would be best is around these area's you're talking of in a false 9, but I'd argue he's much more useful as a 10.
He can move up to playing on the corner of the box once Leckie or Kruse shift the ball further up the park.
But, I do think we will struggle with Leckie & Kruse shifting this ball forward. This is where I think we really need to get our quality right in the next few years. 
I think the whole 442 forum will be venting frustration if all they get are these awkward last ditch crosses in the box running out of bounds.
Hopefully Leck & Kruse have a lot better opportunity to get free (transitional space) and run under BVM. And prove me wrong

Both Luongo and Irvine are now more physical in their play than milligan. In fact Luongo has one of the highest tackle rates in the league

Watched that Ajax v Sparta game last night, not enough people are talking about Kenneth Dougall, looked very composed as a cdm should be in the team

Nabbout got into the kits nice and quick - snagged himself #11!