Please name the 20. The kid is fucking light years ahead of anyone his age he made Ikon look like a sunday league player.. if he doesnt go it will be the biggest fuck up in Aus Football for sometime especially if Iran take him for the future. We had several players that went to Brazil and didnt play a minute just at least take the - oops, I just ate my own poop... along.

My 23 man squad for Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup

Mathew Ryan
Brad Jones
Danny Vukovic 

Alex Wilkinson
Trent Sainsbury 
Rhys Williams
Aziz Behich 
Mathew Jurman 
Connor Chapman
Callum Elder

Mile Jedinak 
Mark Milligan 
Aaron Mooy 
Massimo Luongo 
Tomas Rogic
Jackson Irvine
Dimitri Petratos 
Daniel Arzani

Tim Cahill 
Tomi Juric
Ben Folami
Mathew Leckie
Robbie Kruse

Anyone know who is the better pass interceptor/anticipator @ DM for Australia. Or who causes the most turnovers.

Think I'd prefer pass interceptions as a stat. Anyone able to dig th@ out of somewhere?

For the NT you would have to ask Decentric

for club per 90 minutes

Luongo: 1.5 intercepts 3.9 tackles 
irvine: 0.9 intercepts 1.6 tackles
Jedi: 1.1 intercepts 1.6 tackles
mooyzil: 1 intercepts 2.8 tackles
Doogall: 1.2 intercepts 3.3 tackles

Some strange picks in this thread.  Elder sometimes starts in league one, yet he should be at the World Cup? Please. Folami is even weirder, having played a single half of senior football in the championship...

To be fair, the 45 minutes that Folami has played is already more than Tim Cahill has managed...not to equate the two or anything but it understandable considering how poor we are in striking options.

Not direct enough......................:ermm: Arzani is probably one of the most direct players we have seen in some time

I wonder if arzani skeptics watch him play and if so do they actually pay attention. Arzani seved up 3 golscoring chances on a plate on sunday, not his fault they werent put away with just the keeper to beat. Just ask Newcastle about how direct he is and how his end product is, especially ivan vujica who spent the first half chasing arzani's shadow.  

As for his shooting it would be misrepresenting his role by suggesting his primary purpose is a striker, but he's shown he has that when the option is on:

Having 3 19year olds as possible WC players... good or bad?

Atkinson-RB
Arzani-RW
Folami-S

Not to be selected over the likes of Nabbout or Maclaren for a world cup.

Preaching to the choir, mate ;)

We're fans and this is just a forum. So one can't read too much from consensus (or disagreement) on it. And, obviously, I'm the kind of bloke who'll disagree with one person completely on one issue and agree with them almost entirely on another issue.

But what I consider interesting is that there's a broad alignment of opinion on the Arzani question with a host of contributors to the forum. Contributors with whom I tend to have long and drawn out debates on other things.

Folami, Elder and Atkinson are great future prospects. Elder should pull through and have a good battle with Gersbach. Glad to have the options.

Wouldn't mind seeing

        Jedinak 
Luongo  Mooy 
         Rogic

Provided Jedinak has his head screwed on and Mooy has instruction to move the ball quickly. 

It was under Ange but I recall having the most awkward, far apart box midfield against Honduras at home.

It was 

Jedinak        Mooy

Milligan        Rogic 

At least it appeared that way on many occasions.

Perhaps 

Jedinak Luongo 
Mooy  Rogic in a tight box could work with permission to draw wider when necessary. The main thing is that they work together and watch their positioning. 

Ryan (GK)
Jones (GK)
Vukovic (GK)

Sainsbury (CB)
Susnajr (CB)
Williams > Degenek (CB)
Chapman > Wright (CB/RB)
Atkinson > Risdon (RB)
Behich (LB)
Meredith (LB)

Jedinak (DM)
Dougall > Milligan (DM)
Irvine (DM/CM)
Luongo (DM/CM)
Mooy (CM/AM)
Rogic (AM)

Petratos (LW/AM)
Leckie (RW/RB)
Arzani > Kruse (RW/LW)
Borello > Rukavytsa (LW/S)

Nabbout (S/W)
Maclaren > Cahill (S)
Juric (S)

We've got some players coming through that i'm hopeful for the next WC cycle:
Arzani - 19 (AM)
Atkinson - 18 (RB)
Susnjar  22 
McGree - 20 (CM)
Ouzanidis - 19 (CB)
O'Neil 20 Def
Hrustic 21
Folami - 19 (S) (Alright 1 start doesn't make a spring, but striker options are slim)
Borrello 23
Gersbach 21
Sotirio 22
Piscopo 20 and seemingly disappeared into the italian lower leagues....sad...
and looking through the ozfootball page there are also a heap of young players playing at underage teams overseas, but who knows if any of them are real prospects?

and then I hope that some players like Antonis, DeSilva, Mabil, Deng and Ikonomidis can push onto the next level somehow. 
Alright I'm being optimistic and some may never reach their potential, get injured or make crazy club career moves, but here's hoping they all make it through the next 4 years playing in higher leagues and at better clubs and getting regular game time

Wow wow wow...I just almost fell out of bed reading the above post...Sotirio is one of the worst players to ever pull on a jersey in the A-League...everyone else I agree with, but Sotirio is just not a very good football player! He's fast and...well that's it. Touch of an elephant on crack.

Did you just mention Sotirio? Out of all young players hes the worst out of the lot. 

I think Folami also played in a cup game but he is not going to the world cup, this year, maybe in four years time.

Alroght sotirio might have been wishful thinking

CHeers, sweet stats. Luongo ffs , that guy over Jedinak any day. wtf are we doing lol
Dougal should be in the squad.

Could you get Milligan's ?? maybe his Victory stats

By direct I mean 'a threat' , 'a threat to goal'. This he is not. So how versatile will he be? He would suit one role, and one role alone.

The National setup needs more than these one trick pony types. What's the point of Rogic handing the ball off to Arzani, who next gets the ball Mooy?

People keep saying he can breeze past defenders.. what's the point of this if he can't score. Offd the bench for Rogic perhaps but as a winger he just can't contribute because he is not a threat to score, and we have enough 'lump the ball in' players - better ones , faster ones in Kruse , Leckie etc etc Petratos/Nabbout

I guess if he had a really nice shot, could defend then he would be straight in the starting XI. But we don't need 100 more balls into the box, we need penetration, link ups and shots on goal. (directness lol)

milligan at V: 2.3 tackles a game 2.4 intercepts

Yeah, so this is what I was thinking, Luongo and Milligan. Twin DM with Rogic in front. Almost like Celtic

Milligan crashes through players and often ends up with the ball at his feet (Scott Brown) / comparatively, Jedinak crtashes through players and the ball lands 50 metres down field. Wasted possession. 

Luongo is the player on the other side who is the better passer , but isn't scared to defend as well. 

This is the better pairing I think. As long as Millsy fukn mans up again. 

Pretty sure we've seen plenty of A-League players pull off similar goal like the one above.

Mabil, Ibini, Goodwin. Nothing special really, however I would pay to watch Arzani over these guys on the day

in 2013/14 season when there was a clamouring for rogic who was dominating the league in terms of take ons he had only 1 assist and zero goals in 900 minutes. Rogics sublime take on ability made him useful for the NT even back then (but he was sadly injured for the WC). 

Why would you have luongo and Milligan in DM when you can have Luongo and Dougall or luongo and Irvine or Irvine and Dougall with luongo pushed up.

Milligan should be gone and jedinak is hanging by a thread.

Purely because, based on tackles and interceptions, and for counter attacking purposes, Luongo and Milligan both can steal a ball in midfield better than anyone else.

Would it be so bad to play this in the French game? 

  Luongo Jedinak Milligan 
                  Rogic
We'll want to dominate midfield and regardless of what is believed, that experienced midfield would be very valuable. Pace is the question for the swift French. BVM has a lot to consider.