The one player I absolutely would exclude from the squad is Mooy. After 2 tough seasons in the EPL and World Cup and Asian Cup in the last 12 months he needs a long, uninterrupted break. 

                           Vukovic
         Degenek      Susnjar      Lowry
Grant                    Sainsbury           Gersbach 
                              Antonis           
Ryan Williams     Montini               Ikonomidis

Old and the new I'm expecting...

Ryan
Grant/Sainsbury/Degenek/Behich
Mooy/Irvine
Mabil/Rogic/Ikonomidis
Taggart

Vukovic
Deng/Dellbridge/Susnajr/Smith
Dougall/Antonis
Williams/Mcgree/Goodwin
Maclaren

Langerak


most of our wingers are injured...
Arzani, Boyle, Leckie etc

Oops. Mooy wasn't at Asian Cup. 

I came across some article suggesting Elder as a midfielder. Quite inaccurate. 

Kilkenny has been fantastic for Perth this season. Watching Spiranovic, Lowry and Davidson also get me thinking. Smith has been great.

I don't know, would it unsettle the group if Behich and Gersbach got dropped for Smith and Davidson? You'd like to form a nucleus and Degenek is a part of that. Lowry is at Degenek's level this season. 

Confidence has a lot to do with it. 

Pretty accurate I'd say. Perhaps rest Mooy and Rogic but you've included all the other midfielders who must get a run. I feel Arnold will still want to split the Socceroos and Olyroos except for maybe Gersbach and McGree. 

So where are people standing on Davidson. Had a great final and a great season but hes been playing as a wingback and been caught out defensively a lot playing as a left back. 

Personally I’m still not convinced on Davidson defensively but he has done well for Perth this season in attack. 

LWB certainly appears to be his best position. 

No where near the Socceroos imo.
plenty of other options and a few we haven't tried.

Agreed. I'd rank him best suited in the following order:

1. LWB
2. LM
3. LB
If we play a back 3 he'd be a contender for lwb on current form. Would not have him at lb in a back four. Not sure whether he could do a job for us at lm in a 442.

Agreed. Higher up leaving him away from a lot of defence is safer. 

So according to reports only Behich has put his hand up for the friendly. The rest will be made up of mostly A League and Asian based players. I look forward to seeing a lot of news faces get some exposure to the national team set up.

Plans for a 48 team world cup in Qatar seem to have been abandoned. We're in a bit of a hole with qualifying again but I still think we had some decent moments at the Asian Cup that we can build on. Effective use of each player in building a proper team should be enough.

The decent group of Olyroos also offers some excitement. 

According to various articles around the place, today we can expect these 9 players to be called up for the Korea friendly:
*Brad Smith
*Ryan Williams 
*Andrew Redmayne
*Brandon O’Neill
*Craig Goodwin
*Dimi Petratos
*Thomas Deng
*Nathaniel Atkinson
*Riley McGree

I wonder who the remaining 14 will be 🤔 

Dave Lewis from TWG wrote an article suggesting Arnie may have to cap 16yo Alex Robertson just to entice him away from England.... can't see it happening.

I don't think dimi has done enough but keen to see the others especially ryan 

Based on the squad how does everyone think we'll line up?

Although unlikely, I'd like to see

Considering the inexperience of the squad, and the genuine quality of the opposition we struggle to beat even with our A team, I’d be starting the match with the most experienced possible XI, and then sub on 6 newbies. 

I’d be going with
                     Langerak
Grant    Spiranovic    Wright      Behich
              Antonis        O’Neill 
Borello              Ikon                  Mabil
                       Taggart 


i have have always loved borello so he’s in for me. That front 4 is super mobile. At least we will be sharp and quick. Antonis deserves it as does O’neill and I think Wright and spira are the best defenders in the squad.
The fullbacks pick themselves and so does the keeer. 

Tony Vidmar will join the coaching staff.

The draw for the second round of AFC qualifiers will be held on 17th of July, I don't think it's been posted elsewhere.

The first matchday for us is the 5th of September. The first round legs are on the 6th and 11th of June.

China (the only remaining bidder) should be confirmed as the host of the 2023 Asian Cup on Tuesday (4th of June) ahead of the FIFA Congress in Paris.

China was inevitable I guess. Korea or Japan would have been nicer. 

If the 2018 qualifiers format is repeated Australia and the 7 other Pot 1 teams will have a bye for MD1 on Sep 5 and play away on MD2 on Sep 10. 

MS3 and MD4 in October would be home and away respectively.

I think China is a better host. We’ve been to Korea and Japan before - now AFL have introduced western sport to the People’s Republic its time to see if they will take to the round ball game 

Good spot, it'd be against the second lowest pot for that second matchday too, if it stays the same.

MD3 would be at home to the lowest pot, and MD4 away to the third pot in October.

In November we'll we away to the second pot on MD5 and have the bye again in MD6, so if we don't have nine points by the end of October at least we'll have time to look for a new coach before MD7 and 8 in March.

It's all starting up again! Really hope we get some interesting destinations and can avoid the Middle East. Not to say ASEAN will be any easier. Vietnam will be a massive task. 

Just bumping this up. I think June will see one more ranking calculation before the draw? The pots might not change much. 

lolol that gave me a chuckle.

I'm sure China will be perfectly adequate hosts and will use it as a platform for a certain future World Cup bid, but at the moment all their biggest stadiums are athletic grounds, and with the exception of the brilliant Bird's Nest from the Beijing Olympics a lot of them seem a little dated.

Surely though if anyone can chuck up a few new rectangular stadia in four years it's China, especially with their government's focus on football. Perhaps there'll be some announcements when they get confirmed as hosts.

I would definitely still go, either way.

Apparently the April rankings will be used as they are prior to the first round, according to wiki.

That'll give us:

Pot 1:

1.  Iran (21)
2.  Japan (26)
3.  South Korea (37)
4.  Australia (41)
5.  Qatar (55)
6.  United Arab Emirates (67)
7.  Saudi Arabia (72)
8.  China PR (74)

Pot 2:

1.  Iraq (76)
2.  Syria (83)
3.  Uzbekistan (85)
4.  Lebanon (86)
5.  Oman (86)
6.  Kyrgyzstan (95)
7.  Jordan (97)
8.  Vietnam (98)

Pot 3:

1.  Palestine (99)
2.  India (101)
3.  Bahrain (111)
4.  Thailand (114)
5.  Tajikistan (120)
6.  North Korea (121)
7.  Philippines (124)
8.  Chinese Taipei (125)

Pot 4:

1.  Turkmenistan (136)
2.  Myanmar (140)
3.  Hong Kong (141)
4.  Yemen (146)
5.  Afghanistan (149)
6.  Maldives (151)
7.  Kuwait (156)
8.  Indonesia (159)

Pot 5:

1.  Singapore (160)
2.    Nepal (161)

and six from the following:

35.  Malaysia (168)
36.  Cambodia (173)
37.  Macau (183)
38.  Laos (184)
39.  Bhutan (186)
40.  Mongolia (187)
41.  Bangladesh (188)
42.  Guam (193)
43.  Brunei (194)
44.  Timor-Leste (195)
45.  Pakistan (200)
46.  Sri Lanka (202)

Only one East zone team in Pot 2, and it's Vietnam.