Problem for Vietnam is they lost 3 times this tournament. With wins against Yemen and Jordan, you won't rise much with that.

Unfair for Vietnam to only go up one place, only 3 places up for Thailand and Kyrgyzstan going down 4 places, but FIFA rankings don't take into account relative ranking of opposition or goals scored like Elo does. (Not that there's one official version of Elo for football).

Great to see Japan and Korea go up so much. Tajikistan has now just scored two goals against a top 30 team lol Big move for Qatar too but hardly surprising with such a low rank to begin with.

So we're down 1 spot and rightly so but look at the movement in some places!

Hate FIFA rankings as much as the next person but the new ones are out.

22	IR Iran	1516	1481	7
27	Japan	1495	1414	23
38	Korea Republic	1451	1405	15
42	Australia	1441	1436	-1
55	Qatar	1398	1258	38
67	United Arab Emirates	1355	1309	12
70	Saudi Arabia	1344	1335	-1
72	China PR	1339	1317	4
80	Iraq	1310	1271	8
83	Syria	1286	1322	-9
85	Lebanon	1277	1296	-4
89	Uzbekistan	1275	1251	6
90	Oman	1273	1295	-8
95	Kyrgyz Republic	1253	1264	-4
97	Jordan	1238	1196	12
99	Vietnam	1227	1229	1
100	Palestine	1224	1236	-1
103	India	1219	1240	-6
111	Bahrain	1188	1178	2
115	Thailand	1169	1160	3

OMG, Nick Meredith. That guy is a few cents short of a quid.

When did you turn into Nick Meredith?

I'm 50/50 or less on Isa as a Socceroo for various reasons but I wouldn't have thought having a nice face (Kruse) and histrionics (Kruse, Cahill, Kewell) were considerations for selection.

Also, while I understand the need to rejuvenate the squad now, I do get a little sick of players getting picked on potential rather than current ability generally. We hear it all the time on the boards.

A national team should be the best players available to win you games today not someone who might solve a current problem in the future.

Again, I am talking about when games matter not in the coming few friendlies which I agree should be a lot of experimenting

Still some time but I just can't see us playing anything in the March international break.

@Canberran

Who are the other #9 options for the Olyroos? Everyone else is injured.

@pala

Can’t wait to see George Blackwood and the like selected for it 🙄

Milan only captained Australia once. His centre back partner Alex Tobin was usually captain. And Milan had played at the highest level in Europe with Red Star- whereas Isais played mainly in the Spanish second division- so he is a bit of a come down really, perhaps indicative of our current state. The next GG will never happen as current players don't know how to score goals, and coaches don't seem to be able to teach it.

I expect the focus in March will be on the AFC U23 Championship qualifiers which fortunately fall inside the FIFA window of March 18-26 with matches against Cambodia on the 22nd, Taiwan on the 24th and South Korea on the 26th. With only the group winners and four best runners up out of 11 groups and probably still with Arnie in control, we'll need all the eligible players we can get.

Could be Arnie's last chance saloon, but hopefully he'll be moved on by then.

InB4 we half arse it with an A-League only squad and bomb out, again.

@localstar, it’s been done before. You might not know of Milan Ivanovic. And our national side was no weaker back then in the 1990s, and arguably this current side is deteriorating to such an extent we will end up much worse. Anyway, I am not totally wedded to the idea of Isaias, I just think we are so bloody weak right now we should be open to all options, old and foreign or young and born here. We keep waiting for that next golden generation, thinking it’s just around the corner and the next crop of 15 year olds is full of Vidukas, Kewells, Brescianos, Cahills and Aloisis, but maybe they’re not coming for quite some time. In the meantime, while FFA get their house in order, and create a decent national competition and legitimate youth pathways, we need to take the talent from wherever it exists.

Doubt if a recently naturalised European will ever be given a Socceroos leadership gig. And we could do without his histrionics, face pulling and endless debates with referees.

Need some football brains in mgt. Gallop is well overdue and needs to leave. Also, these stupid AFL CEOs need to become a thing of the past IMO. 

ffa seem pretty last minute with all their NT fixtures

People have to get used to the fact,we no longer have a huge gap in ability from what used to be lower ranked asian teams.
In Qualifying it's going to be closer than ever and there are no longer guarantees of we play at our best we will,get through.
One thing is for sure ,if we play the same style as othe asian teams ,we dont have the finishing ability to win much.
We will be like the JA coached team.
We didnt play that badly,but we are jist not playing as tyle and with quality to score goals.Hence lots of draws.
South Korea ,with all their ability also failed.

Not many easy games any more.Especially away from home.

@local star, it’s not a binary choice. It doesn’t need to be one or the other. You can have a youth policy but have a few older players in a squad to bring in experience and mentoring.

We should pick squads of young A League players and play friendlies against Oceania sides.

But we surely don't need aging players like Isaias.

I agree with those suggesting Isaias should be brought into a camp. This doesn't preclude also taking a look at younger players, I just think he is worth a look, especially if Milligan retires or is injured and noting how poor Luongo's form has been for a while now.

I was thinking more younger fringe players but players who will be young enough to play in the next world cup so not strictly under 23. 

We should organise a home based vs overseas based friendly IMO

If ya talking young players, Iike u23 socceroos (97' and younger)

Going to look something like...

------------------------Margush(97)--------------------------
--------------Deng(97)------------Rowles(98)---------------
Strain(97)--------------------------------------Gersbach(97)
--------------Wilson(97)---------Genreau(99)---------------
Buhagiar(98)---------Mcgree(98)--------------Arzani(99)
--------------------------Folami(99)---------------------------

---------------------------Glover(97)---------------------------
----------Kotroumbis(98)---------Ouzonidis(99)-----------
Atkinson(99)--------------------------------------Otoole(97)
--------------Pasquali(99)----------Oneill(98)-----------------
Wales(97)-------------DeSilva(97)--------Champness(97)
------------------------Blackwood(98)-------------------------

Yes we should be doing more of this particularly with the short A league season. Helps pump up our A league players resumes too with international caps and gets them playing at a higher level of competition. Win win all round. Vietnam, Thailand, New Zealand, Phillipines, Malaysia or Indonesia all suitable opponents   

This is something I wish we could do more. AFC nations tend to play matches outside windows too. It'd be tough with the A League on but even UEFA sides such as Romania and Finland put together complete domestic sides when possible. It'd be a good insight. Surely we can get on the phone to Singapore or Indonesia for a game. 

Come on guys, it was the concept of trying new players, not the specific players that mattered. I said in the post that I wasn't going to pick the best squad for the idea, it was just an example.

Delbridge shouldn't even be starting in the A League let alone in the Australian squad

Test_fan.
Thank god you don’t select Socceroo squads

We should be playing an experimental side with fringe players during the next FIFA break. Get in young players mostly and give them a shot and see what they will do. I am not going to pick the best squad for this but something like,

GK: Not sure who to pick here, Ryan is first pick and the young keeper for the future.
RB: Atkinson, Strain
LB: Gersbach, ??? Smith or Elder or Galloway.
CB: Deng, Susnjar, Delbridge, Burgess
DM/CM/AM: Jeggo, Dougall, Chapman, Antonis, Hrustic
W: Mabil, Ikonomidis, Ryan Williams, Goodwin, Borrello if fit, Wales perhaps
F: Taggart, Mebrahtu

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_(AFC)#First_round

First round in June for 12 lowest ranked AFC teams, then 2nd round qualifiers start in September which will include us.
But yes, a very long break for us between competitive matches. We need to experiment with the squad with as many friendlies as possible. 
I fear a round 2 exit. Only the winners of the group and 4 best second placed teams go through to 3rd round. If we got unlucky in the draw we could face some rapidly improving mid tier teams like Vietnam and kryzgstan. 

Our only hope of qualifying for the world cup at this rate