For the life of me I don't know how Grant is getting picked.  He's been awful this season.

Great to see Tilio in there.

All previous coaches had their players that we could never understand why they were picked:

With Pim Verbeek it was Holman.

Holger it was Matty Mckay (at left back).

Ange in the latter days kept starting Robbie Kruse.

                    Ryan
Karacic Sainsbury Degenek Behich
              Irvine    Mooy
                   Rogic
     Boyle  Maclaren   McGree

Scared to think King could start. It'll either be great or horrible. Maybe Goodwin for his set plays.

              

No way Karacic will start over Grant with Arnold in charge 😂

Seriously though, even J Risdon would be a better selection than Grant 

I'm normally a Arnie Acolyte, but I see alot of shit in this team.
I'm struggling to understand why you have chronic bench players and even players without clubs in the teams
Seems pretty fucking stupid.
Only positive is I do like his aleague choices. Guess that's something.

It has to be the end of Grant's run as Socceroos RB. With Karacic returning to first team football at Brescia and Atkinson joining Hearts, both of whom are significantly younger, please Arnie stop picking your favourites.

Really for Redmayne, Grant, McGowan, King, Goodwin and Duke they can't be there long term. AMB, Atkinson, Souttar, Gersbach, Devlin, Mabil and Juric are far more exciting, promising long term solutions. 

Be interesting to see how we line up. I imagine against a team like Vietnam we will line up with a powerful player like Duke up top. Hence why Juric would have been an ideal selection. Anyway I reckon this is how Arnie will go...

----------------------------Ryan--------------------------
Karacic----Degenek-----Sainsbury---Behich
-----------------------------Jeggo------------------------
-------------------Mooy----------Rogic-------------------
Boyle--------------------Duke--------------------McGree

Or alternatively have Boyle and Duke up top with McGree central creating a diamond midfield. Irvine will probably get a run off the back of his club form.

Yeah I've backed Arnie pretty much all the way, but his recent squad selections have really pissed me off. A few in particular - Grant over Atkinson, Leckie over Ruka, Rowles over Stensness, King over Gersbach & not picking Dougall. He couldn't do anything about Deni Juric - at least he picked him, but there's no excuse to not pick the others unless their clubs wouldn't release them. Every man and his dog can see that Grant has had a shocking start to the season, but he still gets picked?!! Ruka back to goal scoring form & gets overlooked?! Stensness gets picked for the squad last window and looks like he's actually IN Australia at the moment and doesn't get selected?!!! Gersbach starting and playing 90 mins in France and can't get a look in? Dougall plays CDM for mid table Championship team week in week out and should be a auto selection (he'd start over Jeggo in my book)
Maybe everyone is right about Arnie - he's not the man to get us to the WC

Watched Syd v Perth game, Grant n King weren't in a good form at all. If Arnie keeps picking players out of form like this we could miss a world cup.  

And Arnold will get the sack if that happens or will he walk?

We all know the viets will sit deep against us next week hence why we must go with a more technical XI against them. Oman in the  second game will be a bit more proactive so we can go more with the less technical more direct players. 

King was very average - hope he just sits on bench for Roos. Grant was ok which = ‘good’ compared to King. Seeing some of the ball handling/passing skills by Sturridge reminds us the HUGE gap in skills between AL and Europe 

Vietnam v Thailand from a month ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZLPkVuxJ50
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_wZAyQLyEk

And Arnold tested positive for Covid-19 and is isolating 

Ok we might win this one now

And the pr*ck Pellizirri just said on Paramount + that Arnold may be a chance of being on the sideline on Thursday 

Will just be on Skype call during game to tell assistant coach how to fuck things up still

What's the TV situation for this one? Will it still be on 10 play android TV app like the last qualifiers were? Or do I have to get Paramount + app?

FTA Ch 12 (10 Bold) so should be on app too

What are the current COVID restrictions in Victoria? Still able to have a full house?

Haven't seen official confirmation but they're still trying to sell the remaining tickets, so there mustn't be any restrictions. I think the fact it is not a closed-roof stadium means that it can be at full capacity too. Should be getting around 25K.

we carry on like chooks about x player picked and whos in form and not.
Its the norm for every NT be it the top flighters to the minnows.
Just look at the Poms over the decades for eg.....so many top club players and come NT they've under performed.

It is what it is fellas, GA is the out clause for most but for me its all up to the player on the day.
Win your battles and inspire your team mates.

Yeah I could of sworn months ago they were saying it was sold out and then I keep saying things that there are still tickets available. 

Pretty poor marketing on part of F.A 

I agree. It fills up some time between the games. I laugh at myself and others still on the don't pick Grant bandwagon. The bloke has only scored one goal for the socceroos, and that was against Vietnam in that banana peel game in Hanoi. Where would we be without that goal?

People to be honest with themselves and accept that an Australian manager hasn't had pickings this slim for several decades, perhaps since the early 90s?  

That said absolutely no excuses if we can't beat Vietnam at home.  

People always assume the "young and exciting" bloke who has only played 10 minutes for the NT is going to come in and be vastly superior. 

We all did the same thing with Ange with Kruse, Pim with Holman and Holger with 75% of his squad selections. 

But Holman was playing at a good level? Always played like a headless chook, but I'm sure that was his role and scored a great goal at the WC.

Kruse was banging down the door after his first season in the Bundesliga? 

Hardly the same as picking some kid in the a-league. The amount of times Kruse made intelligent runs in behind to never receive a pass or open space for another, he was instrumental in Ange's system.

Re. Holman pre 2010 WC he was considered the black sheep of the squad. High level by today's standards, sure. Not so much in 2008.  

I'm not talking about Kruse prior to injuries where he was arguably our best player. I'm referring to the latter Ange days in 2016-17, where he was well past his best and had some really poor games for us. 

Anyway you've missed my point completely.  I'm simply raising the point that ALL Australian coaches have had to deal with fans criticising their tendencies to choose favourites.