Langerak ommision is pretty fucking ridiculous. There's just no logic in taking a 37 year old Vukovic instead of him. It's seriously irresponsible. What if Ryan gets injured? We'll be totally fucked. Rogic missing out is also weird. Degenek over Sains is another questionable one. But wow, the Langerak one is simply insane. It's inexplicable.

And I'm not in the anti-Arnie crowd. I've defended him as much as anyone, but he's been testing my faith for a while now. We've been really sluggish under him for ages and Vukovic over Langerak makes me doubt he knows what he's doing at all. 

Could it just be that Crawley and Arnie want sweeper keepers for the teams structure?

Hit the nail on the head. This is a fantastic squad and it’s killing these haters, so they focus on what little they can. How sad for them. 

Yup. The silence is very telling. 

Nah Redmayne was always going after Peru, and it's fair enough - he's fine as a third choice. Vukovic is the one really struggling. Lowest save percentage in the a league and he's 37. He used to be ok but age has obviously caught up with him. He shouldn't have even been considered. 

Deng has just come off a title win in J2 and didn't look out of place in his NZ performance. He performed very well in fact.

King is the least justified selection. Love Vukovic but he's been a little sluggish so far this season. It seems there are two fractions out there in the media. If Langerak had been picked, I don't think they'd have much content.

Totally.. Gerbach is def better than King. All I see is backward and side way passing. Offensively he couldnt any best any winger 

He plays in the J2 dude. He got demoted from the J1 to the J2. He’s not good enough, pure and simple. Everyone at Urawa and the J league knows this, they have seen his capabilities more than anyone. Australians are a little slow to catch on sometimes. 

Who cares about some Nz friendlies. Alex Wilkinson performed admirably in friendlies too until he was found wanting too when it mattered. 

Sometimes you just need a left footer. He ticks that box and the "age box". That said, Gersbach is both and is the better footballer.

Langerak and Rogic. I think Rogic would have been handy in at least one or two games. Hrustic and McGree are fine but they lack that x-factor. Sains is a surprise but hearing he hasn't been playing in Qatari league makes that one somewhat understandable. I also think Taggart probably should have been picked, certainly over bloody MacLaren who's never been anything but useless for the socceroos.

The rest of the squad is fine, I guess. I haven't seen much of King, so not qualified to comment. 

Deng is WAY better than King at least!

I'd have Taggart over Maclaren purely because the former can score better at the higher level.
Having Rogic would be nice but lets hope Baccus can get on and unsettle the opponent.

Arnold said Devlin broke down in tears when told he was selected.

Mitch Langerak was a shock World Cup fall guy, in order to make Socceroos captain Mat Ryan feel as “unthreatened as possible”.

That’s the belief of former Socceroos goalkeeper Clint Bolton, who was stunned with star gloveman Langerak’s omission, particularly after he came out of international retirement in September at the request of national coach Graham Arnold.

Ryan, and A-League pair Andrew Redmayne and Danny Vukovic – all disciples of Socceroos goalkeeper coach John Crawley – were the three custodians named in Australia’s 26-man World Cup.The choice of Central Coast Mariners veteran Vukovic over Langerak was considered by many as a huge surprise, with the latter having had another stellar season for Japanese top-flight club Nagoya Grampus.

Such form had many calling for Langerak to become Australia’s first-choice gloveman at the expense of Ryan, whose move to Danish outfit FC Copenhagen from Spain has failed to secure the first-team football he was searching for.“ The only thing that makes any sort of sense in my mind, and I’m stretching to find a reason, is it’s about making Maty Ryan feel as unthreatened as possible,” Bolton said.“ Is that right or wrong? I don’t know … but if ‘Arnie’ has decided that Maty Ryan’s his number one keeper, then he is within his rights to make sure that Maty has the best tournament he can possibly have.“ Maybe the decision’s been made around leaving Mitch out to keep that goalkeeping department as harmonious as possible, because they all work well together – ‘Vuka’, ‘Redders’ and Maty. “It’s a cohesive unit, and it’s a really unthreatening environment in a lot of ways for Maty.”


FFS South Park Sarcastaball levels

Quickly become my new favourite guy. Got heart and can play.

Watch his save vs Wellington (Babarosus - first half), that save was Matrix level. 

Yeah that was a good one. I think his selection was inevitable anyway and Langerak's return only unsettled things.

Therein is the problem. No-one has seen much of King. Dodgy as selection.

his ceiling could be huge

his stats are jedi like yet he can also pass the ball

 Stenseness and Metcalfe were thrown in the deep end against Japan’s national team because Irvine and Mooy had covid. Also Hrustic played shit in that game. 

Some questions marks.

Why King over Davidson or Gersbach who are getting regular match minutes for teams.

Why no Langerak when its obvious he could easily challenge Ryan for the No1 spot, is there something going on which we dont know about?

Also Souttar over Sainsbury when the former hasn't played a senior game in over a year after coming back from an serious injury, quite a risk if you ask me and Sainsbury who hasn't played much but would bring experience over to the team as well.

Also with Devlin and Baccus in which tells me we will be spending time doing alot of running and defending with only Mooy and Hrustic as the playmakers in the team and little room for creativity in the final third if you use Kuol or Cummings late in games.
Noticed Arnie went with Genreau and Metcalfe in the Olympics and both are not selected when Baccus and Devlin weren't used until the last game against Egypt are now in the World Cup squad.

Interesting squad and speculation on who should start will begin.

Also two players selected from J2 in Japan which explains where we are going right now for overseas selections, Japan's squad left out Hatate and Kyogo who play with Mooy at Celtic.

I enjoyed Tommy Oar as a pundit but he's getting a bit annoying now. It's his job to be opinionated but he doesn't appear very flexible ad his tone is one of 'I'm always right.'

2 players from J2 going, while the 2 from J1 miss out. That’s a little strange as well.

Yep and he’s also just not a very good writer. Which is totally fine and is to be expected, but it’s weird how much Optus Sport have been pushing him lately. 

Are you serious? He's left out our best player since kewell, viduka and cahill. 

The guy with such a focused attitude that he chews gum while he plays?

That' s   fantastic   you   think   so !

Sains has been struggling for some time.

When one looks at his club record on Wikipedia, he has  played more football for the Socceroos than club for many seasons. I'm pleased that Arnie has made the correct call to omit his son in law  based on form.

In 2015 when we won the Asian Cup, Sains was one of our all time greats in the CB position.