Exactly. Although maybe Kuol can.

But yeah, stupid, stupid call from Arnie.

How infuriating. We qualify in the most dramatic fashion. Then Arnie and Crawley make the most misguided selections for the squad.

Mathew Leckie and Maty Ryan will both make their eighth World Cup starts for Australia, a new Socceroos record at the Finals.

Only Mark Bresciano (9 games, 6 starts) and Tim Cahill (9 games, 7 starts) have made more World Cup appearances than Ryan and Leckie (both 7).

One thing I’ll say about duke is his scored the winning in a World Cup match everyone knows his name I hope he comes to a league in January 

How was souttar never picked for Scotland? 

He can come back to a heros welcome if he plays here regardless of what happens v denmark.

he is not exaclty playing for barcelona so could be a good move for him

I find it interesting that there's been near zero breaking through of our centre backs through the middle. Not a moment of a head on vs Ryan. It's all come down the sides, which needs addressing, yet the centre has been solid on the ground.

I think we can put the Souttar myth of struggling against fast dribblers to rest. 

It was actually in the bundesliga when Dusseldorf went up. Weird thing was about kruses career was that he couldn't get into the team when they were in bundi 2.. got promoted and suddenly he was a starter (and their star player). At one point was the 2nd most fouled player in Europe after Messi. This is when krusey was really quick and still had confidence in his dribbling. 

We got him when he was really young and had barely even played for Stoke. Was a shrewd move by Arnold.. had gus done that he would have been lauded. 

Having said that fked up big time re both Volpato and Dykes. Didn't get in early enough for John Souttar either. And doing the same now with Circati

The biggest is Rogic given had of Arnold picked him I'm certain he would have ended up playing him at very least as a sub. He's picked hrustic whose coming off an injury ... rogic is arguably fitter and no injury problems... and a better player to boot. 
I honestly think Arnold is punishing him but just hasn't expressed it publicly. 

Langerak obv bizarre but even if he was picked he wouldn't have started over Ryan. 

But agree with you Arzani would have been a huge weapon as a super sub.. him, rogic and kuol coming off the bench would gave shredded teams

I think in hindsight we can see a couple of selection errors. Not attacking Atkinson but I think he'd be one to make way for Arzani as we have Karacic, Deng, Degenek and Wright who've played RB at some point. Even Devlin could slot in there. I know it's been discussed to death about his poor Jordan friendly but I wish Dougall were in the squad. Well, there's also Strain. Arzani could've been in ahead of Tilio. Slightly annoyed that we probably won't see Deng, Devlin or Tilio.

My ins and outs
Rogic>Hrustic. Fitness is showing. All other issues make it complicated.
Arzani>Atkinson. Plenty of others for RB and this attacking options puts less stress on our tired wingers.
Dougall>King. Behich is locked in and Goodwin is there in an absolute emergency not to mention Rowles could be shifted over. It's not wild to put Strain there. It's just on a different foot.
 I wish we had Sainsbury over Wright for that bit more flexibility. A sub as a 6 late in the game wouldn't be out of place.

This is fan chat and isn't meant to unsettle the current camp. Not that they'd bloody read it anyway.

100% Atkinson should be in and we shouldn't hang him out to dry playing against arguably the highest level of player any socceroo has ever faced at tournament level in a rampant team. 

Atkinson also allows tactical flexibility if we switch to a wingback system and can also play as RW. Offers something different to Karacic too. Arnie should have played karacic (the more defensive of the 2) against France 

Atkinson has a future as a national team winger. Probably then Deng or Wright to make way for Arzani.

Int break 20-28 March next year. Asian Cup in Qatar so it'll be this time next year no doubt.

Arzani has to tear it up in the ALM to be selected.
Not there atm

Doubt there's anything Arnie could've done re Volpato - once he was in the Italian youth network his mind was made up (for now). As for Dykes... I've only seen him a few times but he has nothing Duke doesn't have. Give me Cummings any day over Dykes.

True for the last sentence.

Initially, when Souttar played for Aus I thought he struggled at jockeying, delaying and showing. He seems to have improved quite quickly in this facet of the game. He might be doing a lot of extra mobility work - skipping, plus change of direction, nimbleness and jockeying exercises.

I think Souttar and Rowles are shaping up as our best CB pairing of all time. Our best previously have been Neill/Moore circa 2006, and Sains/Spira circa 2015 Asian Cup.

One  phenomenon in this WC some of our senior players have really stood up. They are late in their careers, and have at times  been barely good enough in late round WCQers and at World Cup level, but Behich, Irvine, Mooy, Leckie and Ryan have provided onfield  leadership on the biggest stage.

Moreover, even though they haven't had a lot of Socceroo football, experienced club footballers, Duke and Goodwin, 30 years of age or older, have also provided onfield leadership.

Amazing that Duke prefers J2 football.

I heard, or read, Duke has only scored about 8 goals in 37 games for his J2 club this season. Then again in the A League, he didn't score goals for WSW like Maclaren does for Melbourne  City.  But Duke is a more successful target striker at international level with a different skill set from  JMac. 

One guy who used to post here was a player agent/scout. He said players were very well looked after by their clubs in Japan. He said players aspired to play there.

He was probably a bit early in his career. Arnie spotted him at just the right time.

Scotland has a big central striker playing for them, who could be ours. Is it Lyndon Dykes?

I'm also astonished Boyle was never selected for Scotland? Another poster posted an article about English EPL scouts discussing Scottish prospects. Boyle was considered to be playing well enough  to be an EPL recruit, but had developed at a later age than they like.

A few  posters were  lamenting  the technical quality of  Socceroos apart from Kewell and Viduka, but  a few others come to mind in terms of first touch,  handling speed  and fast feet with the ball.

Marco Bresciano had quality technique too. 

 Tom Rogic is a technician with a good first touch, 1v1 dribbling ability and is a decent ball carrier. It looks like he might have lost motivation playing international football and he is currently playing in the wrong league for his skill set, unless it has changed a lot in  recent times.

Aaron Mooy is a decent technician too. He has a decent  first touch with both feet and sides of the body, passes well with both feet in limited time and space,  uses outside of the foot passing effectively,  has fast feet and quick handling speed.

Also, Aidan Hrustic is a decent technician, despite his relative lack of the immense game sense  that Bresciano and Mooy have displayed.

In the recent Tunisian game as I watched the replay, dispassionately knowing the result , we were on top for the  first half. By far the better team.

In the second half, I thought Tunisia really increased their Squeezing intensity in the middle and their attacking third of the pitch. When viewing the replay it was more of a question that all the subs  Tunisia put on, ran really hard at our more fatigued  defence and defensive midfield line.

I was concerned about our inability to keep the ball in the second half. However, it was our best defensive effort in Ball Possession Opposition at any World Cup game ( I've seen all 18 of them including 1974), although we drew with Chile 0-0 in 1974. All the starting eleven players on the pitch for Australia, were very disciplined and hard working when Tunisia had the ball.

Some of our subs weren't as effective when they came on in the BPO phase of play.

Also, Reilly McGree is a better defensive player as a number Ten in Ball Possession Opposition, than Rogic or the erratic Hrustic, despite McGree not  having their occasions of brilliance on the ball. 

I'm sad to say it, but Sains has declined considerably from his peak at the Asian Cup in 2015. When one looks at Sains' career, he has played almost  as many games for the Socceroos as he has played club games. Apart from when he was with CCM, and one season in Holland, Sains has barely played regular club football since.

At his peak, Sains is as a good a CB as Australia has ever had. His peak occurred early in his career, and it didn't last for long.

I think our poor second halves are a significant concern heading into the Denmark game. We’re yet to show we can play our best for 90mins and we get worse as the game goes on. 

Thats pretty obvious with age D2 for Sains BUT nothing like having a seasoned campainer in any squad.
In the current WC many NT's have, they maybe benchies and its not about their stats its their guile/experience and keeping a cool head under the pump and talking on the pitch that out weighs figures.
Pepe 39 still in the Portugal squad, Santos has used him in need, CR7's stats are no where what they used to be though an outlier and a half.
Argies
Otamendi 34
Gomez 34
DiMaria 34
Messi 35, same as CR7 an outlier.
Croatia
Lovren 33
Vida 33
Modric 37
Perisic 33

All of these are examples past their peaks - you can through every single WC squad and find similar, seems the TD's/coach's can't deny slower aging players past their peaks and declining can still deliver when in need.
Point is imo Sains would have been a good head amongst our squad.

It's always sad for them but they are mostly quite young and it must be pretty rare that all 23/26 outfield players get game time in 3 games

I thought deng would be better choice than Atkinson or Karacic at right back

I agree if any of the 3.

IF Goodwin wasn't proving his good worth Tilio would get a run imo, infact I'd put him on instead of Mabil thats for sure after what we saw.
Surely Arnie will consider this.

Although Denmark were better against France than us, Tunisia were arguably the better team in their 0-0 draw with Denmark.

We also drew with Denmark in the last WC - didn't we?

My major concern against Denmark is they have more depth outside their starting eleven, and our starting eleven must be tired. I think they have more experience and quality to play fresh players.

Against the same opponents, France and Tunisia, we've accrued 3 points to Denmark's 1.  This is encouraging. 

Goodwin has  played with considerable game sense, has displayed quality positioning, been disciplined, made good forward runs, concentrated well, crossed well, ball carried with aplomb, defended superbly from the front and tracked back in Ball Possession Opposition as a Left Winger.

I wish he could take players on dribbling around defenders  like Rogic, Boyle, Mabil, Tilio and Arzani can. Apart from Boyle, the others can't defend like Goodwin,  and he is also a superior tackler to nay of them having played LB.