Boyle starting. Miller suspended. Jeggo and Baccus bench. 

Baccus becomes bench warner but is still the main creative midfield for the Socceroos. No wonder we got zero creativity in that current midfield.

Oniell makes the start xi again. So glad to see him work through a tough period adjusting for europe

will watch if he has improved his movement off the ball and able to find pockets of space

Yazbek also starting the last game of the season

amazing first season

watching o'niell

club brugge have used a partial press to cut out passing lanes and get the game bogged down in midfield. Standard liege's full backs are outmatched and could not go around the using the width of the field. They then tried passes over the top to spread the team out, but brugge's off side trap was pretty organized. So Brugge has effectively shut standard leige out of the match

About 15 minutes in, O'niell broke their lines through the middle twice in about 5 minutes with progressive carries. After 25 minutes, the other cdm followed suit and dribbled through his lines. They managed 6 forays into the attacking zone in the half with o'niell's progressive carries responsible for 3 of them. Standard liege finished the 1st half the stronger, generating most of the their chances. The other cdm is a much better dribbler than o'niell, but O'niell was great at picking his moments by glancing frequently over his shoulder before receiving the ball (this is a big difference between the top leagues and the a league, how often players glance before receiving the ball. A lot of our players don't have a look until they recieve)

great footy iq from o'niell to solve problems on the field.

I have to say I think the juliper league is slightly higher quality than the eredivisie. Maybe the 7th best league in europe after the big 5 and portrugal

O'niell also completed 27 passes in the first half. This is closer to his average in the a league (29 per half)

he has been well down on his touches and passes per game compared to the a league as he has found it much harder to find space against far more organized defences. Great that he has improved his movement off the ball. The socceroos will benefit a lot!

His game against Ecuador was amazing. Scholes like. Just kept the ball moving and was firm.

think we have a player in o'niell

fotmob also rates him roughly equal best player with the columbian internation and cdm partner alzate just pipping for best standard leige player (they definitely were their best in a losing squad)

O'niell, mcgree, irvine, metcalfe, luongo, baccus, hrustic (assuming he gets a loan) and robertson will be tough to cram into the asian cup squad. If o'niell keeps this up, you would think he would be one of the first picked though since we don't really have another specialist number 6

Things that are great:

Connor and Jackson doing great at st Paul both starting 

Luongo capturing form and scoring 

Ange drawing at the Etihad

Hearts are third place with the Aussie lads doing well 

Negatives:
strain getting injured 

Vikings falling off a cliff after coming first at one point and two aussies injured 

Kuol's getting spanked 

Yengi and Robertson also started in their 3-0 win. Yengi with the full 90... whens the last time we had a striker starting at this level? 

Their main striker is injured

that's usually how people get into squads and make their mark.

Absolutely delusional if you think Arzani is getting picked for Australia. Also Metcalfe has been awful as a winger for Australia, he's much better in midfield. Deng is garbage, always fails with the Socceroos, got hooked and never came back on at the world cup. Luongo isn't a creative attacking forward. How did you come up with this? Safe from cheap mistakes? Have you watched Arzani?

Deng only had 1 bad game against Ecuador who are physically and technically  stronger than 95% of teams in Asian cup. He played very well  as LB especially defensively in Olympics qualified under Arnie , He was the main reason why the young Socceroos qualified for Tokyo Olympics. 

Maybe your memory only remembered the Ecuador game without following him in the J league.  The level of Japanese players in J league and a fantastic first touch, pass and move is out of this world. You don't see many silly turnovers like in A league. Deng basic football and vision is up to the high standard in J league for Alberex Nigata. If we have better options for LB yes.  I know for sure Deng got much better skills than Miller and defend much better than Atkinson.  

You keep going on about Miller being a bad player. I think you're forgetting that he was Man of the Match against Bangladesh. He's also been close to Hibs best player this season, with 3 or 4 SPFL Team of the Week selections. He also played well against England on debut & against NZ. He probably wouldn't have played against Palestine, but Strain got injured early. He played a lot of football in a short period of time leading up to the Bangladesh game and played 90 mins 4 days before that game on the other side of the world, to then fly to the other side of the world to play against Palestine way earlier than expected. As I've said before, no one played particularly well against Palestine & we came away with a win in the end. With Strain out, he's easily our best option at RB for the Asian Cup. 

Metcalfe and Irvine starting in cup. 

not good enough for the socceroos imo.

If Fornaroli gets picked for Roos, Arzani has a chance cos he is providing some good service for Fornaroli to score

I'd rather Arzani than Leckie. Arzani can at least create something. The world cup heroics from Leckie and Behich shouldn't warrant automatic Asian Cup selection anymore.

I find it interesting that Iredale isn't even mentioned in media or social media circles despite being in the same league as Irvine and Metcalfe and higher than League 1. We get these hype reports of blokes who get invited for a German trial or are in the 4th tier but someone in the second division is just unknown.

Ok that's your opinion. So who is the best option at RB then?

id take deng or geria over miller

Tilio and Jeggo bench with Boyle and Miller starting. Baccus bench. Atkinson returns to start against Rangers while Rowles and Nieuwenhof start too. Devlin listed as injured

Atkinson returning and straight into the starting line-up vs Rangers is huge. 

Atkinson returning and tillio bench is great news. Wonder who wins out of atkinson and miller for a roos spot

i tend to think of atkinson as the more technical option but he had that heavy touch vs france

how do others see the three way battle for rb?

It wasn't that long ago Atkinson was bossing players off the ball and running around defenders at the Olympics. This was against apparent good opponents. I think Atkinson is a shoe in as he's been on the scene longer. I wouldn't mind testing an adaptable system of a back 3 with Atkinson and Bos as wingbacks but this will force us to sacrifice talent elsewhere. 

Back 4 then Bos at LW

    Atkinson Souttar Burgess Rowles
                                                        Bos

When needed shift to back 3 with Atkinson and Bos as wingbacks and skilful wingers go more central
                Souttar Burgess Rowles
Atkinson                                           Bos
                 O'Neill Luongo
                     Metcalfe
                McGree   Boyle 

We may as well try to put some of our better finishers up top and play the ball on the floor more. St Pauli employ something similar only using height in their massive back 3 and Irvine. The rest are nimble with a killer blow. Something I wouldn't mind trying as soon as we secure a spot in the next round. Irvine and Goodwin fit well too.
      

Circati starting vs Fiorentina in the cup and they're in dreamland leading 2:0 after 23mins

I think they'll both get picked and Strain will miss. That's not how I'd go, Strain would be my first choice, but I think it's how Arnold will go. I'd go with Strain and Miller. 

Low cross comes in and Circati with a long leg lunge forward but his arm is out too and the ball hits it. Penalty. At a glance it seems just outside and VAR confirms it was outside.

I think Strain's injury rules him out. Groins are tricky. Had we converted Leckie I'D have gone Strain and Leckie in reserve. I'm annoyed we look to be going with the older guard one more time when dropping Leckie and Behich can allow us to add some talent in other areas with Rowles covering left back emergencies.

Tillio with half an hour

xg 0.06 xgot0.24
xa:0.17

pretty decent for a short cameo. He was quite conservative, perhaps nervous, his first half dozen touches were recycling possession before he tried anything