O'Neill & Jones starting as well. Another 90 mins for Circati & another win for Parma - now 6 points ahead at the top of Serie B. Ipswich keep dropping points - now down to 4th with Southampton sitting in the promotion zone. St Pauli lost, but still doing ok at the top of the table. 

O'Neil gives Liege the lead. 

30 yard piledriver

Ive been surprised baccus is preferred to oniel for the roos when oniel plays a higher level

Makes me wonder if baccus can play at a higher level

AMB bench as Isted is finally back. I wouldn't be surprised if he moved in summer as Isted is preferred. 

Bos starting 

Silvera late goal down 2:1 still. 

Silvera scores!

Belgium is almost as dun as watching the big 5. Been amazed st the standard compared to when ruka played there (when i last watched)

Goodness gracious this performance by bos against a team miles on top of the juliper league....
Westerlo better hope scouts arent watching...

I only started watching osaussies in around 2009 so i never saw the golden gen at their peak, but this is honestly the most dominant performance ive seen from an aussie since 09.
Just dribbling past players for fun, beat two players and ran the length of the field through the entire team only to pass it to someone  who ripped over

Perfectly weighted through balls, runs in behind where he will give a sublime first touch in a curl a cross to a players feet in a crowded box

Fotmob only giving him a score of 6.5 so perhaps ive missed some flaws in his defensive game, but his offensive game this game is phenomenal

Volpato not in squad, huh

Injured? Rested? 

Pen westerlo in an away game against the league leaders! 

Hrustic starting

Westerlo celebrate the draw like they qualified for the world cup when the full time whistle blows

This is against a team that would do well in the epl

https://x.com/MaProLeague/status/1756338844088111132?t=NQxwByPb8hWHvlhEsu-yZg&s=09

O'Neill goal. What a hit! 

Great reading and that crucial late point against a top team, the top team!

Geez it's just how good our players are at clubs compared to together in the national team. It's a combination of their club team mates being very good but I lament Arnold's system isn't getting the best out of the attacking instinct they have at club level. I think many players come into the national team and see it goes against their instinct and we see the rabble once they're all thrown together. 

Mat ryan starting, forgot to mention

https://www.google.com/amp/s/football-italia.net/serie-a-week-24-team-news-suspended-and-injured-players/amp/

Volpato injured

To be fair we dont know what system arnie would have if we had a front 4 adept against a deep block or a back 6 confident against a manic press.

Volpato, robertson, bos, mat ryan and circati all have the technique to change to a more proactive style at a high level if they all declare for us. There is a lot of talent in the youth so hoping some others poke their nose through. We just need a few more players capable of a technical game at a high level...

Bos isnt yet trusted at left back for arnie. He plays there for westerlo but is still a bit raw in defence. If he can iron out his defensive flaws, or covert to a winger and improve his shooting he could play not just in the big 5 but for a top team imo

What makes you think the Belgian league is a higher level than the SPL?
The leagues are ranked within two places of each other in the latest European rankings.

mind you, I just watched a documentary on les murray

he talked about the importance of playing the game beautifully, because then more people in oz would love it get involved and we would get better in the long term

I wonder if Pim's pragmatism killed the momentum football was building in Australia after the 06 campaign? Perhaps it is worth turning on the style even if its a bit riskier given our qualifying path is easier....

Uefa rankings are a bit deceptive because it really tests the quality of your top teams rather than the league as a whole and is also too sensitive to short term fluctuations like fifa rankings

the elo of the top scottish teams are around 1650 then there is a big drop with the average of the next ten 1296. The league as a whole has an average elo of 1350 which is similar to the norwegian, swedish and greek leagues

Belgium have 6 teams above 1600 and the elo of the league has an average of 1523, nearly 200 points above scotland which makes it almost a division above them, despite celtic and rangers being similar quality to the top six in belgium. So there is actually a pretty sizeable gap.

On top of what the data says, I watch about 3 spl matches and 2 juliper league matches a week and there is a pretty big gulf in my view, though I'm not a pro so of course that is a subjective opinion. 

just checked club elo - belgium are ahead in elo compared to the eredivisie and portrugal. Amazing! 
Still behind france. That is roughly in line with what I see, the only games I've seen involving aussies that are comparable in quality to games with Genreau in it this season were top of the table clashes involving st pauli or ipswich v leicester

Yeah good to see Bos translating his Melbourne City form and expertise in Europe so seemingly. Hope Ange is watching. 
Not sure the basis of Fotmob's criteria but yeah I've found it to have some strange ratings in the pass that I haven't agreed with. 

Don't think it's anything too serious, might just be a "injured" rest situation. 

Hope so. It's been interesting watching circati rested constantly. 3 games starting then 1 to 2 games off. Wonder if we need to manage young players like that to prevent what happened to robertson?

Yeah it says he did only 6 dribbles and only completed 4 of them, reckon he did a lot more than that.

Fotmob is good at catching defensive actions and their algorithm rewards good defense, its easy to miss things like that live so they might be accurate

They probably have staff collecting stats so their might be human error, tho that should average out over the course of a season

Shame you cant get creditted with assisting an own goal but in any case heracles take the lead

Decent hit out so far for hrustic, but there are some cobwebs, he gave the ball away in their half and it nearly resulted in a goal

We're is he playing now ?.

Interesting fact but the time when FFA were going full dutch with the coaches apparently the likes of Advocaat and Van Gaal they were close options before Verbeek, I like to think they would have played a different brand of football especially someone like Van Gaal who comes from the classic Ajax style.

Hrustic 81 minutes in a 3-2 win.