That's the problem the a-league faces and how it affects players and teams when competing overseas especially in Asia.

The a-league is a very heavy transitional league, with alot of big spaces and little emphasis on playing through the middle meanwhile the Asian style of game is very compact with little spaces given to midfielders and attackers which is maybe a reason why we struggle to break down deep block defences.

You can make an argument this happens in the NPL too where its not on the same technical or physical level but its also transitional based game.

Its something where the game needs a rethink thats for sure.

In some ways very different woes. Our seniors are mentally strong, tactically smart and can finish a high percent of chances (we get more goals than shots on target some games). This team has better first touch and handling speed but mentally seemed to struggle, were tactically naive and missed a lot of chances despite being great finishers in friendlies. The huge difference between our composure in friendlies and less meaningful tournaments and a meaningful tournament speaks to us being mentally fragile

Do u watch a lot of euro leagues? I would say that belgium, buli 2, eredivisie, swiss and norwegian leagues and there is about as much variety there as the a leagues with the exception of the relegation teams who defend for their life. I know those leagues because i watch about a dozen games of osaussies a week (my wife is a saint)

The only league i know where there is a lot of variety is the epl and i would argue that england and epl clubs if anything underperform. Homogeneity of style for the national team probably makes little difference either way but i suspect it is a net positive as it means players can adapt quicker to the national team since nt coaches dont have as much time with players as club coaches. Arnie and morgan was able to get better results in the u23 asian cup and they had club experience which i think makes all the difference.

I suspect a point of agreement between us tho is that p and r would help us improve against desperate defensive teams. How to get to p and r tho is anyones guess

Agreed. And then we face South American, European, African opposition each with its own set of challenges.... How can the national team (all levels) solve 10-20 vastly different problems in breaking through a defence or preventing an attack during a qualification campaign and or tournament,  all while ONLY using one set of guidelines? Its madness... madness....  

Trolls are are people that only appear to dig the boot in when there is a bad result and then disappear. You arent in this category since u are here every day. But i do think these posters should be banned. Would celtic forum allow randoms to come in an pile on every rangers loss and then disappear? It is a fan forum. Its not like these posters are giving some constructice feedback on what we should be doing to improve oz football

I agree with this but curious who it is aimed at since most of the regulars here, while gutted and frustrated, would rate indonesia. Some posters pointed them out as a danger team before the tournament due to their squad and coach

I can make it easier for u.

No player has an early career  of kewell, viduka or aloisi (tho toure is close to aloisi) tho it is hard to compare kewell since he never played nsl. If u remove those three players then the current youth are roughly equaling the early careers of rest of the golden gen and in some positions exceeding them. The attackers are getting better but still down from the benchmark of the golden gen. So we will produce a team better at building up play and equal in defence to the gg but there will still be a gap up top unless a player blooms late 

Grazor you highlighted my point amazingly well... 

"belgium, buli 2, eredivisie, swiss and norwegian leagues and there is about as much variety there as the a leagues with the exception of the relegation teams who defend for their life. I know those leagues because i watch about a dozen games of osaussies a week (my wife is a saint)"

Exactly right overseas Aussie do relatively well in these leagues because of the homogeneous nature of their playing formations/styles... and yes your wife must be a saint to let you watch that much footy you machine :P

I do watch a fair bit of Euro football, mainly Greek, Italian, some Bundi, and whatever else takes me fancy for the week... I flutter in and out of love with Spanish football every couple of years... dont ask... And I still stand by what I say, there is a massive variation in playing style between say Napoli and Sassuolo as there is between say Leverkusen and Borrusia...

Take a look at yesterdays highlights for an example of what Im trying to say both almost identical possession stats, same passes and accuracy almost same shots on target yet fairly different approach to both attack and defence wouldn't you say.?

https://www.google.com/search?q=bundesliga&sca_esv=369bb2d90aa2509e&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBAU863AU863&ei=_gwmZs67KsK2vr0Pnd6UuAk&ved=0ahUKEwjOsqXeodWFAxVCm68BHR0vBZcQ4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=bundesliga&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiCmJ1bmRlc2xpZ2EyCxAuGIAEGLEDGIMBMg0QABiABBixAxhDGIoFMgsQLhiABBixAxiDATIQEAAYgAQYsQMYQxiDARiKBTILEAAYgAQYsQMYgwEyCxAAGIAEGLEDGIMBMgUQABiABDILEAAYgAQYsQMYgwEyCxAuGIAEGLEDGIMBMgsQABiABBixAxiDATImEC4YgAQYsQMYgwEYlwUY3AQY3gQY4AQY9AMY8QMY9QMY9gPYAQFIhhpQAFiUEHAAeAGQAQCYAbkBoAH_C6oBBDAuMTC4AQPIAQD4AQGYAgqgAuUMwgILEC4YgAQYkQIYigXCAgsQABiABBiRAhiKBcICDhAuGIAEGLEDGIMBGIoFwgIaEC4YgAQYkQIYigUYlwUY3AQY3gQY4ATYAQHCAgoQABiABBhDGIoFwgIOEAAYgAQYsQMYgwEYigXCAgUQLhiABMICERAuGIAEGLEDGNEDGIMBGMcBwgImEC4YgAQYsQMYgwEYlwUY3AQY3gQY4AQY9AMY8QMY9QMY9gPYAQGYAwC6BgYIARABGBSSBwQwLjEwoAeYugE&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#sie=m;/g/11v1665h3y;2;/m/037169;dt;fp;1;;;

sorry about all the underlining above, cant get rid of it :(

https://www.ftbl.com.au/news/irankunda-omission-to-form-part-of-fas-olyroos-review-607266

Each style of country and confederation is different and challenging but this is where how we develop our players becomes very important, if the style of game here is not compatible when facing overseas especially in Asia then this will become a big problem into the future.

I don't think the individual level of our players are bad, but how they trained and taught are for me is very important I still dont understand why creativity and problem solving is not encouraged more and also not trusting young attackers especially playmakers and strikers in favour of older options don't help either.

Anyway I could go on but it seems we are clutching at straws trying to find the answers which feels disappointing...

True real madrid and barca are different but there is as much variety within that game as there is within the a league no? When we were at the last world cup we are still playing a similar style despite being a defensive team. In fact i would say if u compare oz at the world cup 2 years ago with ccm, macarthur and victory this season there is more variation on our mother style there than in that game or any of those leagues. 

In some ways im sympathetic to your point. As a fan i miss the early to mid 00s where we saw jogo bonito vs cattenacio vs total football vs english dross. However even the epl has been pepped and the championship and league one has gotten more homogenious each year ive watched. 

However, im skeptical of your diagnosis that homogeniety is the issue as we qualified last time with arnie. If arnie was coaching this time do u think we do better? 

Also, as stated in the ntc, we are following global football trends but those trends might change. However what probably wont change is the need for technical skillful players. The time frame to develop such players is 5-13. We dont learn 433 until after the skills aquisition phase. If football trends change then we can adjust quicker, but it takes 15-20 years from changing how u develop technique and seeing results from that. So what im saying is the homogeneity in style is defensible and anyway the least important part of the ntc.

The ntc tries to improve our technical developmemt but notes that we dont play football as many months a year as rival nations. You add to that having expensive youth fees, few professional pathways (nst will help), lack of experience playing against relegation battlers, a coach with zero club coaching experience and it all adds up

I think we did one thing better in this campaign - more friendlies over 12 months to battle harden the team. However i think coaching should come under the microscope. Morgan showed we probably dont need an arnie like figurw that dominates the a league to get to the final four, it is probably enough to hire a mile sterjovski or a tony popavic style figure who finishes 3rd or 4th in the a league. You dont need a world beater at olyroos level just a coach that has demonstrated competence at club level

Ah crap now my reply to mono is underlined :D sorry bud

Nowhere in the statement by FA does it mention any individual. You’re falling into the clickbait journalists trap.

It would be a silly review as well as even without irankunda we have a better team than last two times but a coach with no club experience

Calm down man. I just posted link to the article. Of course it will be a lame internal FA review that is never going to name names or point out FA’s own mistakes 

But you posted the link then added that Irankunda’s non selection would be the main issue.
It is only your opinion that FA will conduct anything other than a complete review of the system.
I realise that forums are just a way to project personal opinions but it should have a modicum of truth if it is to be taken seriously.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-13334309/Australia-Olympics-Olyroos-lashed-leaving-Bayern-Munich-signing-Nestory-Irankunda-goalless-Asian-Cup-campaign.html

We need foster and the world game back to put more heat on the coach. We just didnt have the cattle when ange played so the heat back then was unjustified. This time even the 2nd string squad we had should have done more

he's surely sacked? we cant get past Indonesia? time the scrap them all and start again. Rebuild the relationship with Irankunda.

That may be Foster’s opinion but it doesn’t address the misinformation that Irankunda’s omission will be the focus of the FA review.

Whatever mate. I’m guessing you’re either a teacher or law student that likes to nitpick other people’s tiny mistakes 👏

Are there more varieties in playing styles from the NPL? Do the teams with their strong identities and histories translate to different approaches on the pitch? If we get a NSD and P&R it's something I hope to see.

If the approach through the football pyramid (cough - if we ever get one) is homegenous that's good for continuity but shit for creating different environments where different players qualities/personalities will flourish. That's not a good thing imo. It'll limit who can succeed and there's enough barriers to that already.

I don't have a lot of faith in the FA making difficult decisions if only because changing may cost and take effort. I hope so though because this result is a balls up. 

I’m neither a teacher nor a law student but I do get pissed off with misinformation on social media that is taken as fact without a care for the truth.

The discourse seems again on social media that the players are the problem and not coach and overall preparation that goes with it should I be surprised though…

Not sure where FA will go from here with this, but if they were to appoint a new coach then it should be one that has Asian football experience, someone who can navigate the challenges of Asian football.

The players could be only good as the coaches who train them in under pressure tournaments.

Can I ask what difficult decisions FA have shirked that leads you to that conclusion?

I don't see that. Everybody is blaming the coach. The article released from Robbie Slater blaming "the lack of talent" is getting flamed by everybody. He is an old-head with tall-poppy syndrome. I imagine he didn't watch any of the games and is acting on his confirmation bias, not to mention he is one of the boys with Vidmar. 

I actually came here to say that I'm happy with the response from the public not blaming the players and the lack of talent. It's very evident we would have higher chances and with a bit of luck could qualify with a full-strength squad and also goes to show the importance some of these made-unavailable Euro players are to their respective clubs. It's no surprise the Euros that were selected like Youlley, Italiano, Kuol, Toure etc, don't play. Even though youthful Euro moves provide different challenges for the junior team availability, the Socceroos will reap the rewards in a lot of cases and that's the most important thing. We just need to attack junior teams from a different angle because it's a re-occurring problem and also need coaches that can utilise the talent available with an Asian tournament able system. 

There has been a narrative from Merrick that we don't have the players. I disagree with that. Our players were enough to qualify. Our coaching was poor. If you're looking at the wrong issue I doubt it'll be fixed. There isn't a lot of scrutiny on this. Easier and cheaper to keep the status quo.