Really would have liked to have seen more of a shakeup of the squad with more 'yuff' added inc Kalik over Brattan, Toure over Duke, Farrell/Elder over Behich. 

Positives though include Luongo ending his retirement as well as Hrustic and Arzani being brought back in. 


My starting 11.. 

                               Gauci
               Souttar  Burgess Rowles 
Metcalfe       Irvine   Hrustic (mass later)   Bos 
         McGree                   Goodwin 
                       Irankunda     

nice side, unfortunately metcalf and massimo have a bit of a knock and have been replaced by yazbek and bratten. Its a shame we don't have karacic but miller or geriatric could do a job at wing back

If Geria is considered old at 31, what does that make Duke at 33 years old? 

Thursday night is gonna be a big nail bitter....  cross your fingers and toes boys and girls.... its not gonna be pretty. 

3 of China’s best players are out injured which may help 🤞

Hope you're right bud..... Ive just got a baaaaaaddd feeling about this..

Hope its just my usual pessimism and nothing else. 

haha being a Roo supporter has always been squeezing your butt cheeks for the 90mins, hope my hammys don't pop.

Lol autocomplete changed geria to geriatric and i didnt notice

To be fair that makes it more exciting

That’s one way looking at it Graz but post WC it’s been more frustrating and disappointing than exciting.

There was a chance for major regeneration (and the excitement that goes with that) but he's still picked a bunch of guys not good enough and left out several of the new breed (although maybe Robertson didn't want to be selected).

I think if we get a win against China it will be down to Irankunda and Goodwin.

We'll qualify because it's basically impossible not to and just be one of many teams making up the numbers 
But you never know we might uncover another wonder kid in the next 18 months 

If we don't bottle it that gives us 2-years to get our shit together. I think there's the bones of a good side. Our more exciting players will benefit from experience in that time. 

Thanks to Nic for putting together the potential intercontinental stage. If Australia end up in that deep shit, they should be ok as a seeded team. I won't be here to see it as it'll be the death of me. I actually find AFC round 4 potentially harder as a slip up makes it very hard to win the group.

• Fourth round: Six third and fourth-placed teams from the third round are divided into two groups of three teams each. The teams will play against each other once in a centralized venue. The winners of each group qualify for the World Cup, and the runners-up of each group advance to the fifth round.

A centralised venue? ME locked in. Watch Australia then draw Jordan and North Korea. Of course failing there you don't deserve the WC.

Role reversal this time is we are the hunter. We've normally been ahead so maybe there's a different type of pressure.

"another"????? 

Hopefully they make it like the Womens Asian/World Cup qualifying and the seeded (highest ranked) nation is the centralised venue. But I highly, highly, highly doubt that.

tony popovic said about robertson "my understanding is he is not eligible"

rumour is robertson has a passport issue

https://x.com/joeylynchy/status/1843918379440320749

FA apparently stepped in and said its just a paper work issue

So he is allowed to play in friendlies but not competitive?

not sure. Information is vague

It'd better be bloody true instead of some convenient fake excuse. Get it sorted.

i doubt the socceroos are good enough to pull off a back 3 system

Unless he accepted the call up too late & didn't leave enough time to nominate him for the squad with FIFA? I hope it's just an easy fix like that & he's good to go next camp 

Tim Ream shared what the first USMNT training camp has been like with Mauricio Pochettino 🗣️

Watch Ream’s comments: https://buff.ly/4eWfhvM

USA with similar issues to Australia of too many complacent bigger names and too much buckpassing. 

Agree with this... 

Robertson, Farrell, Bos, Irankunda, Circati, Volpato, Bennie, Hollman, Milanovic, Bennie, Toure should all really come on in that time 

Well it ended up being the exact formation I predicted. We played best with a back 5 under Arnold also 

What in the football manager is this? I missed him being coach at USA that's a crazy move 

England playing Foden and Palmer up top with Saka and Gordon on the wings. Maybe something for Australia to consider. Say McGree and Hrustic as an example. Lots of passing and movement.

I imagine England will be looking for Saka and Gordon at the far post or cutting back. 2 6's in midfield. 

Goodwin's roaming was an asset against China. Seeing him on the right shows preferred foot is less relevant when they're good at cutting in. 

Two Bennies are better than one.