Jedinak should be in the final 23, he has been getting heaps of game time and has been playing well.

cannot believe Brad Jones is our third goalkeeper. The guy makes way too many mistakes, regardless of his excellent shot-stopping ability, and its only been recently that he got back in the Middlesbrough first team. Everyone remember his one and only appearance for Australia? ugh
on the other hand is Galekovic, proven for Australia, played at a high level in the ACL and the keeper of the year for the past two seasons. So what if he plays a lower level than Brad, hes way more consistant.
and i would have taken Langerak as our 4th for the experience as he's clearly one for the future

As if he picked "butter fingers Jones" over Galekovic, not happy. Pim must really hate the A-league.

Bouzanis >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>daylight>>>>>>>>>>>Langerak

Sad that the two players that impressed the most on me in the HAL wasnt picked...

Durante and David Williams

On form you would have thought Eddy Bosnar, Sasa Ognenovski and Joel Griffiths should have made the cut

North? I thought fringe players were supposed to prove their mettle through regular game time at club level. Sucks for those that did put in the hard yards.

Love the Youtube video made available by russjb on the first blog page. Does not show off the ball work by Holman, but still i think the footage of Holman speaks for itself. Constantly screwing everything up through poor skill and lack of coordination. Classic! and apparently hes better than Sterjoski! give me a break!

Galekovic, Beauchamp, Garcia, Carle, Holland, Jedinak and Carney will be the ones to miss out. The last spot is up in the air.

Edited by afromanGT: 11/5/2010 11:22:22 PM

Everybody remembers Holman missing goals from good positions. Therefore he has been labelled profligate. There is some truth here.

What a lot of punters don't notice is his tremendous off the ball work rate. When Australia implements the full pressing game or squeezing, which disturbs opposition build ups high up the pitch, Holman is very effective individually, and, as part of the collective unit. He can sustain it for long periods.

Holman also creates effective offensive running, creating diagonal passing lanes for team mates. If he isn't passed to, he creates diversionary running, which can result in a grateful teammmate receiving the ball instead. Importantly, he has the ability to drag defenders out of position.

In the offensive and defensive transitions, he is is quick to get into position, to open a passing lane, or close a passing lane down.

Holman also creates sufficient pressure to cause turnovers for grateful team mates to receive the ball.

The team shape can remain more compact. This is because Holman can cover enough ground to bridge the gap between defence and attack. He is capable of keeping that ideal distancing of 10 to 15 metres between players. He links well with defence and attack.

Some remember some efforts when he fails to control the ball. Superficially this can appear as a poor first touch. What has occurred is that Holman often gets to balls few other Soccerooos would reach, given his pace and stamina.

Edited by Decentric: 11/5/2010 11:48:08 PM

I've been analysing matches for the Socceroos for a year and a half. Holman has a number of strengths. See the previous post.

Unfortunately, I've only got one Socceroo match up on Stattoz, but I've covered a lot of others with Holman in the team. I can see why coaches and team mates like working with him. He does a lot of the hard work to make others look good.

Edited by Decentric: 11/5/2010 11:55:04 PM

The biggest problem with Holman is that Verbeek treats him as undroppable. He's been capped more than any other player under Verbeek. And that's not right, even when he has a bad game he starts the next game. He's Australia's very own Lucas Leiva.

He moves really well, but doesn't use the ball well enough for the positions he gets himself in. If he had the technical ability to match his ability to read the play and run he'd be a truly dangerous player. But his passing is mediocre and makes Carle look like Xabi Alonso, and his finishing makes Robbie Fowler's embarrassing misses look almost forgivable.

His ability to work betwen the lines is useful, especailly when we're playing teams like Germany with very regimented ideas of how we're going to take to the pitch and where we need to zonally mark, but he's not going to have the technical ability to back that up. If anything he's trying to be too fast.

I'm not sure Holman has had a bad game in the last 18 months, apart from missing goals.

Often it can be a case of playing reasonably well individually, but failing to combine cohesively with team mates, and , playing as an integral unit as in a match plan.

Sterjovski has had a few bad games.

Kewell, Cahill, Coyne and Carney were shocking against Bahrain In Bahrain, when Bahrain should have won.

Kemp was shown up technically, but was okay defensively.

McDonald has been less clinical around goal than for his club.

Kennedy has struggled if defenders have matched him in the air.

Carle has sometimes struggled defensively.

Carney doesn't win enough one on one duels for a left back.

Kisnorbo has displayed inadequate technique with the ball at his feet.

Jedinak has been wrong footed too often in midfield. He could be an option at centre back.

I can't think of many other instances where players have made a plethora of mistakes.

No way will Jedinak miss out. He is now one of our best players. Went from playing for the Mariners and slotted straight into Turkey. Verbeek loves him because he plays defensive and Jedinak is good in defense while still being able to score. He might not be first XI but he has to be in the squad. Still can't believe North and Beauchamp made it ahead of Coyne, Colossimo, Spiranovic, but if Verbeek or his scouts have seen them then all then lets give them the benefit of the doubt.

Holman had an absolute shocker against Indonesia and was woeful against Japan, scarcely got a touch in the second half IIRC.

Carle just struggles full stop. But that's not much of an argument given that he hasn't turned out in the green and gold in almost three years.

Carney is a terrible left back, he can't handle his man and when he's got the ball he runs straight at his opponent for some strange reason.

But that's beside the point. Looking at other players and saying 'well they play badly too' is no defence for Holman's poorer showings. Especially players like Carle, Carney, Kisnorbo, Jedinak, etc who play bugger all games.

^ You are just plain exaggerating when it comes to Holman's appearances - from memory, when we have a full strength or near full strength squad, Holman rarely starts and is 'usually' more an impact sub for later in games. I'm not saying he hasn't started 'some' games for Australia, but for the most part, most of his caps have been substitute appearances coming on after the 60 minute mark or so.

And again, you are wrong that he's played for the Socceroos more than any other, over the qualification campaign - Schwarzer, Wilkshire and likely some others are those who have featured for the NT the most, over qualification.

Again, in our full strength line up, Holman is not a first XI player and is generally only an option off the bench.

And for a few of us who defend/don't attack Holman, it's not as if we aren't all mega fans of him either, but as a still relatively young player (25/26), playing with a top Eredivisie club, including Champions League football, VERY FEW Aussies in their early to mid 20s can claim that, including some of our very best. As has been said, Pim Verbeek, Ronald Koeman, Louis Van Gaal etc... can't be soo wrong. But even they would admit Holman is no world beater - he IS the kind of player he is, but he's still not out of place amongst our elite pool of talent, our NT squad, more so than a few others, who receive far less debate really.

And lol, like it or not, given his age, Holman will be amongst our NT's squad for a few years yet - He may even become one of our key players as a 30 year old veteran, come the 2014 World Cup campaign!

Since his debut in 2007, Holman has missed just 11 of Australia's 37 competative games. And of those, just three of the games he has missed has had a European XI on the pitch, two of those he was injured for.

He's made 16 of his 29 apps off the bench, granted but he's started seven out of twelve caps under Verbeek and missed just one european XI match. No other outfield player has a record that compares with this. Whether he's playing well or not, Holman makes it onto the pitch.

Pim Verbeek could be very wrong. He doesn't grasp the concept of attacking football. Van Gaal wasn't playing him, either for the record.

When Holman is 30 he'll still have his complete lack of technical ability, and he'll lose most of his pace that makes him semi-useful.

I counted 10 players who started in the A-League. Not a bad effort for a new competition.

It's a shame Burns didn't make the cut, but maybe for the Asian Cup.

You obviously know what your talking about. It’s very fashionable to bag Holman, the A League, big Arnie [although I agree with that one] etc.

Coaches who have forgotten more about Football than the arm chair knockers will ever know, rate him.

Ill listen to them thanks!

My thoughts as well.

In Brazil MOST of the 1st team will have played in the A League and thats why it has to be a success. Without a strong domestic league the Socceroos will always struggle.

Unfortunatly hundreds of thousands of Football supporters just don't get it!!

I think it was to more of an issue with his wages. I saw an interview with Aad De Mos at the time, the coach of Kavala. He categorically enunciated Moore was his best player at Kavala.

Because of this he was made captain by De Mos, but the club president sacked Moore.