Inside Sport

Best overseas leagues for Socceroos to play in - is it changing?


https://forum.insidesport.com.au/Topic3055503.aspx

By Decentric 2 - 12 Dec 2022 10:07 AM

With our thread on Aussies Abroad, there is an inherent  assumption that many leagues overseas are better for Socceroos to play in than the ALM.

There are some extremely knowledgeable posters on this forum who know a lot about where our Aus players play overseas football. I'm not one of them.

What has changed in this World Cup, is that with us reaching the last 16, no longer can accusations be levelled at the Socceroos, or Asia in general, for qualifying in a weak Confederation. Hence, denigrating our quality. Pertinently, we were only 5th ranked in Asia in the WCQ campaign.

Yet since we've qualified as 5th ranked Asian team, beating the UAE, we've:

 *Beaten the 5th ranked South American team in WCQs - Peru.

*We've beaten one of only 5 African nations to qualify for the WC - Tunisia.

*We've beaten the 10th ranked team in the world in the WC, Denmark, where quite a number of our players play football. Looking up Denmark, the three teams  our players have played for are the three best teams in Denmark, with one of them having significant Champ League/Europa league pedigree - FC Copenhagen.

*We've also pushed Argentina to the limit in the round fof 16.

The current problem is that many overseas leagues where our players play club football are usually playing with and against domestic players in those leagues who have no experience in international football. Or a failed experience in international football.

Many mid ranked UEFA leagues have teams who regularly  don't qualify for Euro Champs and World Cups. These are leagues that our club players play in. They are also often coached by coaches  who have no direct experience of international football and international football trends, depending on their  domestic football federations.

A few leagues where it might be better for the development of international players outside the European big four, who our players are rarely good  enough for,  supposedly, could be Croatia, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, the USA.

 I'm surmising they redress the phenomenon that is our major problem in Aus - the short 26 games home and  away season.   In ALM there are a few  Football Aus Cup games, and, at least  ACL games for one/ two clubs. Which is close to ideal if  a club is in the ACL.

With Croatia as a league, it is dominated by two big clubs, with European Champ League and Europa League pedigree - Dynamo Zagreb and Hadjuk Split. Croatia national team  comprises players  generally  from the UEFA big four, or they play for  Split and Zagreb. 

Of course, Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal are  desirable locations, if players can  gain a contract. These are constant solid performers in World Cups and Euro Champs. The also have  2-3 big clubs, who provide a lot of national team players, along with domestic players who play in the big four UEFA leagues.

I have not watched much English Championship  League  for a while, but there were  some awful hoofball, second ball teams in that league who played  football dross a few years back.  Which is useless to develop international players.

At the same time when I was watching the Eng Championship, there were an increasing number of teams who like  Coach Benitez, had teams playing quality possession football. The Championship is the 6th richest league in the world, but tactically, and in terms of style of football, it was generally  useless for developing  players who reach the last 16 teams of the  World  Cups.

Australia has achieved a lot  reaching the last 16 in Qatar.

Playing against  teams like Argentina, France and even Denmark in World Cups, and reaching the last 16 is a far higher standard that most players club  scenario  play against - even in the 6 big World Powerhouse leagues.

One issue is  that UEFA football prepares  players to play well in Europe. Many   UEFA national teams, highly ranked is world rankings,  choke playing in Asia, the Mid East,  Africa, or Asia. Despite our modest playing resources, Aus are able to produce a battle hardened football team used to playing  in countries with unfamiliar   cultural phenomena.

Maybe it is time to rethink where our Aussie players play overseas  club football to be the best players they can be at international level?

Is it time to give Scotland, Austria, Norway, Austria, Israel, Greece, Turkey,  and lately, Italy, plus any national second divisions,  the flick?
By Decentric 2 - 17 Dec 2022 10:36 AM

riquelmes_laces - 16 Dec 2022 11:15 AM
Decentric 2 - 16 Dec 2022 12:35 AM

I think you're conflating the performance of a National Team with its domestic league. 

France has a striker and its right-back playing in Serie A. Deschamps became a successful national team manager only after conquering the Serie A with Juve. 

Half of Argentina's front 1/3rd play in the Serie A and Parades whose performed well for Argentina this WC also plays there. 

You see what I did there? 

We can spin narratives any way we like. 

The fact is, we should want BOTH a strong domestic competition AND aspirations for our best graduates to move to one of the Big 5 leagues. 

There was a bit of tongue in cheek about  Italy, because axiomatically the  national team, The Azzurri, is considered to be a  world powerhouse. Also, the Serie A league is considered to be one of the big five in Europe.

From the data that Davide provided, and I found the extra numbers  to 10,  Serie A has provided 68 players for the Qatar WC, despite not having their national team playing in Qatar. If one added at least another  20 odd players from The Azzurri, Serie A would have more players than any other league outside the EPL, playing in Qatar. 

Until I saw that data, I thought maybe Serie A and The Azzuri, could both be declining relative to other leagues and football nations. The Azzurri could be, but Serie A probably isn't. They still recruit many foreign imports of high quality to Serie A. Many have played in Qatar for other countries outside Italy.