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World Cup Qualification Thread for 2026 - Socceroos/Asia

Davidson is already in Australia and was having his photo taken in the new kit with the other arrivals.
 
JS96 said:
I guess most coaches do but I think Arnold and Popovic absolutely hate being told what to do or being shown to be wrong.

These silly selections risk a big riff amongst the group. You've got to remember the older guard are there as part of a leadership group which automatically sees them selected. Leadership groups are important but also problematic that there is a sense of immunity.
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One has to determine the football knowledge of those asking professional coaches questions?

Have they undertaken professional coach education, coached professionally?

They might be frustrated with the lack of knowledge of those asking inappropriate questions?

Most football journos have little insight into professional coaching.
 
Decentric said:
One has to determine the football knowledge of those asking professional coaches questions?

Have they undertaken professional coach education, coached professionally?

They might be frustrated with the lack of knowledge of those asking inappropriate questions?

Most football journos have little insight into professional coaching.
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Why is it important to determine the football knowledge of journos?

As you say, most football journos may have little insight into professional coaching. In the same way that most professional coaches may have little insight into professional journalism.

Journalists should be there to ask questions and write about issues which are of interest to the general football public, which includes professional coaches but overwhelmingly comprises fans who aren’t professional coaches. A journalist doesn’t need to have undertaken professional coach education to do this successfully.

If the coaches are frustrated with any questions, then that’s too bad. Dealing with journalist’s (and fan’s) question is part of the job, regardless of whether the coach likes the question or not.
 
Finding it very hard to motivate myself to watch these games. Between the poor style of football and the poor squad selection it's beginning to come a chore to watch.

How elder and Ballard aren't being selected especially is beyond me add to that irankunda and toure aswell. Yengi happy to have back but even then he's only been back a couple games starting only one of them. We also have chipperfield jnr and kalik playing each week in a position we need and getting assists at times aswell. It doesn't make sense
 
Decentric said:
One has to determine the football knowledge of those asking professional coaches questions?

Have they undertaken professional coach education, coached professionally?

They might be frustrated with the lack of knowledge of those asking inappropriate questions?

Most football journos have little insight into professional coaching.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, but there are plenty of professional coaches that have the training but have no football knowledge. You don't have to be Bielsa to realise when a team is missing creativity or is incorrectly weighted.
 
Decentric said:
One has to determine the football knowledge of those asking professional coaches questions?

Have they undertaken professional coach education, coached professionally?

They might be frustrated with the lack of knowledge of those asking inappropriate questions?

Most football journos have little insight into professional coaching.
Click to expand...
Plenty of poor journalists out there however we find ourselves yet again with the bleeding obvious issue. Our best players aren't being picked so we're left wondering. We had it under Ange with his stupid back 3 and one or two odd choices. Arnold got a lot of merit selection right but the Robertson, Irankunda, Circati, Volpato question kept him stubborn.

Popovic is now in a massive hole as we've got a lot of good form players being overlooked with inconsistent justifications.
 
hellas_johnny said:
Finding it very hard to motivate myself to watch these games. Between the poor style of football and the poor squad selection it's beginning to come a chore to watch.

How elder and Ballard aren't being selected especially is beyond me add to that irankunda and toure aswell. Yengi happy to have back but even then he's only been back a couple games starting only one of them. We also have chipperfield jnr and kalik playing each week in a position we need and getting assists at times aswell. It doesn't make sense
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Getting more concerned as it gets nearer. I Indonesia may snag a goal around 40 and then we panic.

Otherwise a long grind until around 70 then cracks appear for both teams and it's dramatic.

We must get an early goal.
 
Decentric said:
I'm pretty happy with the squad selected.

Even if he is difficult at training, or hard to coach, in terms of pure technique, flair and skill, Arzani is one of the greatest Aussies ever, bar none, in any era.

Recently I've started watching a lot of football in Scotland and Serie A. The style of football in the AL is far closer in style to Serie A ( Atalanta, Roma, Lazio, Inter, Empoli, Bologna) than Scotland (Dundee, Dundee United, Queen Of South, Hearts, Aberdeen, St Mirren).

The latter is a second ball league. The fact Hearts select Devlin over Nieuw, the latter having a better skill set for international football, says it all.

Haven't seen Triantis - yet. But will watch a Hibernian/Rangers game soon. He had one awful game as a CB for the Aus U 23s, where he was sent off.

Teague - is a solid selection. Far more talent and more complete skill set than most other older Aussie DMs, like Yazbek, Baccus, Devlin, Genreau, et al, but there is still better in the younger gen - his teammate Valadon ( still needs more games and experience), Aus u20s Paul Okon junior and Deli - and I think Thurgate is better this season.

Grant was an old fashioned CB, when with Glory. Not a ball distributor. He has apparently won and Asian Champ league title though. Impressive!

Surprised Irankunda isn't there.

Popa said Ballard was very unlucky, and only just missed out.
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I dunno where to start!!!

Arzani has plenty of potential, the problem is he's 26, and hasn't progressed from where he was as a 21 years old.whether it is injuries, or a lack of introspection, or just poor coaching, the bloke hasn't advanced as a player. So although he had a high potential he hasn't even come close.

Nieuwenhof and Devlin are completely different styles of DM, Devlin is more of a stopper that has a strong defensive presence, Nieuwenhof is a transitional player, comfortable with the ball at his feet. They both have their place.

Triantis is currently being used as a DM by Hibs, but was a defender at CCM. He's good, and he's getting better.

Teague's selection is jobs for the boys. He is nowhere near national team quality, especially not when you look at the DMs not in the team.

Alex Grant is 31.... Why the fuck is Popa continually debuting players in the later part of their career.

Popa kid ain't near the level, if he was selected it would be nepotism.
 
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huddo said:
I'm sorry, but there are plenty of professional coaches that have the training but have no football knowledge. You don't have to be Bielsa to realise when a team is missing creativity or is incorrectly weighted.
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What old mate decentric is trying to say is that if you have badges you're believable. No one else counts.

Decentric himself received a certificate of participation 15 years ago at the height of the knvb invasion. Presented by FA's top coaching educator, Kelly Cross, who failed dismally coaching at state league level.

Decentric paid a lot of money for his certificate of participation and is worthy of the validation he continually seeks.
 
Robbos said:
Where were the skillful teenagers 30-35 years ago.
I have watched Australian football since 1974 World cup.
I have seen only 2 truly skillful footballers. Kewell & Dukes.
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You don't regard players like Paul Okon, Ned Zelic and John Markovski as truly skilled? There are several others I could mention including a few that played with Viduka and Kewell (who I do regard as better than those others I mentioned).
 
JS96 said:
Arnold got a lot of merit selection right but the Robertson, Irankunda, Circati, Volpato question kept him stubborn.
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Arnold picked all 4 of those. Volpato knocked him back and Robertson after a couple of appearances has decided to keep his options open before irreversibly committing. I don't think he showed any stubbornness regarding their selections. I think he was quite willing to select them as needed.
 
Decentric said:
One has to determine the football knowledge of those asking professional coaches questions?

Have they undertaken professional coach education, coached professionally?

They might be frustrated with the lack of knowledge of those asking inappropriate questions?

Most football journos have little insight into professional coaching.
Click to expand...

That's elitism and gets used to point score and shut down debate. So if you don't have a coaches badge you can't understand what's happening and ask intelligent questions? It's nonsense.
 
Alex M said:
Arnold picked all 4 of those. Volpato knocked him back and Robertson after a couple of appearances has decided to keep his options open before irreversibly committing. I don't think he showed any stubbornness regarding their selections. I think he was quite willing to select them as needed.
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I didn't expect Arnold to wave a magic wand but he often deflected when asked about getting the players on board. As factual as it was his answers also were vague.

Circati worked out in the end but the slight delay was nerve wracking. The two we have would've been my priority and it would be great to get Robertson on board.

We're 14 months out from a potential world cup and picking a less than ideal squad. A lot can change but the time to get it into gear isn't exactly there.
 
Must be because of a conspiracy theory, jobs for the boys, can't handle being proved wrong, would rather be right than win the match. Couldn't possibly be a difference of opinion about best options among similarly talented players.

The path to getting selected for the socceroos is straightforward. Start week-in, week-out at a big club or in a big league. There are three doing this, Ryan, Irvine and Burgess (borderline starting). The rest of the spots are wide open.

Maybe Segecic was calling Talay saying he wanted to start every week, or Milanovic showing his jersey to Staj saying he should have started a huge match for WS, or Botic calling Aloisi to promise he will hit double digit goals more than once in his career. Because those are things they absolutely should be doing before trying to make a point about national team selection.
 
I honestly think we should win with that team. But it won't be as comfortable as it should be, and it won't be pretty.
 
Alex M said:
You don't regard players like Paul Okon, Ned Zelic and John Markovski as truly skilled? There are several others I could mention including a few that played with Viduka and Kewell (who I do regard as better than those others I mentioned).
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A stack of others from the peak days of the NSL.

Not the least, Paul Trimboli.
 
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