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World Cup Qualification Thread for 2026 - Socceroos/Asia

grazorblade said:
One factor to take into account is conditioning

Poppa has spoken a lot about it

I suspect if two players are similar quality, but one is based in Europe and only slightly better, he will select a player in our timezone
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The only thing that makes sense is that this has to clearly be one of the highest factors in Popa's squad selection.
 
grazorblade said:
One factor to take into account is conditioning

Poppa has spoken a lot about it

I suspect if two players are similar quality, but one is based in Europe and only slightly better, he will select a player in our timezone
Click to expand...
The "slightly better" is very much down to interpretation.

Anyone who thinks Balard only "slightly better" than Teague or Nisbet "slightly better" than Caceres or Toure "slightly better" than Taggart or ANYONE "slightly better" than Irankunda does not have a fucking clue.

Popa is either picking his favourites or pinching pennies for the FA.

This is very far from our best team.
 
Quicky said:
Jedinak is better. I'd have him in our best XI of all time.
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Ahead of grella? You wouldn't be able to play both of them in the same xi without unbalancing the team, unless u are parking the bus

Jedi has some advantages over irvine but also some disadvantages - he was less mobile and less creative than Irvine (Irvine has a very strange profile being very creative for a technically poor player.)
 
Mr Cleansheets said:
The "slightly better" is very much down to interpretation.

Anyone who thinks Balard only "slightly better" than Teague or Nisbet "slightly better" than Caceres or Toure "slightly better" than Taggart or ANYONE "slightly better" than Irankunda does not have a fucking clue.

Popa is either picking his favourites or pinching pennies for the FA.

This is very far from our best team.
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or he deems that picking our absolute 100% best XI on paper would terminally impact our performance due to above.

I don't agree with it but I'm clutching at straws with trying to make sense of Popa's mind.
 
grazorblade said:
Ahead of grella? You wouldn't be able to play both of them in the same xi without unbalancing the team, unless u are parking the bus

Jedi has some advantages over irvine but also some disadvantages - he was less mobile and less creative than Irvine (Irvine has a very strange profile being very creative for a technically poor player.)
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Interesting question.

I'd say Grella was a superior technician but Jedinak had a bigger impact on the team.

Hard to fit them both in... horses for courses?
 
onedaywinners... said:
The only thing that makes sense is that this has to clearly be one of the highest factors in Popa's squad selection.
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I wonder if the experience of how we beat uruguay by having better conditioning has really shaped his thinking. In that case, due to travel arrangements, we got over the line
 
grazorblade said:
Ahead of grella? You wouldn't be able to play both of them in the same xi without unbalancing the team, unless u are parking the bus

Jedi has some advantages over irvine but also some disadvantages - he was less mobile and less creative than Irvine (Irvine has a very strange profile being very creative for a technically poor player.)
Click to expand...
Ahead of Grella.
 
grazorblade said:
Ahead of grella? You wouldn't be able to play both of them in the same xi without unbalancing the team, unless u are parking the bus

Jedi has some advantages over irvine but also some disadvantages - he was less mobile and less creative than Irvine (Irvine has a very strange profile being very creative for a technically poor player.)
Click to expand...
I do love the call of Jedinak being in the all time XI.

I think I'd maybe even have him in the XI as Captain....yep think I would.
 
Mr Cleansheets said:
Interesting question.

I'd say Grella was a superior technician but Jedinak had a bigger impact on the team.

Hard to fit them both in... horses for courses?
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Chalk and cheese for club success in my opinion
Grella had 6 seasons where he played 25+ games in the big 5 whereas jedi had just 2 seasons


Grella had almost as much defensive starch as jedi but would also had the technique to keep the ball and start attacks which is a much more valuable profile. He is a bit like triantis and okon Jr
 
onedaywinners... said:
or he deems that picking our absolute 100% best XI on paper would terminally impact our performance due to above.

I don't agree with it but I'm clutching at straws with trying to make sense of Popa's mind.
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Shame our pod had tech issues this week

In between rants and frustrations about the squad, I do think I can reconstruct his thinking
 
Didn't Jedi have several seasons in the EPL for both Crystal Palace and Aston Villa?

Don't think Grella was captain for a Serie A team, was he?
 
Australian U-23s Head Coach, Tony Vidmar has been required to make changes to his squad for the upcoming Doha International U-23 Cup.

Anthony Pavlesic, Jed Drew and Sebastian Esposito all come in, replacing Patrick Beach, Kasey Bos and Mohamed Toure.
 
This explains Beach's training with Glover. Izzo must have arrived Tuesday morning at least.
 
Mr Cleansheets said:
Didn't Jedi have several seasons in the EPL for both Crystal Palace and Aston Villa?

Don't think Grella was captain for a Serie A team, was he?
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Their wiki pages show jedi having 2 25+game seasons
en.m.wikipedia.org

Mile Jedinak - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

Grellahad 6
en.m.wikipedia.org

Vince Grella - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

This was despite grella being more injury prone and having a shorter career where he decline quickly around 30 (more common back then, sports science has improved)
 
Copenhagen aside, the rest of Denmark even with airports are a pain to get out of quickly. Their matches are late Sunday and maybe don't have a good flight to connect to go further until afternoon the following day.

Toure most likely with a knock. Izzo really in much later due to schedules.
 
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