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World Cup Qualification Thread for 2026 - Socceroos/Asia

Quicky said:
I'm critical of Duke and his selection but he offers qualities our other strikers don't quite match. He's our best header, our best presser and his best is in big games. At the very least a useful squad player as he's a bit different to other options
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Duke is still the best option if we play with a lone striker unsupported and the 3-4-3 reverts to a 5-2-2-1 or a 5-4-1, although at his age he may not be for much longer. It's past time some of our younger strikers learnt how to play in a system like this.
 
Cunningstunt said:
It is for the same reasons he went to Ross county and now the Dutch second division. You can't blame Popa when the rest of the football world has the same opinion.
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You can when you realise the Johny Warren Medalist wasnt picked up off some preconceived notion of the expected physical traits of a decent footballer.

This is not a comparison in anyway, But Maradona was only an inch taller, could you image a coach turning to Maradona and saying, you are the best I've ever seen, you're just not 6'2". That's just stupid.

Nisbet is by far one of the best transition players Australia has ever produced, and all you're thinking is the Socceroos are like the fucken Big Beasty and require a height restriction.

Fuck me!!!
 
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Alex M said:
Duke is still the best option if we play with a lone striker unsupported and the 3-4-3 reverts to a 5-2-2-1 or a 5-4-1, although at his age he may not be for much longer. It's past time some of our younger strikers learnt how to play in a system like this.
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As long as hes got legs play him, but keep the youth nipping at his heels (Taggart isn't youth, no matter how much Popa pushes it) keep him hungry for it
 
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Cunningstunt said:
I hope so. I like him. But talking about Popa being bitter is just a cope
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So why not give Ballard a team spot? what does it prove leaving him out of the team for....Okon's kid?

C#@ts selecting on what basis? The player didn't shit on his team?
 
huddo said:
You can when you realise the Johny warren medalist wasnt picked up of some preconceived notion of the expected physical traits of a decent footballer.

This is not a comparison in anyway, But Maradona was only an inch taller, could you image a coach turning to Maradona and saying, you are the best I've ever seen, you're just not 6'2". That's just stupid.

Nisbet is by far one of the best transition players Australia has ever produced, and all you're thinking is the Socceroos are like the fucken Big Beasty and require a height restriction.

Fuck me!!!
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Unfortunately I think the height issue does enter into a lot of coaches thinking. You can argue that it shouldn’t, but I’m sure it does.

One other thing to consider is that while Nisbet might only be an inch or two shorter than Maradona, in the 30-40 years since Maradona played I suspect the average height of a professional footballer has increased by 3 inches. So Nisbet’s height versus his contemporaries compared to Maradona’s height versus his contemporaries, means Nisbet appears 4-5 inches shorter than Maradona in relation to other players at the time.

Also, to state the obvious, while Nisbet is a serviceable player he is obviously nowhere close to Maradona.
 
Mr Cleansheets said:
And as he has done all his career, Nizz will again prove the doubters wrong.
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I've been pleased with the Popa tenure to date, but disappointed Niz has been overlooked for the Roos.

I wonder if he would have been better served staying at CCM? He was a big loss to their playing cattle. Ballard has done very well in the Eredivisie, but I thought at the time Niz was the better player for CCM in the year they won.

In one of his last games for the Roos, or the last, I thought Nisbet was starting to find his feet.
 
Decentric said:
I've been pleased with the Popa tenure to date, but disappointed Niz has been overlooked for the Roos.

I wonder if he would have been better served staying at CCM? He was a big loss to their playing cattle. Ballard has done very well in the Eredivisie, but I thought at the time Niz was the better player for CCM in the year they won.

In one of his last games for the Roos, or the last, I thought Nisbet was starting to find his feet.
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Popa has done a great job with the national team, and he has done well in many of his coaching roles, especially with the Western Sydney Wanderers where he had to start from scratch. As a player Popa wasn't flash, but he was solid and reliable.
 
I think Nisbet has suffered from our player agents' focus being mostly on Britain. I'd say Britain is the area in Europe where physicality matters most. If agents had developed more contacts on the continent then I think Nisbet would have found a decent option, as opposed to Ross County. In agents' defence, it ia also possible the players are insisting on Britain, as Luong once did.
 
SR1968 said:
Popa has done a great job with the national team, and he has done well in many of his coaching roles, especially with the Western Sydney Wanderers where he had to start from scratch. As a player Popa wasn't flash, but he was solid and reliable.
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??? This is a pretty hard view to understand.

Popa played in english top tier for 90 odd games, I think he's flash enough.

As for doing a great job. Would you say Tony G did a great job? Because he hits the short term targets, just ignored half his job. I.e squad regeneration.
 
Keeper66 said:
Unfortunately I think the height issue does enter into a lot of coaches thinking. You can argue that it shouldn’t, but I’m sure it does.

One other thing to consider is that while Nisbet might only be an inch or two shorter than Maradona, in the 30-40 years since Maradona played I suspect the average height of a professional footballer has increased by 3 inches. So Nisbet’s height versus his contemporaries compared to Maradona’s height versus his contemporaries, means Nisbet appears 4-5 inches shorter than Maradona in relation to other players at the time.

Also, to state the obvious, while Nisbet is a serviceable player he is obviously nowhere close to Maradona.
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Years ago in the old FFA coaching system pre Guus, Kelly Cross, held a seminar on:
1.Man marking trend in World Youth Tournaments.
2. Height of players from nations playing in them.

The average height of South American teams was really short - something like 1.74 metres, compared to many UEFA teams being 1.83 - 1.86 metres average.

I think Argentina won the comp, but it showed height wasn't a decisive factor in results. Apart from the much shorter Spanish teams when they won the WC and Euro Champs in about 2008 - 2012 and the Portuguese national team, I think a fault of many European teams is too much height.

Maradona and Messi are incredibly nimble - and - are shorter players. Nisbet and these two greats tend to have quicker turning and better mobility than taller payers.

Xavi Hernandez and Iniesta were shorties too.

In Aus Jordi Valadon and Rhys Youlley, classy young midfielders, both superb technicians on the ball are shorties too.

In the TWG or 442 a poster posted an article in circa 2007 about the American obsession , and Australia's, of producing football athletes over football players. In the early days of the A League, SBS had weekly match of the weeks from Argentina. Their players were small and puny compared to the relatively huge Aussie AL players on average!

The new NC and changed methodology in Aus has had state TDs ram down the criteria used for selecting young underage rep players, is technical proficiency - not the big strong athletic prowess of paramount importance pre 2006.

It is only top teams like Argentina, Brazil, Portugal and the Spain of 10 years ago ( have not seen them much since), who have the quality to expose the overly big cumbersome UEFA teams.

Even watching the Italian teams in their Cup, there are too many big, tall players in most teams I've seen.

I feel bad about denigrating Scotland's lack of football technique and tactics, because it is one of my favourite countries to visit, but to their credit they have a few shorties in their teams. However, they are usually very strongly built.

I think it is a good attribute in Aus that shorter technical players like Nisbet, Valadon, Youlley, Segecic ( not that tall), can flourish in a new, different era in football.

Getting back to Kelly Cross's presentation, he claimed the South American coaches said they just didn't have lots of tall players in those countries. They often had a tall keeper, two tall CBs and sometimes one tall target striker in a team and that was about it!
 
Guarantee if Nisbet went to the Championship he'd stand out immediately as the little guy losing his marker and threading the ball about. The only way he'd look weak is if he were given a hospital pass or a ball dropped next to a big monster. Little guys should have a shield partner in support so they can thrive on their own game.
 
dr. bellows said:
I think Nisbet has suffered from our player agents' focus being mostly on Britain. I'd say Britain is the area in Europe where physicality matters most. If agents had developed more contacts on the continent then I think Nisbet would have found a decent option, as opposed to Ross County. In agents' defence, it ia also possible the players are insisting on Britain, as Luong once did.
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Some good points made, Dr B.

Although some continental national teams are rather big too. However, in leagues like Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Portugal, the other four of the Big Five leagues, technique is paramount.
 
Keeper66 said:
Unfortunately I think the height issue does enter into a lot of coaches thinking. You can argue that it shouldn’t, but I’m sure it does.

One other thing to consider is that while Nisbet might only be an inch or two shorter than Maradona, in the 30-40 years since Maradona played I suspect the average height of a professional footballer has increased by 3 inches. So Nisbet’s height versus his contemporaries compared to Maradona’s height versus his contemporaries, means Nisbet appears 4-5 inches shorter than Maradona in relation to other players at the time.

Also, to state the obvious, while Nisbet is a serviceable player he is obviously nowhere close to Maradona.
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Messi is 5'7". And like I've said it's not a comparison, but you are now validating the idea that if Maradona was born 20 years ago, it would be acceptable to ignore his talent because the thing that makes him so gifted (his low centre of gravity that assisted his control) isnt what coaches are looking for.

Your a Brissie boy, believe it or not the reason he didn't end up at Brisbane was height, it worked out in Mariners favor, but would you still be talking this way if he was a Roar player?

The other thing that pisses me off with how they've dealt with Nizzy, he's done it with little national team assistance. For some players they may find it easy to find a team OS because they are with the limits of what a team scouts for. We needed to show belief in Nizzy, and he played less then 90 minutes in the shop window. But we have O'Neill nailing it holding a spot? Why?
 
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I’m certainly not disputing that shorter players are not as good as taller players. The fact is though that Nisbet is super-short, and I suspect that is a factor in a lot of coaches thinking.
As an example, Decentric quoted Valadon as an example of a short player. Wikipedia has Valadon as 1.77 m tall, and Nisbet as 1.60 m. That’s a difference of 17 cm, or nearly 7 inches.

I’m not denigrating Nisbet’s ability or his potential to be in the national team. All I am saying is that I suspect height has been a factor throughout his career, and probably still is. His career moves show that to be the case.
 
SR1968 said:
Popa has done a great job with the national team, and he has done well in many of his coaching roles, especially with the Western Sydney Wanderers where he had to start from scratch. As a player Popa wasn't flash, but he was solid and reliable.
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A few posters have said they are really buzzing and ecstatic about the WCQ for the 6th successive time.

I'm the same. After two Arnie lead Roo games, I thought we were gone! There are only 11 football nations who have qualified for 6 WCs in succession. Nearly all the others are powerhouses!

*However, reading some of our fellow posters' comments, it is like they are annoyed some of their less favoured Socceroos were selected and did the job efficiently.

*They are annoyed Aus qualified without their favourite players outside the squad included.

* They have lists of players they define as 'good' and others 'bad'. When one uses heaps of of football specific performance criteria to evaluate players, most have strengths and weaknesses, and there isn't much difference in the overall product - with very fine margins at play.

*It is no different in the past. Brett Holman was hated by fans until he scored a few goals.
Jade North was hated too. Leckie and Kruse, both who struggled to score goals, were also hated by fans.
ATM it doesn't seem to matter what poor Duke, Metcalfe, Behich, and now possibly O'Neill and Ryan, do, their detractors can't see any good qualities.
Surely pro coaches like Arnie and Popa have undertaken high level coach education and developed insights the general public haven't? Albeit, I can't get over Arnie not selecting Geria as RB, whilst selecting Geraint Jones.

* It seems some don't like the Poparoos qualifying with him using so many AL players.

*Another member posted an article here where it repeats Duke stating it will be nice to get some keyboard warriors off his back. Poor bloke should be lauded - like Metcalfe.

This has been the Socceroos' greatest turnaround in WCQ history. All fans should be ecstatic!
 
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