this is by far the most ridiculous thing i have ever head. EPL is good but sorry England isn’t its simply a fact. Countries like brazil have far more talent that is hidden from the media spot light of europe. I hope Brazil thrash England to prove how wrong these assertions are.

Its not really stuff you can get right in pre-match camps. 4 weeks though is plenty of time to fix it and we will look like a different team – or more accurately we will look like we do when we play well, just a lot more often.

Terry is a great leader, but doesn’t have the techinque, I rate Carvello better than Terry at Chelsea.

I agree Ferdinand is up there with the likes of Vidic (though on current form Vidic better), Lucio, & Nesta.
For me Cannavro circa 06 was the best defender in the world we had seen for awhile, but in the Real Madrid years, not so good.

On a side note I’d rate Vidic (last season) as better than Terry and Ferdinand.

The end result is he hasn’t been playing lately.

As for Lucio, I have seen a lot of him at Bayern and while he is a good defender and good on the ball he isn’t as good as Ferdinand whom I think you’ve been particularly harsh on. Remember he has been playing with back injuries for the past 12 months and his form has only really dropped off in 2009 (admittedly, quite spectactularly), for the entirety of 2008 Ferdinand and Vidic were the undisputed best central pairing in world football.

I have seen a bit of Italian football (although I’m sure your knowledge in that area would dwarf mind) but I couldn’t come up with a better individual defender there either, in the most defensive league in the world. Serie A relies far more on team tactics than individual feats and Spain is hardly renowned for top defenders while Germany has fallen too far behind the pack to have any serious contenders.

I fail to see a real contender to the crown, particularly amongst the Brazilian ranks.

I agree entirely with you on the flexibility of 4-2-3-1. I actually love seeing that formation used by those with the ability to employ it successfully (think Liveprool with a spine of Alonso, Gerrard and Torres). Verbeek doesn’t like his full backs to bomb on continuously but when they go, they go hard. My gripe with the way Verbeek utilises it, and I’ve written about this before on here, is the way he employs his two holding midfielders. When one of them is allowed to push into the attack the Socceroos look much more convincing (think Netherlands last year, Ireland this year).

The other issue with the formation is we lack a player who can drift between the lines and exposes other formations. Kewell has some of that ability but I don’t think we get the best out of him when he’s pushed out wide.

I do, however, disagree about the pre-tournament camp changing things. Hiddink never had two years to work with the squad. That’s why he changed so much in such little time. Verbeek has had time to mold this squad and has failed to create an entirely cohesive unit. For this reason I doubt there will be any significant departures from the way the team is playing now.

However I couldn’t disagree more with your comment about Terry and Ferdinand. Firstly I wouldn’t make such a comment as I’ve probably seen less then 1% of all the Brazilian defenders that have played at a high level – making such a comparison impossible. However Rio’s form over the last 18 months has been poor to awful. I would take Lucio over him in a heartbeat. Terry is quite a decent defender but how easily he sold himself to Valencia in the first half on Sunday, by squaring up his positioning and allowing Valencia to fly past him, (Valencia should have been awarded a penalty) was an example of his fallibility. He’s a quality defender on most days but he really isn’t much better then most other defenders playing at the top level in Europe. Terry being the best defender in the world is a myth perpetuated by those who mainly watch English football.

Perhaps Verbeek should schedule a friendly against Samoa and let McDonald open his account, then the flood gates may open.

But Scotty isn’t the complete package either – this is our dilemma – we’ve known it and seen it coming for at least 18 months.

At least McDonald can hold but the defence like he did against ROI setting up Cahill

Id rather see Vidoic up front at least his skillful, can shoot and take free kicks.

If not Kewell should be our up front man his still got some pace and his by far the most skillful playerin the squade

Anyone who thinks Strjovski, Archie, Thompson or any A-league play for matter of fact should be our stricker god help us.
i got nothing against the HAL i follow it but anyone who knows anything about football can see the players get way to much space and the game is way to slow.
U put any HAL striker in there they will gt torn apart from not being quick enough in the WC.

We are a weaker side compared to 2006 but in 2006 we has a hard group followed but the eventual winners italy if fortune favors us will get NZ (if they qualify) and a out of form team like france or Protugal will top the group play a weak Asian or African team and make it to the final 8 im parying this happens but who knows

If you ever watch a replay of that Aust vs Uruguay game, you will be struck by how well Uruguay played in ET right up to the 120th, and how unlucky they were not to tie the game up (and thus avoid pens).

Our style of football under Guus wasn’t that great against Uruguay.

Lets face it if it was a boxing match. I would say Uruguay would have shaded on points over the two legs (we should have been at least two goals down after the first leg due to a penalty shout when Schwarzer tripped over recoba and the referee missed it. Uruguay had the better chances in extra time). We certainly didn’t play attractive football until the world cup after Guus had then in camp for a month.

I think the socceroos team at the world cup wouldn’t have needed extra time and penalties to beat Uruguay of 2005.

Not sure what leads you to that conclusion. Are you Verbeek’s agent?

The exclusion of Scotty Mac should not be too much of a surprise – although the term is no longer derigeur, all the dutch coaches look for an element of total football from their players. Scott is the least good at total-football amongst our top squad. He plays as a small forward in a big-n-small – or not at all. If we do play a big-n-small, he is down the pecking order of best options for the “small” behind people like Timmy, Bresc and Harry (who are also capable midfielders and can defend if needed – unlike Scotty) – possibly now Dario too.

Also, the 4231 is much more flexible than we give it credit for and it’s often overlooked that Pim’s preferred version of it utilises the fullbacks as wingbacks – so it’s not like everything is channeled through a static and crowed midfield. If the defenders defend high up the park, it becomes a 4-2-4 because everyone pushes on and plays short. When we break down the wing, it briefly becomes a 3-2-5. It’s not all that bad.

On the other hand, it is silly to over analyse at this stage: the most crucial thing that will happen to the Australian team between now and next June is that they will get a month in camp with each other. We all remember the changes Guus wrought to the Socceroos in that time. I suspect the same will occur here. The days of writing Pim off as one dimensional are long past. There will be a set plan for each of the teams in our group and then for the permutations of who we might face thereafter. If that means a change in formation or personnel, he will do it without question.
Cheers
md

——————schwarzer
emerton-neill-moore-lowry
———-wilkshire-culina
bresciano–kewell–carney
————–cahill

maybe bring on bruce if we need to score or have the game wrapped up to see what he can do…

lowry is at lb as chippers is too slow and carney isn’t a good enough defender…

Probably the only thing I would change here would be to perhaps put Carney in instead of Chippers, but then, i think Chippers is the more accomplished defender, so I’m probably not sure on that one either. I agree that Williams should be given a crack. He might be even more useful as a defensive mid, where he has been playing for Middlesborough, so you could swap Wilkshire and him around in that case. Williams can provide a bit of go-forward, which players like Culina don’t really seem to provide us.