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The Socceroos’ success at the 2015 Asian Cup was supposed to herald a new bright era for Australia’s development under the FFA. Yet the federation’s youth teams have faltered, unable to match their senior colleagues at the highest level.
First the Young Socceroos were absent from the 2015 Under-20 World Cup, and now the Olyroos have floundered at the chance of securing a berth at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Many have hailed Australia’s youth – from the Joeys through to the Olyroos – for their fine technical skills and an ability to hold the ball and dominate possession statistics.
It has apparently prepared them for the next step up to the Socceroos, where they will be required to possess similar characteristics. However the results have far too often been missing.
Performance and results are not, and should never be, mutually exclusive. Let us get that out of the way. The argument that playing good football overrides results is understandable, but flawed. Both components should be given equal attention.
And even if performance does take an increased importance, the Australian youth teams have failed on that front anyway. That was most recently evident during the Olyroos’ doomed AFC Under-23 Championship campaign.
The performances may have been filled with fantastic possession stats and brilliant passing completion rates within the defending two-thirds, yet it has been safe, boring football.
Possession does not equal entertainment, or an indication of progression.
The blame for failing to mix performances with results has to fall to the coach, Aurelio Vidmar, but also to the overall system. How constrained was Vidmar, how strict is the FFA’s directive to stick with 4-3-3?
Vidmar must go, of that there is no doubt, two failed attempts to make the Olympics is unacceptable, but those above him should also be under pressure, including FFA technical director Eric Abrams.
At the AFC Under-23 Championship, similar deficiencies prevalent at all levels of Australian youth football were on show. The ball movement was too slow, the penetration lacking thought and the ability to adapt to opponents’ tactics worryingly absent, or restricted.
The defence was largely not a problem for the Olyroos, despite a shaky performance in the opening 1-0 loss to the United Arab Emirates. One goal conceded from three games is quite exceptional at international level.
Yet in attack the team was toothless, and a concerning pattern is emerging. The last time Vidmar led the Olyroos to Olympic qualification the team emerged with four 0-0 draws and two losses in their group of Uzbekistan, UAE and Iraq. Zero goals in six games.
Preceding the AFC Under-23 Championship, the Olyroos had lost three from four games, scoring thrice and conceding seven.
Against the UAE, Vietnam and Jordan this month, the Olyroos scored two goals, both from set pieces.
It is simply not good enough, and a focus on possession has blunted our attack.
You can point to the missing stars – Chris Ikonomidis, Brad Smith, Jackson Irvine, Milos Degenek and Daniel De Silva – but only one of those players, Irvine, was a consistent starter under Vidmar. Fans claim Smith could have provided width, but he has been a benchwarmer at best for the Olyroos.
That raises questions about identifying talent as well, another aspect the Australian youth setup, particularly at Joeys and Young Socceroos level, where overseas-based players are often overlooked for local talent, has to be addressed.
Back to the recent tournament, however, the Olyroos did not produce attacking football. They produced safe football.
Against Vietnam they created numerous chances, but that was down to their opponent’s gung-ho style.
Selections also have to be questioned, firstly with the decision to play Giancarlo Gallifuoco over Thomas Deng in the opener against UAE, despite Kevin Muscat and the Australian football public rating the latter as the better prospect.
Had Vidmar even been watching the A-League, or was he blinded by Gallifuoco’s English pedigree?
Against Jordan, Vidmar chose to pair Brandon O’Neill, Josh Brillante and Mustafa Amini in midfield. It meant instead of playing an attacking, adventurous 4-3-3 with twin No.8s, Brillante and O’Neill sat deep as twin holding midfielders.
The so-called Australian blueprint was not even implemented.
Stefan Mauk should have dropped back for Brillante in midfield, with Adam Taggart or even Jaushua Sotirio up front if Andrew Hoole was dropped due to exhaustion.
A similar mistake had been made for the loss to the UAE, where Ryan Edwards played in front of the deeper-lying Brillante and Steven Ugarkovic. The midfield lacked creativity, and it showed.
Lastly, Jamie Maclaren played all 270 minutes, despite looking out of sync with his teammates at times. Adam Taggart inexplicably sat on the bench throughout. If he was injured, why was he there?
The snubbing of certain players throughout the youth system – Panos Armenakas for the Joeys and Terry Antonis for the Olyroos – is also baffling.
Swinging once again back to the preferred style for our youth teams, Socceroos boss Ange Postecoglou has expressed his desire to unearth players with big-game experience. At this level of football, surely it is essential for youngsters to develop a ruthless streak early and perform in the biggest tournaments available.
Technical skills will mostly be developed at a club level, international camps and a few games a year are not going to shape a player’s development. Instead they need to be given a free reign to adapt to match situations and be given license to shift tactics.
That does not appear to be on the FFA’s wishlist list, however. Style over results is favoured and it has resulted in our brightest talents missing out on the world’s biggest youth tournaments.
Even Postecoglou has come to the realisation that he needs a Plan B, C, and even D in order to overcome plucky opponents. If he can drift from a 4-3-3, which he has done increasingly during World Cup qualifiers, then his assistants should be following suit.
Australia not competing in the 2016 Olympics is a major blow, especially with rugby sevens coming back into the fold this year.
The class of Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 will not be repeated. While all but two of those campaigns resulted in group stage exits, at least we attended the show.
Previous Australian representatives have played against the likes of Lionel Messi, Andrea Pirlo, Sergio Aguero, Robert Pires and Raul Gonzalez at the Olympics – irreplaceable experience.
The next test for Australia’s youth comes later this year in Bahrain for the AFC Under-19 Championship, which will act as qualification for the 2017 Under-20 World Cup.
Coach Paul Okon faltered last time, with two draws and a win from a group consisting of UAE, Uzbekistan and Indonesia not enough for qualify for the 2015 World Cup.
Six players from that squad were present in the Olyroos, how valuable would their experience have been had they been part of a winning formula?
We do not need our youth players performing like robots in a one-dimensional system. We need them to experience big games and learn to adapt the skills they have learnt at club level. The best way to do that is qualify for the major tournaments.
The job to instil technical skills will always lie with clubs, rather than international setups. Most of the overseas-based Olyroos will have been exposed to multiple tactical setups, as well as some of locally based ones, but they have been restricted to one simple method while on international duty.
Coaches need freedom at youth level, a streamlined approach may sound good on paper, but once you realise that our youngsters spend most of their time at club level anyway, the logic becomes flawed.
Good players and good coaches can adapt to opponents, and tweaking tactics does not admit inferiority to another team’s system. It is simply smart practice.
Vidmar’s time has come to an end, two failed campaigns is not good enough. But he is not the root of the problem. How much is to blame on his ability is hard to discern, his hands may have been tied due to FFA policy.
Questions have to asked, answers must be provided. From tactics, to scouting, to selections, to results, Australia must do better.
This is not about preparing the players for Postecoglou’s system, because even the Socceroos manager has realised that his preferred Plan A can be ineffective and unsuitable against certain opponents.
Some of these Olyroos will pull on a green and gold jersey again, hopefully in Qatar in 2022. Those that do make it would be better prepared through exposure to the highest level of football – international youth tournaments – rather than playing a few games a year in an ingrained possession-based system.
Our future Socceroos need that big-game experience and they are being starved the opportunity. Changes must be made, both at a coaching and structural level, if our next generation is going to succeed.
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