“They’re too young”, is the excuse Graham Arnold has used for leaving out Australia’s trio of 20-year old European prodigies, Nathan Burns, Bruce Djite and David Williams, from his Olympic squad.
How do we make sense of such a comment when other players in Arnold’s squad are only one or two years older?
It isn’t as if Djite, Williams and Burns are budding teenagers who are fresh out of the AIS. They have all played for the national team, one has enjoyed success in Europe, and the other two have both played in the Asian Champions League.
By contrast, James Troisi spent most of his years with Newcastle in their reserve side and is now out of contract (Not that I am against Troisi’s inclusion. To the contrary, I am actually a big fan of his).
To his credit, Arnold actually appears to believe that the Olyroos will have a realistic chance of winning a medal in Beijing.
Whilst I have admire Arnold’s optimism – and that’s pretty much where my admiration for him stops at the moment – I question his motivations.
Following his selection, Arnold went on to state that, “Maturity goes along with quality as well as athleticism and tactical nous.”
The un-contracted Mark Milligan was selected by Arnold.
Arnold also went on to prophetically claim that “What I’ve learned from Asia is that players who can’t play in the heat, can’t play in the heat”
I won’t even bother trying to decode that one.
Arnold might use the same excuse that we heard when Scott McDonald was excluded from the Asia Cup squad – that time would be needed for the player to adapt to new surroundings at club level during pre-season.
Then why include Sydney FC’s newly signed duo Bridge and Musiliak, or even Zadkovich for that matter? It doesn’t quite make sense.
Arnold speaks of tactical nous, when only one of his selected over-age players plays in Europe; in the Championship, the reputation of which is hardly built on tactical sophistication.
Ruben Zadkovich certainly didn’t look comfortable tactically against China, and the same could be said of Topor-Stanley. Both are in Arnold’s squad and both are likely starters.
After considering Arnold’s plethora of cliches, it becomes clear that they are not cliches but excuses.
What do all of the omitted three have in common? They are all strikers and out-and-out attacking players. They are quick, skilled and direct.
They are the sort of players a manager looking to win matches would take to a tournament.
Arnold says that his side will “fear nobody,” but his squad contains only three strikers: Archie Thompson, Mark Bridge and Nikita Rukavytsya – all plying their trade in the A-League.
Argentina – one of Australia’s group stage opponents – have five strikers in their squad.
Despite Arnold’s claims that he is chasing a medal at the Olympics, his squad selection is conservative and foolish.
If, say, Archie Thompson were to get injured – an annoying habit he seems to have when wearing the green and gold – that would leave only two natural strikers in the squad in Rukavytsya and Bridge.
And if they were to get injured or suspended?
I don’t want to picture Ruben Zadkovich in a lone striker role against the likes of Garay and Burdisso, but that could be the situation Arnold is faced with.
Adaptable is the key word in 2008 Olympic games football. Arnold’s squad is anything but.
This Olympic games should have been viewed as an opportunity to groom our future Socceroos into World Cup contenders.
Is Graham Arnold wasting a generation of strikers – an area in which Australia severely lacks depth at international level – in the name of a clean sheet against Argentina?
In any case, I’m sure Messi, Aguero and Riquelme will have other plans.
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