What now for Young Socceroos coach Jan Versleijen?

I agree completely. The dutch system does not let our young players who ARE very talented play to their full ability. It is too rigid and restrictive. The players themselves hate it. They hate the coaches who force them to look bad by insisting that they play in a reserved and negative way. The coaches including Gary Van Egmond like to blame the players for their own failings to try to keep their jobs but the truth is that they are the ones who are failing Australia and getting paid well to do it.

I think Steve O'Connor was the one who first coached the team through Asia and qualified them through the first round before they got Jan Versleijen to take over.

Developing ball playing defenders was always going to be one of the hardest steps in overhauling our football culture. Coaches are quite happy to encourage young midfielders and attackers to play with the ball at their feet, but when it comes to defenders, there are still too many who encourage them to hoof it out of trouble.

Spot on, apaway. I'm looking forward to the day when Australia's defenders are demanding the ball b/c they know they can do something with it. I want our defenders to be taught to behave like: => the world's best full backs - e.g. Dani Alves, Maicon, Lahm, Sergio Ramos - who have the confidence in their ability to win and hold the ball so they willingly move up and down the flanks assisting the attacking moves with precision crosses and runs behind the defence and also tracking back to execute the perfect tackle. => the world's best CBs - Vidic, Pique, John Terry, Pepe, Puyol - who are as comfortable with the ball at their feet and can distribute with the precision of a No 10 When we develop our defenders with these technical abilities ... watch out, b/c I reckon we're already developing sound technical midfielders and forwards.

The best u 20 teams were from the 91 and 90 world champs. In 91 the stars were Okon, Bosnich, Kidnter and a young Muscat and Corica. The rest had solid NSL careers. Kalac was the reserve keeper and Schwarzer missed it with an injury. 93 had Moore and Agostino and Muscat. THose are the only players that went on to successfull careers in Europe and only Schwarzer and Moore played in both world cups. Though the teams that would have played at the 98 world cup would have being formidable under Venables.

That's a crucial point, Fussball. At least 2 of the goals we conceded in the game against Costa Rica came from midfielders losing possession in the middle third when they were trying to turn with the ball. In my experience, that happens when the midfielder has no confidence in the ball playing abilities of the the player he/she is facing with their back to goal - in this case, our defenders. It's all very well for JV et al to expect the Young Socceroos to play a passing and possession game but the 4-3-3 needs to be more flexible than it was AND it needs players to be able to play the style in all positions. There was great criticism of Pim Verbeek's employment of two holding midfileders in a 4-2-3-1. It was "too negative", it didn't suit our "natural attacking instincts". Yet Germany play a 4-2-3-1 and they are a thrilling attacking team. If a side has 2 talented ballplayers with great mobility in the holding role, they are NOT defensive positions, they actually allow more scope for the side to play facing the opponents goal.

well said. the teams qualified under him didnt they? nothing wrong in bringing in someone new now to revitalise and plan for the next few years. Dutch or Spanish or Croat or Chilean or Japanese who cares, so long as they are good and mould the players and systems. onwards and upwards. Like Pim he got us there, like Pim there were a few bad results (a draw, a close run thing and a smashing).

Nice analysis, mintox. I think the biggest issue with our defenders is that we are trying to get defenders, who were brought up with the "old system" of boot the ball out, to suddenly start feeling comfortable with the ball at their feet and playing the ball out calmly. It is impossible for this to happen. I'm interested to see how our defenders play at the u17 WC in 2019 ... at the earliest. In 2019, the kids, who were 6-7 years old in 2010 when the new Football Curriculum was introduced, will be representing Australia at u17 level.

@ Ben G I went to a secondary school in the late 70s that was fanatically Aussie Rules. The school has produced a Coleman Medallist, several 300 game players, Crichton Medal winners, Copeland Trophy winner, numerous Premiership players and numerous AFL Captains. So, I've seen a lot of guys develop as Aussie Rules players. Funnily enough, most lunch times, someone would grab a "sockah ball" and a reasonably competitive game would commence - all wearing suit pants, shirts and ties (I don't know how our teachers didn't gag at the stench of sweat-filled classroom after lunch)! In general, the best ARF players in the school had hopeless foot skills to control the ball. Maybe, this is different now, but in the 70s the best ARF players at school were big-bodied and good at using their fists (sometimes even if the ball was not around!). Foot skills were incidental. Tactical awareness was non-existent. As Arsene Wenger said: football is a game of technique. It is a game that is played with the feet and, for humans, controlling & moving objects with the feet is not natural, so the technique must be learned, and must be learned at a very early age.

in Australia that works out fine, we have pretty low standards. Throw these rugby and ARF stars into an o/s football system and watch them sink like stones... kids in real football systems develop better skills than just the usual broad cross-sport skill sets.

He'd already won two national titles when that occurred. I haven't seen anything to suggest that he is any better or worse than before. He got handed a very, very poor crop of kids.

Sorry mate, but that makes no sense. I can name a dozen kids that I grew up with that were super stars at every sport they played. Just because rugby (to take an example) is not a sport using the feet, does not mean players that play rugby would not be excellent football players. There have been a number of Australian cricketers that would've forged great football careers if they had so chosen. I hardly think the skill-sets are similar however. I don't for a second doubt that any number of NRL, AFL and Rugby players (as well as cricket and other sports) would excel at football. If you believe otherwise, I can only assume you didn't play many sports growing up... Go to a schoolyard sometime and look at the same kids dominating every sport.

I'm glad someone is not over reacting to the result. The much maligned Craig Foster made a good point tonight, Japan implemented their new development 20 years ago and over the course of those years had to observe and adjust aspects of it to the point where they are now technically and tactically superior to many countries around the world. We cannot jump to conclusions just because things don't go the way we want to. Remember that this u20's class hasn't had the full benefit of the youth system we implemented 4 - 5 years ago. I agree with Foster that they have some excellent talent in that team and that the way they played does not reflect how good a team they could be. Clearly there are aspects to look at and the "dutch system" isn't the problem. We've chosen the 4-3-3 which is a modern flexible formation that automatically allows for easier ball retention than some other formations. However there are many ways to play the 4-3-3 just as there are many ways to play the 4-4-2. Spain and France play the 4-2-3-1 which is derived from the 4-3-3 but play it in very different ways. I'll agree that we didn't play the system well but that doesn't mean we drop it, instead we need to look at where we went wrong and what we have to change to implement it better. It was clear that we play with very disjointed and inflexible positions, which is not what I see as a strength of the 4-3-3. Players should be able to interchange positions and create combinations with each other, instead our players looked like they were told to keep a lot of space between each other and do the opposite. I tend to agree with Versleijen that our backline isn't good enough. It's not something a coach should say on camera but it was clear to me before he even said that. The defenders simply aren't technically or tactically capable of playing in this system. The full backs are uncomfortable on the ball, the back line as a whole doesn't support each other quickly when trying to play out from the back and none of them every try to carry the ball into the midfield when the opposition press. Defensive wise, they really struggled against mobile and quick attackers that they faced in all three of the teams. We made some of the most basic runs of Spain look like works of art because we sat back and covered. I also believe that a lack of faith in the backline meant that we rarely pressured high up the pitch. Finally we have a dearth of talent in the deep lying midfielder role. To play an underdone Kantarovski simply because we don't have any other options isn't good enough. We need to be developing more players that play in this role and that we haven't points to a failing in the system. For me Versleijen gets a pass mark for what he has done for us in Asia but that isn't enough and we need someone who can come in and adjust the failings in the current system.

Uncle Bob, purposefully incendiary comments like these are not welcome on The Roar. Consider a different approach in future. Roar Mods.

Nice article Mike. But mine would read "Young Socceroos coach Jan Versleijen should be sacked". We can talk about philosophies and methods all we like, but at end of the day, this guy has failed in 2 world cups within a month. A coach is judged by results, and the results he has achieved have been poor. Not sure what sort of players the u17 WC crop can be, still a tad early for them, but the u20 WC team has good players. But they were made to look like amateurs, not helped by the coaching. Wrong selections, wrong tactics and a ridiculous obsession with the 4-3-3 formation. FFA has a lot to answer for here, the Dutch system was a good start for us, but we need to adapt it to make it a truly Australian way of play. The Dutch obsession all started with Hiddink, but there's only 1 Hiddink! Something has to change, and it starts with JV, he has to go!

Production of talent has little to do with performance for the national youth team at the world cup That's generally the responsibility of the clubs they are playing in and the development in grassroots. At most the national youth coach can do is to give players experience playing in a system that Australian national team will be hoping to play in the future.so when they do graduate to the national team, they find it easier to settle in. However even though the for the minor role that the youth coach has in development. The issue is did Jan do that minor job well. IMO I don't think so and there are significant people out there who believe other youth coach in the past did a better job than Jan Versleijen. As Tony pointed out, the fact that there may well be lot of players from this generation who may well become regular socceroos. However that doesn't stop him to believe that Jan did an unsatisfactory job. Youth team in the 1991 and 1995 did a great job. the fact that many of those players didn't qualify to the world cup doesn't undermine the success of the youth manager at the time. The fact that Australia didn't qualify is the failure of the head coach and a bit of bad luck and unfair WCQ system. The youth manager that got the young socceroos to play good football and produced results, succeeded. The failure of the national team is a separate issue to judging the performance of the young socceroos coach at that time. _________ I'll also suspect that the "golden Generation" would have qualified to many more World Cup if we actually had a proper WCQ system instead of a single sudden death playoff. Talent wise, the 1997 Socceroos was no worst than the 2006 team (and some will argue even better). It's just the result wasn't there.

From me it's a big NO for Jan Versleijan. The fact is that these players don't need motivating, as young budding footballers who are desperate to settle a future club and country career for themselves they are all motivated players desperate to make a point. Versleijan's job is to get these players to play the system that is outlined to some kind of dutch dogma that has never been fully explained to us. Either way, it was either RESULTS or GOOD FOOTBALL, preferable both. Versleijan achieved neither. These players are talented. Antonis, Bulut, Oar and Amini could easily step into an A-League starting line-up. It is wrong for Versleijan to blame his players. We have achieved at this level before, having in fact reached the Semi-Finals in the early 1990's. We are capable of it. If Ange Postecoglou is capable of turning a virtual no-name team into a stunning football side. Than it is clear that Versleijan is at fault, becuase there is talent and motivation in that group and he failed to capture it. Also, the same old problem reared it's ugly head. Why do coaches only ask Australian teams to play atacking football when we are behind in matches???? Every game Versleijan has presided over we have started off 'playing for a draw'. Then when it goes wrong he decides to start playing the attacking players. He did this with the under 17's and under 20's. Versleijan must go. He is not a youth coach and clearly doesn't know squat about development and building team tactics. It's lowsy.

Not all the "Golden generation" senior players played significant part of our u20 teams in the past. Here is a list of some 2006 & 10 senior team members, who had less than 5 appearances for the u20 team: Kewell: 3; Cahill: 0; Chipperfield: 0; Kalac: 0; Holman: 0; Lazaridis: 0; Emerton, Bresciano, Grella, Culina, Sterjovski were members of the 1999 team that didn't make it past the Group stage - no different to the 2011 generation.

Australia Senior team has gone forwards on the back of the success of the crop who graduated from the youth team of the 90's. The 2006 and 2010 team was built upon the senior players who played for the young socceroos back in the 90's. Time will tell how successful the current crop will be.

Postecoglou was booted out, but he has become a better manager because of it. Seems to me the kick up the arse by Foz was the best thing that could have happened for his career. All credit to him (Ange) he then did all the coaching courses available to him in Australia, to become the best HAL manager we have seen to date.