Wednesday’s announcement of the Australian squad that will take on Oman and Thailand in next week’s World Cup Qualifiers saw the continuation of Holger Osieck’s gradual evolution of the Socceroos.
While it’s been the inclusions that have garnered the most attention, in particular the return of high profile A-League marquees Harry Kewell and Brett Emerton as well as youngsters Chris Herd and Mitch Nicholls, the real interest for me is whom has missed out.
The most obvious player who wont be travelling to Oman and Thailand is Everton’s Tim Cahill, though his absence is to be accepted as a sign of Osieck’s man management – it’s a delicate balance maintaining the Socceroos’ gun goal scorer’s fitness as well as Football Federation Australia’s relationship with his English Premier League side.
Instead, I’m most curious about the reasoning behind Nikita Rukavytsya and Tommy Oar once again missing out on senior national team call-ups.
It seems unlikely that it would be because of playing time as, this weekend aside where he was left on the bench for FC Utrecht’s in their 3-1 loss to NEC Nijmegen, Oar has been starting regularly in the Dutch Erdivisie.
Furthermore fellow Utrecht Aussie Adam Sarota has been called up for latest round of World Cup Qualifiers despite having been left on the substitutes bench in eight of his side’s last 10 games. In other words his record is only marginally better than Rukavtysya’s at Hertha Berlin.
So the real issue must be elsewhere and I suspect it has to do with the positions both Oar and Rukavytsya have been playing in Europe – wide of midfield.
There’s a unique distinction with how the midfield in Osieck’s favoured 4-4-1-1 with the Socceroos operates compared to your standard flat midfield four. In particular it has to do with the more central role Brett Holman fills whether he’s playing on either the right or left-hand side.
Generally tucking into the space between central midfield and the front two – who despite being staggered tend to keep quite close to each other – Holman doesn’t play as a traditional winger. In fact whether it’s Matt McKay opposite him on the left or Emerton on the right, Holman takes up a much more narrow, but crucial, position (Osieck also tends to prefer his players in this position to tuck in from time to time and allow the full-backs to overlap and further stretch the play).
The fact is this not a role either Oar or Rukavytsya, two wide players with speed on the ball their greatest asset, can fulfill. Furthermore in Emerton, McKay and Kruse, Osieck obviously feels he has wide midfield alternatives he can already rely on.
So for the time being, Oar and Rukavytsya will need to provide consistent performances of a very high level if they’re going to break back into the Socceroos fold.
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