Lebanon leave-out for Socceroos hopefuls

Despite the media and fans clamouring for the Socceroos side to be rejuvenated, Holger Osieck has largely resisted calls for new blood in his 22-man selection for the next two matches.

Tim Cahill, long Australia’s talisman, is back, along with Matt McKay, Jade North and Matt Spiranovic.

Osieck will hope to have placated those wanting more youth by picking Nikita Rukavystya again, along with FC Utrecht’s Adam Sarota.

He has also given the nod to former Newcastle Jets midfielder James Holland.

Getting very little game time when he was at AZ Alkmaar, Holland made the move to Austria in January and has finally seen regular game-time again.

The 23-year old, who plays for FK Austria Wien, will be out to add to his five Socceroo appearances.

Jason Davidson and Ryan McGowan, who made their debuts in the disastrous last friendly against Scotland, have been retained.

Scott McDonald misses out after his recall against the Scots and his Boro teammate, the luck-less Rhys Williams, is down with injury.

For me, this is a bit of a mixed bag.

Osieck has copped plenty for not bringing along the new generation in his two years in charge of the national team.

This is not completely his fault – not many youngsters have been knocking on the door loudly enough for selection.

He has also introduced some new, albiet older players, such as McKay and Ognenovski, in his time who have largely done well.

But he has not gambled enough, especially in friendly matches which were inconsaquential.

There have been too few of the younger breed, who will actually be members of the team post Brazil 2014, getting experience now.

Harry Kewell has been left out, which is the right call considering he has had no game-time of late.

But Osieck’s persistance with David Carney and Archie Thompson, and probably North as well, is sure to cop flak.

However, partially in the German’s defence, I think he is at least finally attempting to try and blood some new, young talent.

The retainment of Davidson and McGowan, along with the picks of Rukavystya, Sarota and Holland, point to that. It may of course be too little too late.

The next move would be to give these players significant match-time, at least against Lebanon.

It is a friendly after all, and we need to see what they can do in the green and gold.

Holger’s critics will point to the non-selection of James Troisi, Matthew Leckie, Massimo Luongo and Luke DeVere and say he has not gone far enough.

They will say that he has been safe with his selections, not brave.

Unfortunately, as I understand it, both DeVere and Leckie are injuried, which is a huge shame.

Both are playing well for their clubs in Korea and Germany, and would surely add to the Socceroos squad.

Troisi has just been signed by Juventus, shouldn’t he be good enough for Australia?

Unless he has asked to miss these two matches, or Osieck wasn’t impressed with his recent Socceroo efforts, you would think so.

Luongo is 19, on the books at Spurs, and has just gone on loan to Ipswich.

He is playing there, and scoring, so it’s disappointing to not see him included in a wider squad. It would be a good experience for him.

Then there is the contentious issue of Aston Villa’s Chris Herd. He has been left out, after being called up previously three times and pulling out each time with injury.

It seems like Osieck’s patience is wearing thin.

Considering Scotland is hovering around to cap him, we need to sort this out, and fast.

This situation is becoming a farce and Australia can hardly have our 23-year-olds Premier League players representing other countries.

We just don’t have enough talent that we can afford to lose players of this calibre.

There is a lot in the 22-man squad for the Lebanon and Jordan matches for Socceroo fans to argue and debate over.

My XI for the Lebanon game (not the Jordan one) would be:

GK: Schwarzer
LB: Davidson, CB: Neill, CB: Spiranovic, RB: McGowan, LM: McKay, CM: Bresciano, CM: Sarota, RM: Holman, CF: Cahill, CF: Rukavystya

Give the kids a run at some stage in the match, and pick the team for the all-important Jordan game judged on this performance and what they have done in camp.

Holger is dammed if it does, dammed if it doesn’t at this point in time. Qualification for Brazil remains paramount.

But it will be a tough story to sell if the Socceroos remain the oldest playing squad in 2014, just like they were in South Africa 2010.

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