Despite becoming only the fourth man to successfully coach Australia to football’s World Cup, it remains to be seen whether Holger Osieck will be in the dugout when the tournament kicks off in Brazil next June.
As the autopsy into Australia ‘s 6-0 humiliation at the hands of Brazil in Saturday’s friendly continues, fans and media personalities alike have called on the FFA to follow the examples set by cricket and rugby by dumping the senior coach at a precarious time.
“Time is up. We have seen enough. Holger Osieck must be gone and be gone real quick,” wrote Les Murray, SBS broadcaster and football statesman.
“He has no boldness and, like some village coach, believes that the result of the next game is all that matters and it is all that will keep him in the job.”
Such fierce criticism is harsh and could scarcely have been imagined when Josh Kennedy delivered our own Beckham-versus-Greece moment as Australia limped to qualification against Iraq in June.
Much of the complaint focuses on Osieck’s unwillingness to throw youth into the deep end, culminating in Saturday’s horror show in Brasilia.
“Australia ‘s central defensive pairing, Lucas Neill and Sasa Ognenovski, is probably the oldest in world football and their pace always leaves them open to exploitation,” Michael Lynch wrote in The Age.
It is true that the coach has failed to unearth many new players, perhaps holding onto the past for too long.
Despite being only the second nation to qualify for the biggest show on earth, Australia appears frozen in time; stalwarts from the 2006 campaign including Neill, Tim Cahill and Mark Schwarzer were all pivotal in getting us there once again.
Seven years ago, 2010 was seen as a potential swansong for some of those players.
That their creaky bodies are still playing in late 2013 is not only concerning, but tells a story of younger players either not getting or not taking chances. I can see things getting worse before they get better, regardless of who is coach.
“There is no review process as such in place for the national team coach, but a result like that, a 6-0 loss, is unacceptable,” an FFA spokesperson told au.fourfourtwo.com.
“A national team coach is always under pressure anywhere in the world, and that’s no different with the Socceroos, but it’s fair to say many are not happy with what happened. Not happy at all,” the spokesperson said. The signs for Osieck look grim.
The decision for the FFA to make is whether they should fire Osieck, cast the net wide and find a new manager eight months before the tournament.
Otherwise, the FFA could stick with what they know until next June and, most likely, allow him to stay on for the all-important Asian Cup which is to be held in Australia in January, 2015.
Who would the contenders be, should Frank Lowy and co pull the trigger?
Guus Hiddink is unemployed and the idea of being parachuted in just nine months before a World Cup might be appealing.
His price tag might be an issue, however, and Hiddink – still revered as a Messiah in Australian football – hasn’t enjoyed success in his past two international jobs.
Ange Postecoglou has been a revelation at domestic level and is by far the best-credentialed Australian coach.
He knows the nation’s youngsters inside-out and would be an appointment for the long-term. Postecoglou learnt from his lengthy spell in charge of Australia ‘s under-20 team and now holds a rare aura.
Despite these alluring figures, I think it’s only fair that the man who guided us to the World Cup gets a chance in the tournament itself.
Remember, the Socceroos have historically found it difficult just making the group stages of the World Cup and Osieck took us there losing just two of fourteen games.
A new standard was set by Hiddink in Germany and coaches ever since have been victims of that success.
For us, as for most countries, just getting there is an achievement in itself and doing it three times consecutively is something to be proud of. I don’t think the broader public in Australia appreciates this current streak enough.
Unlike 2006, we no longer have a core of players that compete in top leagues around the world.
The majority of the squad plies their trade in fringe leagues of Asia, warm benches across Europe or strut their stuff in the A-League with one eye on the next move abroad. Rebuilding has to be done and the issues faced run much deeper than replacing the coach.
With friendly games against France and Canada on the horizon, new players must be considered. Left back Jason Davidson is playing regularly for Heracles Almelo in Holland while Rhys Williams is captain of English second division side Middlesbrough .
Second-choice Mitchell Langerak sat on the bench for the entire match against Brazil (just what was learnt by having Schwarzer out there for 90 minutes?) and deserves an opportunity, as do Shane Lowry, Robert Cornthwaite, Trent Sainsbury, Chris Herd and Tom Rogic.
The question is: who will be the man to make those selection calls?
Having got us there, one hopes that knees don’t jerk too greatly and Osieck is allowed to make the necessary changes and take a refreshed team forward.
Jean Smith
Guest
Even though Holger Osiek got the Socceroos to qualify for the World Cup but it will depend on how they go once they start competing against the other countries if they don't make it very far into the competition. They can always chase up Gus Hiddink who coached them in the past.
fadida
Guest
Agree re the benefits of a quick backline. It allows you to play the game of your choice
Claude Bawlz
Guest
I agree with most of what is said here but here's a few things I thought might be relevant. I watched the the Olyroos play a friendly against NZ just before they went overseas. What I saw was a well balanced team most of the passing one touch( including from defence) all players after passing the ball moved again to receive again if needed. Some of these kids I hadn't heard of before but was later informed they played with clubs overseas such as Celtic, Newcastle,Blackburn & others in Europe. Dead ball situations such as corner kicks, free kicks & goal kicks were all varied & our opposition, whilst they weren't top class still got no where near the ball. I know this team didn't get past the early stage of that under 20 World Cup if you look at results they didn't do too bad considering the group they were in. They were certainly easier to watch than the present top team & the central defence pairing of Curtis Goode & Connor Chapman were quick, compressed the midfield gap quickly and distribution was smart & precise. Put a smart thinking coach in charge & we might see something similar with our World Cup matches, lets face it we aren't going to win it let's prepare for the future.
Gordon
Guest
And don't forget that under Ange, our U-23 team defeated Brazil at a WYC.
fadida
Guest
Interesting read jb. I'm certainly not advocating an ultra-defensive approach either. My point is more that the current coach is failing to implement a cohesive game plan and to organise the team appropriately, as should be case for the coach at this level Ultimately I'd like to see us press aggressively, as I think it suits our mentality, but the sides we select lack the athleticism to do so, and the coach lacks the ability to implement it. Good organisation without the ball is independent of technical ability as Greece showed to win the euros. Again I'm not advocating their defensive approach, just highlighting how a limited group can punch above their weight with appropriate organisation
j binnie
Guest
Fadida -The latter part of your reply does open up a train of thought that has been experienced in world football long before now. In or around 1937 an Austrian coach called Karl Rappan ,given the job of managing the Swiiss national team,admitted to himself that his players were not of the same "class" as those of the countries they were likely to meet,Italy,Austria & Germany being among potential opponents. What to do? At that time in Europe football tactics were in the infancy of their development & Switzerland,being a minnow, were still using the ultra "old fashioned" 2-3-5. Rappan ,a keen student of tactics decided to alter this line up & changed it into a system that featured a sweeper, & "wing halfs" who played much deeper than normal somewhat stifling the "action "in the midfeid. This system ,which was christened "verrou." is widely recognised as the cornerstone in the establishment of that blight on attacking football, called catenaccio, that was to peak 30 years later under the tutelage of Hererra at Inter Milan. Now don't get me wrong I am not pushing ultra defensive football,but I think Rappan's thoughts & re-action all those years ago tend to back what you are suggesting the coach of our national team may have to do. Combine ultra fitness,with an acceptable level of skills, shackle the never say die attitude under control & let's take on the world with what we have to offer rather than try to copy what more highly skilled opponents are purveying against us. You may well be right. jb
fadida
Guest
Sacking one man will improve the short term. The long term is a separate issue I think jb.
fadida
Guest
Agree with all you have said jb, and I haven't suggested that Osieck is to blame for our relatively poor technical level and the level at which our players play compared to '06. I do believe though that a better coach would be getting superior performances from our NT, both by providing better structure and strategy, and by selecting players who may improve the side. Osieck is getting less than the sum of the parts. Ultimately, as Hiddink showed, a quality coach will improve performances, even with the same playing group. I don't expect us to make it out of our group at the WC, with or without Osieck, but I'd like to see us play much better than the directionless rabble that we have seen recently. Out of interest jb, would you agree that regardless of technical ability a side should be set up in such a way that when BPO the whole team are able to work in unison, thus avoiding the situation where Holman pressed alone? Should we expect such a poor understanding and implementation of a game "plan"? In previous WC qualifiers we were patently open for counter attack because of the gaps between forwards and defence (due to lack of defensive speed). I'd argue that the midfield should not be so open, regardless of technical proficiency. That an astute coach would organise his side to avoid this very situation. Thoughts?
al
Guest
What are you talking about??? Switzerland has more and better players available than Australia.
j binnie
Guest
fadida - As usual some very good points for debate & many will say near the truth.However I think you have to reach much further into the background of football since 2004 to try & get to the root of any perceived problem.Outside of the Chairman we have had 3 CEO's of whom it could rightly be said their background & experience was far removed from the technical aspects of our brand of football.Are we to then believe that these men had no influence in any decisions made that would improve the technical aspects of our football from top to bottom.???? So who did make those important decisions??? I will leave that for the reader to ponder. Coaching - Since 2004 we have had 2 D of C's, 3 overseas coaches (I have included Hiddink who was a stop gap) to look after our Socceroos,&1 overseas coach to oversee the advancement of our youth structure.& out of those 6, 5 have now left our shores or, in the case of Berger will be leaving soon.Have all these men contributed to what one could ask should have been an improvement in the standard of our game.???? So in 9 years ,at great expense,we have had one brief flash of success & that was with the "stop-gap" man with his reasonably experienced squad in Germany 7 years ago.. Again I will leave it to the reader to decide if we have had value for the money spent. So where to from here?.Can the FFA really afford to have a world class coach in charge of a Socceroo squad that is going to need heavy concentration in the personal aspects of their game,ball skills,technique & tactical know-if the better numbers of our good youngsters are to bridge the obvious gap shown in Brasilia.. That question begets anoher investigation into the CV'S of the aforementioned men who had been employed to upgrade our system.Although most of them have had lots of experience over 20-30 years of coaching most have worked in jobs that only lasted 2-3 years before moving on.This movement doesn't lend itself to any long term plan that a football body, i.e. the FFA, may have in mind to improve the game at all levels. All this points to the fact that the problem of improving our game at all national levels is not going to be solved by just sacking one man. Leave the overall problem to your thoughts. jb
fadida
Guest
We have a right to demand performances that aren't rubbish, that we are at least organised in BPO, that there are clear tactics, that we have explored all potential personnel (or at least some of them). Is it "knee-jerk" when 10 of the last 12 performances have been substandard? We aren't suddenly calling for his head. We've never thought he's any good....
eric1
Guest
And Switzerland recently beat Brazil with much more inferior players.
Dasilva
Guest
South Korea sacked their manager after qualification
Simon McInerney
Roar Guru
Name a country who would sack their coach just one match after he's qualified them for a World Cup... Our national team has problems, yes, and is badly in need of regeneration. But it's only fair that the man who has taken us to within a bees dick of winning our first major trophy (Asian Cup 2011) and then to the World Cup (that was his #1 objective when hired, no?) should get the chance to make those changes and take the side forward. Knee-jerk changes of coach this winter hardly led to miracles for our cricket and rugby teams. Socceroos fans are a little spoilt, I feel. Yes, we have a right to demand results and performances, but no lets face it - we're not a Germany or Argentina or Spain. In a generation or two we might be, but not now. Near us on the FIFA World rankings lie Paraguay, Wales and Scotland, who will all have their feet up come kick-off on June 12 next year. Other nations around us, such as Burkina Faso and Slovenia, possibly will too. We'll only appreciate the good old days of 2013 when/if we miss out on Russia or Qatar in the years to come...
fadida
Guest
1. Ultimately while recognising our playing group isn't of the quality of previous ones, who could argue that the team is producing far less than the sum of it's parts? 2. Given that the same players are generally always selected, why is there no cohesion, no obvious system of play (as highlighted by Holman pressing while noone else went with him). Lack of technical quality doesn't excuse us being such a rabble in BPO. 3. Schwarzer playing every game? Cornthwaite over Sainsbury? Failure to try other left back options. Picking Neill in a friendly even though he was suspended for the next competitor game? Holman over Rogic? Failure to try a new defensive partnership? I argue that the 3 above points are all down to failure of the coach, and that a better coach, of which there are at least 3 in the A-league and hundreds around the world would a) get better performances b) have regenerated the team while still qualifying c) have a distinct playing style, modern and cohesive. Finally, that Osieck "led" us to the WC is I'd argue no defence. He was close to ballsing it up with awful selections and tactics in the early qualifiers. Yes Asian football is not easy. But he had underachieved with both results and performances. Pim Verbeek (the much maligned) was vastly superior.
nearpost
Guest
Simon, Name one country that would: a/ Send a first 11 to the World Cup with an average age of 30+ b/ Name one country that wouldn't use the platform of a 3rd World Cup to build for an Asia Cup and further WCQ when the current team is weak and aged. c/ Name one country that would keep the Coach when they have lost an International football match 6-0 Holger needs to sell the vision to Australia - he doesn't have one. His team has underperformed since signs of life in the Asia Cup 2011. His selections for the Oman game showed his confusion. Two new centre backs and two new centre mids. None of whom played in the next three games. (did he bend to Jedinaks tantrums to put him in for the Brazil game?) If you are happy with the progress of the team and squad under Holger you are the only person in Australia who I can find that is. Part of the job of national team coach is make the country feel proud of the team. Holger had his moment in 2011, since then bar fighting displays v Japan it's been miserable at best. Tell me Guus or Ange in particular wouldn't, couldn't do better. Ange even got a bunch of kids to keep the balll away from Liverpool - maybe he could do the same with a Socceroos team against Brazil. Ange wouldn't do worse and we'd have a vision and a game plan. We'd be younger and improving as opposed to what we are now.
Towser
Guest
We can go on forever about the coaches picks ,the fact that players are plying their trade in the top leagues of Europe & I cant disagree with those proposals. Neither the fact that their appears to be no obvious production line of "improved" players since 2006,the coach can do nothing about the quality of players at his disposal & it is a problem still, no doubt of that. However he can as Fussball says issue a set of instructions that if followed allow the team some semblance of organisational structure. Add to that the combatative nature of Australian teams & even against Brazil you can put up a show. Saw none of that the other day. That is the coaches job regardless of whether he has a message & cant get it across or he doesn't have a clue. Nobody can convince me that Iceland & the Faroes are producing players of the same quality as Australia,no matter how good or bad whatever development system is in place today. FFS ,I thought as a lad when the weather report came on that the Faroes were the Pharoahs. Learnt as I got older that they were as Biil Connolly would say "windswept" a bunch of small islands North of Scotland.,yet Germany only beat them 3-0 in a World cup qualifier the other day.-Population 50,000. More seagulls pooping on the cliffs than people. Iceland a few more people 320,000 ,but hardly people hanging off the glaciers, yet they just beat Albania 2-1 & are a chance of the play-offs to go into the World Cup In Brazil. Reason can only be the coaching,unless being windswept has more to it than meets the eye.
Bluenwhite
Guest
Agree with most of the article, except the Cornthwaite part. He doesn't have the technical ability to be part of the Socceroos future. Would much prefer Devere or even some like Ansell (in addition to the names mentioned) who is already quite composed at the back and adept at playing the ball out. I think Cornthwaite's had enough opportunities and his goals have masked some otherwise poor performances.
nachos supreme
Guest
Have been trying not to rant, but the players performance we saw on the weekend was less of world standard and more of park standard. How can a bloke,that less than 12 months ago was featuring as a starting XI player for Villa, lose the ability to play the 10 mtr ball to his outside man not once but twice?! And the other times when in a reasonable position with a reasonable amount of time and space get the ball stuck under his feet .Not to single him out but his performance typified the teams. For me the players looked like they were unprepared for what Brazil were dishing up ,which looked like the typical fare that Big Phil's version of the Brazilian side will produce. Unless they completely ignored the coach surely they'd have been prepared and had the tactics and individual ability to at least cope? If they're ignoring the coach the coach needs to pick an XI to carry out the instruction. If they were not it's the coaches responsibility to prepare the players. Are we a side to take it to Brazil? Right now of course not. Are we a side that can maintain some composure and try to play some football? Or at least ensure that we can tick the boxes on the basics?the stuff a school boy is taught? track a runner on the far post. Hold the space and break down the play in front of the back four?etc etc. I hope so but we certainly didn't see it on Sunday morning.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
In my reckoning there are 2 broad aspects to coaching a National Team. 1. Selecting the correct players 2. Organising the teams: structure, individual roles, collective system of play, etc. In my opinion, other than the 2010 Asian Cup tournament & a few WCQs (e.g. both JPN matches, KSA match in Melbourne), Holger is consistently falling below the 'pass' benchmark when I assess the above coaching criteria. 1. Selecting the correct players I honestly don't believe the fact that AUS "no longer have a core of players that compete in top leagues around the world" has any relevance to the way the national team operates as a unit. If there were a strong correlation between playing in the top leagues of Europe & success at the WC, we should be seeing a massive improvement in success for teams from CAF in the past 20 yrs. In reality, it seems the decline of African football at WCs has coincided with a massive influx of African players in the biggest leagues of Europe. To me, "selecting the correct players" means selecting guys, who have the best: technical, tactical physical & mental traits - i.e. they are physically capable of playing football and they understand the game (intuitively good decision-makers). 2. Organising the team This is all about man-management, communication skills of the coach & the ability (and willingness) of the players to follow instructions. There are a plethora of examples of teams - both at club level & international level - who are bursting with superb individual players, yet the team is a rabble (e.g. Mexico in yesterday's WCQ, Netherlands at Euro2012, France at WC2010, Portugal .. just about every tournament!!) I've watched close to 100% of matches when Holger has been in charge of the AUS NT. In the majority of games it seems the team never follows Holger's instructions in the 1st half. Only after the HT chat will the team take on a semblance of organisational structure. Is this the coach's poor communication? Or, is it a team of individuals, who feel they can do what they want without losing their spot? We have 9 month to get this right. Very shortly, there will be over 100 qualified & experienced national team coaches looking for a new job. It's time for the FFA to start a global search - which coach wants an invitation to the biggest sporting event on the planet?