With Frank Lowy making it clear last night that the race for the next Socceroos boss would be between the three outstanding local candidates Ange Postecoglou, Graham Arnold and Tony Popovic, I delve into the pros and cons for each aspirant.
Ange Postecoglou The case for:
Showed at the Brisbane Roar that he isn’t afraid to come in and make the tough calls, turning over an ageing squad and accepting full responsibility for the decisions and performances.
At the time he demanded full autonomy and to be judged after two years, and after two titles in his first two full seasons, playing swashbuckling football, it was the most favourable of judgements.
While he fell short in his first full season at the Victory, he showed that he can adjust their playing style and identify the players to suit his preferred system, bringing through kids like Nick Ansell, Andrew Nabbout, Scott Galloway and Connor Pain, and getting the best out of Marco Rojas.
This season he has done some impressive pre-season work around identifying his weaknesses and plugging the gaps, including plucking Rashid Mahazi out of the state league and bringing in the likes of Kosta Barbarouses, Mitch Nichols, James Troisi and Pablo Contreras.
Tactically, he has shown a capacity for innovation, evidenced by the use of two wide strikers and two creative midfielders .
He has also shown adaptability in playing style, adopting a 4-3-3 at the Roar and a 4-2-2-2 at the Victory, finding a template and style he felt would be most effective.
What he as also demonstrated is an ability to manage the myriad of stakeholders, particularly the media, while the fact he has no clear links to the current squad should allow him to keep an objective distance.
The case against:
Postecoglou’s modus operandi, at both the Roar and Victory, has been to produce a proactive brand of football featuring control of the opponent largely through control of possession, be it the patience at the Roar or the more rapid penetration at the Victory.
With our current list of players not at the level of the 2006 crop, there may be an argument for a more reactive game-plan, built on defensive organisation, and the question remains whether he is capable of producing such a strategy.
Certainly the evidence of his work for the A-League All-Stars is that he struggled to come up with a more negative strategy based around being difficult to break down.
While he only had one week with the All-Stars, and didn’t exactly get to pick the entire squad from scratch, it was nonetheless disappointing to see his side struggle with a back three, and his selection of Nigel Boogaard in the centre of defence raised a few eyebrows.
There’s also evidence of a ruthless streak to his management of youngsters that don’t fit his plans, as evidenced by his treatment of the likes of Petar Franjic, Matthew Foschini, Sam Gallagher and Lawrence Thomas last season.
Graham ArnoldFor:
After getting a taste of the Socceroos job in an interim capacity throughout 2006 and at the 2007 Asian Cup, Arnold has come away from his experiences with the national team and improved out of sight.
His three seasons to date at the Central Coast Mariners have been nothing short of sensational, winning one premiership, one championship, finishing second on the ladder twice and getting to within a few seconds of another championship in 2010/11.
In that time he has show a capacity to build and foster a strong, united squad, often despite limited resources, and get the best out of his men.
He has also shown a capacity to build a base from the back, something the Socceroos desperately require, using a tight 4-4-2 featuring a midfield diamond in his first two seasons, before switching to a more proactive 4-2-3-1 in last season’s success.
Arnold has been able to showcase a style that suits many of the strengths of Australian football, including power, pace, organisation and team spirit, and sprinkle it with creativity, and this could well be a mix that gets the Roos competitive.
Against:
When he had his opportunity to coach the Roos in 2007 he simply wasn’t strong enough.
He allowed some of the senior players to have too much influence over his decisions, and this had a detrimental effect on performances.
Even the following year, when in charge of the Olyroos, he was out-foxed my most of his opponents and never appeared in full control.
Even at the Mariners, while producing a solid system, he has often been caught short on the tactical front, not always making the right calls to alter the control of games.
While he’s matured significantly in three excellent A-League seasons, the FFA will need to consider whether he’s too much of a risk given his past attempts at national roles.
Will he have the strength to make the tough calls given some of the players he has coached and played with are still around?
Tony Popovic For:
Ultra impressive in just about everything he has done over the past 18 months at the Western Sydney Wanderers, he is a man of extreme detail and conviction.
Not interested in mental games, he’s the type that brings calm and rationale to a dressing room, demanding high standards, invariably having a well thought-out solution to any problem.
Like Guus Hiddink, he is a hard-worker with a plan, approaching each match with various options and contingencies.
Tactically he has been superb, able to consistently effect the control of a match with his substitutions, as we saw again at Bluetongue on Saturday.
As with Arnold, he showed last season that he is able to develop from a solid defensive base, and while there aren’t many frills about his 4-2-3-1, he has proved he can produce a consistently competitive unit that gets results.
Popovic’s man management and technical detail suggest he’s got the goods to get the job done.
Against:
Popovic has only been in the top job for just over a year and has so far stuck rigidly to his preferred system, not yet showing the type of adaptability that might be required at international level.
For example, he has yet to demonstrate that he can produce a more proactive plan that features the goalkeeper and central defenders playing out more consistently.
This is something that might be necessary after the World Cup and in the lead up to the Asian Cup, where the Socceroos, at home, will expected to be on the front foot.
Having yet to experience any tough periods in his short caching career, there also remains a question as to how he would handle such a trough.
Levi
Guest
It's a backward step to appoint a local just because he's an Aussie! I'm all for culture hard yakka oi oi oi etc etc but What a laughable prerequisite. How have any of these guys fared when given players to work with, as opposed to getting to choose their own. 'Don't know until you try' shows how amateur our thinking is as a footballing nation.
j binnie
Guest
Punter. All I was trying to say was that over the long years of football history there is a record of when a game caught the imagination of he public they would turn out in their thousands. I too think we have improved greatly in this area but don't forget ,the past did show us the way,it was only a "people problem" that kept it low key.Have we learned? It is to be hoped so. jb
BES
Guest
I woud be a bit dirty about all this if I was Aurilio?? How come no-one seems to even give him a thought??
Levi
Guest
What was I expecting Andy? For it to not get any worse. A bit of international nous wouldn't go astray at the World Cup for crying out loud. Holger's time was up a long time ago, that was clear. But this whole "Aussie" manager narrative is a smug unproven belief. Shame on FFA for not having a strategy. They cannot even organise a ticket sale for their own bleedin games. I remember back in 2006 they put on a mass Treasure Hunt around Stuttgart for the Italy match, that led folks on a wild goose chase and a long queue for the entire day, where in the end.... everyone got a ticket! Sort yourselves out FFA you muppets.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
True. We really need to go for someone with experience coaching a national team with some success, not someone who's only coaching experience is at club level, no matter where they are from.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
As a WSW fan I'd both think Poppa might be the best choice of the three and really hope he isn't the one who gets the job, because I'd much rather he stayed at WSW.
fatboi
Guest
CORNFLAKES
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
The big problem I have is that club coaching is so totally different from coaching a national team. You can mould your squad so much better, even bringing in players from all over the world to fill spots you can't find locals for, you can pick and choose players that will suit the system you want to implement, you can have a good pre-season with the squad to work on those systems and then keep working continually through the season. National team coaches have to take the best players available and try to find a system that they can fit them into, often including playing players out of position or in systems that don't suit them best etc. And you only get small windows here and there with the team to try and implement these things. As such, very different skills are needed at club level to national level. You can be good at one and not the other. Arnie was a flop as Socceroos coach, but doing well with CCM. Is that just that he's improved as a coach, or is it because he's better suited to club coaching? Hard to know, but if it's the latter, then picking him as Socceroos coach again could produce similar results to the first time he was there. But as far as which of the three to be Socceroos coach if it has to be one of them, any supporters of WSW, MV or CCM will likely be pushing for one of the two NOT coaching their team to get the appointment, because, while they love their coach and think he might be the best person for that job, they more than anything don't want to lose them from their own team!
fatboi
Guest
@apaway the kind of football El TEL had the Socceroos of 97 playing was the best i have ever seen. I know it's hard to ignore the 2 goals conceded but if we try to look past the pain, THAT match is everything I want as a Socceroo fan. The style of football, the pure fanatical intensity of the players, the constant attacking, this is football that makes all Aussies proud of our team. We need a manager who will bring back that Aussie spirit
fadida
Guest
It is the older players moving to the middle east. The younger ones are generally in Europe, or at least South Korea, where the standard is higher than the middle east
fadida
Guest
Although the team cobbled together had very few players he'd have chosen given the choice (it wasn't chosen by him). The NT pool of players would at least allow him the chance to pick players of a style he favours i.e younger, athletic
fadida
Guest
Agreed. This is why Arnold is probably the higher percentage move
realfootball
Guest
Yep, and Osieck did an apprenticeship under Beckenbauer. He still turned out a clueless coach.
NUFCMVFC
Roar Guru
Ah yes I remember Made three consecutive World Cups since to make up for lost time :)
NUFCMVFC
Roar Guru
Yeah I don't see the fuss either, you walk onto a big euro club and competition is intense, younger players DO have to take it from the cold dead hands (career wise) of the older Players and younger players shouldn't have any sense of entitlement whatsoever There is some merit to criticisms of playing people like Carney etc who go for long stretches without barely playing for a club, so picking them for the NT once they have played a few games after a bit of time out is absurd After all, everyone likes to play for their country, why would that change if someone is becoming older? Often the only reason players retire from international football I have noticed is that they are with a big club where they earn heaps of cash and want to prolong their playing time time there, eg a Scholes with Man Utd and Shearer for Newcastle This obviously doesen't apply to Neill, quite the opposite I suspect as they want the Socceroos and WC appearance fee + bonus cash
NUFCMVFC
Roar Guru
Well, before it was a case of "make it or break it" re Europe, now there is greater Asia, the Mid East and A League for players to fall back on, and earn a reasonable living, this naturally means there is not a sense that "all is not lost" if they don't make it in a Europe whereas perhaps there was in the 90's
NUFCMVFC
Roar Guru
With the Liverpool game though, the performance from a team he has moulded over time was much better than a team cobbled together and trained for a week then sent out against Man Utd, international football is more like the latter
NUFCMVFC
Roar Guru
Yeah that's what my thoughts are, but that doesen't necessarily send a great message re confidence about having a crack at the WC Then again it also shows confidence that not all is now dependant on a good. WC given the progress of the A League, last weekends attendances were great
NUFCMVFC
Roar Guru
I actually thought he was quite decent much of the time tbh I can see how he didn't quoted fit Ange's plan, and why there would be a need to get rid of Flores in order to get a Micoli but now a acontreras
NUFCMVFC
Roar Guru
Two steps forward, one step back Game overall is in a better position I do think his time is coming to a natural end, he has dragged his feet too much and chose the wrong second Melbourne team, all because of politics with the old NSL Interesting to note it is Gallop who has come in pushing the FFA cup, and is don't think he would have an issue with SMFC becoming the second Melbourne team