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As 2013 draws to a close, it’s time to take a look at how well some of the players that had been touted as potential bolters for the 2014 World Cup squad are shaping up.
There have been both breakthrough successes and spectacular recessions amongst the group.
Some players will be hoping for a sustaining of the form they are currently displaying, while others will be desperately hoping for a dramatic reversal in their playing fortunes.
Mitchell Duke, Tomi Juric and Adam Taggart are the three strike options who have been tossed up by various media outlets as the most likely to find a strikers spot in the squad.
Duke and Juric are players of similarities and contrasts. Both players are strong and possess great athleticism and aren’t afraid to use these gifts.
Duke is undoubtedly pacier and perhaps a touch more mobile, but Juric is a greater technician, finisher and has a little more height.
Juric has been accused of being clumsy and overzealous in the tackle, with his coach Tony Popovic reminding him to focus on his work for the Wanderers before turning his gaze to national team success.
Though Juric is closer to the finished article, both probably need a little more time before they can be considered genuine chances for the squad.
Adam Taggart’s season to date has had highs and lows. The undoubted high was a hat-trick against Melbourne Heart, which included two goals of the highest quality in what was the most dominant strikers’ performance for the season to date.
Taggart is perhaps the best technically of the three options, but offers the least physicality and in addition to this, has a propensity to have quiet games.
He is by no means out of contention for the squad, particularly if he takes the opportunities presented to him, but as with Duke and Juric, probably needs a little more time.
At left-back are two players who have been loaned out from their European owners, Michael Zullo and Aziz Behich. Unfortunately both have been varying degrees of disappointing, lying prostrate in the shadow of the immense Adama Traore.
Behich has been the most disappointing player in the entire competition to this point in the season.
Before signing for Bursaspor in January this year, he was a dynamic and exciting left-back comparable with Traore; solid in defense but capable of marauding runs up the left flank.
This year for the Heart he has shown a complete lack of appetite for the defensive aspects of his role, including his incredibly lazy effort tracking back against Wellington last round.
His crossing and positioning in attack also hasn’t been of the same threatening nature it once was. He surely would not be in consideration for the squad going into 2014.
Zullo started promisingly but has plateaued. Some would say he has been solid – I would say that, as an Eredivisie product, he has been disappointing.
Not Behich disappointing, mind you, but if any player was going to impress in the system Gombau is employing at Adelaide, it would surely be Zullo.
He is a technically sound and creative player, but as yet he hasn’t played to the standard he is capable. He may be in contention for the squad, but at this stage it is by default.
In the midfield, there have been three stand out contributors: Luke Brattan, Mitch Nichols and James Troisi.
Brattan plays deeper than the Melbourne Victory pair, but shows great nous and vision in delivering medium or long-range passing from deep, as well as the ability to be involved in neat build-up play requiring short, sharp passing.
His season started off with a flurry and continues to build. It’s looking more likely by the game that this could be his last season on Australian soil for a while and he could definitely be a bolter.
Troisi leads the scoring charts. Nichols is wanted by a leading J-League club. Both players have had fantastic seasons.
Though both are definitely in major contention for a spot in Brazil, my only queries revolve around Nichols’ consistency and appetite for hard work (though that seems to have been remedied this season) and Troisi’s ability to present both the sublime and the mediocre in the same game.
There are options for Ange Postecoglou. It’s just a matter of who presents as the best one leading into June.
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