One of the more pleasing aspects ahead of the Socceroos opening World Cup clash against Chile has been to hear the amount of technical discourse coming out of Camp Vitoria.
To hear youngster Tommy Oar, Mat Leckie and Adam Taggart talking about the need to play out of Chile’s high press and then utilise the resultant space higher up the pitch efficiently is to know that these players are being taken on an educational adventure by Ange Postecoglou.
It reminds me, in many ways, of the level of intelligent football discourse we heard from Guus Hiddink and some of his players in 2006.
It became standard for the Dutchman, during his press conferences, to educate Australia about the art of controlling opponents, a concept foreign to most in this country at the time.
What’s more, he was able to implement tactical plans for parts of games, arming his players with the understanding and tools to manage the fluctuations in matches.
Indeed, many will remember ahead of the first game against Japan in Kaiserslautern where Hiddink spoke of his Plan B, which involved bringing on the likes of Josh Kennedy, Tim Cahill and John Aloisi late and asking questions of Samurai Blue in the air.
History now knows that Hiddink did have to resort to his contingency and that it worked an absolute treat, forever changing our football landscape.
Those were heady days.
Sadly, in the period between Hiddink and Postecoglou there was far less of technical insight from the Socceroos as it became apparent that both Pim Verbeek and Holger Osieck adopted a simple default position of retreating to the 18-yard box and scrapping their way to results.
Postecoglou, while he has spoken only of planning for the La Roja opener, will no doubt have watched the recent friendlies of all three group opponents, and will have pencilled down a few ideas for games two and three.
He will have seen, for example, that the Dutch are adopting a conservative 3-4-1-2 template under Louis van Gaal, making them extremely tough to break down or get behind.
Postecoglou will have also seen how quickly the Dutch go into forward transition when they win the ball, utilising the pace of Arjen Robben and the prompting of Wesley Sneijder.
He will know therefore that the Socceroos defence needs to stay switched on when the team is in possession, knowing the simplest mistake will be quickly seized upon by the electric Dutch attack.
Contrast Chile’s high press and high line with the Dutch door-shutting and Spanish keep-ball patience, and it’s clear the Roos will need to adjust to each opponent.
Yet there are still some similarities in the way both Chile and the Netherlands will set up, with each using much verticality in attack, looking to get in behind through pace and precise and rapid service.
As well, each will feature a back three, and part of the Socceroos planning appears to have been around playing long diagonal balls in behind the wingbacks.
You could see that tactic on display in the Croatia friendly on the weekend.
Even if the Croatians didn’t play too high, and played with a back four, you could see the Roos pinging long diagonal balls out to Leckie and Dario Vidosic.
Even if the execution thereafter was found a little wanting, you could see the potential in this tactic against Chile, where the left stopper Miiko Albornoz and right stopper Gary Medel may be a little exposed by the want of the Chilean wingbacks to get high and join the attack.
If the Roos can get in behind on the flanks and drag out either Medel or Albornoz, it’s likely the wingers will look to hit Cahill with early delivery into the middle, hopefully isolating centre back Gonzalo Jara.
Both Medel and Jara aren’t the tallest defenders around, so if Cahill can get into a one on one situation with either of then, with decent early delivery, he will fancy his chances.
Pace and quick diagonal and square delivery in behind will be key features of the Roos strategy.
The foundation for this will be a high octane Roos pressing game, from which they will look to react swiftly.
But, equally, the Roos will face a high press of their own and need to extricate themselves from it, being very brave and accurate playing out from the back.
To that effect, the friendly against Croatia wasn’t the greatest test.
Niko Kovac’s side sat off, with the midfield and frontline retreating to the halfway line, giving the Roos defence and midfielders ample time and space to stroke the ball around at the back.
There was little room for the Roos to execute a quick transition, and whenever they did try to utilise the flanks early they were held up by Croatia.
La Roja’s defensive position will be higher and they will put pressure on Alex Wilkinson and Matt Spiranovic to play through the first line into Mile Jedinak and Mark Milligan.
If they can get through, this is where the Socceroos can think about looking to profit in attack.
It’s a fascinating tactical battle between Postecoglou and Jorge Sampaoli, and whatever happens the pleasing thing is the Socceroos at least and at last appear to have a plan that resonates and has the understanding of the players.
Osieck used to speak often about his players deviating from the game plan, yet told us nothing about the plan.
With Postecoglou it seems there’s little doubt the players understand what’s required, and that should now be the expected norm.
But have the Socceroos had enough time together and do they have the requisite quality to execute these plans?
matt on the ball
Guest
Nothing else on the Planet matters, we are in the top 10% of football nations... In fact they are our best sporting team !!! Its hard on cricket, but so few play it ...............and football is 1/2half of all world spot... to be 32 out of 237 countries mean Socceroos are ou best team.... BUT THIS IS THE REAL WORLD... ( please no mirco sport fans with replies)
dasilva
Guest
IF we are talking about tactics from Guus Hiddink Zonal Marking/Michael Cox (Football journalist from Guardian) consider Guus Hiddink Socceroos team as one of the top 20 team of the decade in terms of tactical innovation http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/01/19/teams-of-the-decade-18-australia-2006/
j binnie
Guest
sheek - Many choose to ignore it but in the incident you mention Lucas Neill committed what is regarded as a cardinal sin when playingan Italian team.He chose to execute a sliding tackle in an area of the penalty box one could deem not very dangerous and in doing so he left himself lying flat on his backside literally out of the game with his legs conveniently left out in a most welcome position for an Italian player who was widely recognised for his diving ability. Result? We all know.Now if Lucas had stayed on his feet,stayed goalside of the attacker,and sheperded him towads the bye -line,history could have been changed, That's football. jb
j binnie
Guest
Dangerous ground Fuss. In my recollection of the game the Bayern coach made a fearful blunder when he substituted the games best player,Luthar Mattheus playing in a central defender role, with 9 minutes to go. IMO Fergie didn't put Solskjier on in the 87th minute to necessarily get a winner more likely it was to ensure he could say he had played in a final. or it was Fergie's last hope?. 2 goals in the extra 3 minutes,with Mattheus crying on the bench was an unusual occurrence by anyone's standards.Your mate jb
Cpaaa
Guest
This is how this M***** F******* analysis a Football game in a negative perspective. - the ball getting pumped forward and hoping for the best - absolute chaos and mayhem. - bombed the ball forward hoping for the best - There was no science to it. - There was no structure to it I'm certain you were watching an aussie rules match at the time because it has all of the qualities that aussie rules matches has on a weekly basis.
Bondy
Guest
Why dont you leave here you weirdo nobody likes you. your a fu^^"n smart ar^^'d weirdo . You joke .
Shouts Chen
Guest
Australia will have a chance of kicking a goal to win over Chile 1-0. I think that players like tim cahill will score the goal in the 89th minute.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Just watched "2 Weeks In June" on SBS. Those final 10 minutes against JPN were nothing like you described. You have a pathetic fixation with demeaning any achievement of our National Football team. It's not just today. It's every day since I first joined The Roar prior to WC2010. I was in the Fritz Walter Stadion that day and, for the rest of the time I spent in Germany, I had strangers from around the globe come up to me & tell me how much they enjoyed watching the AUS National Team that day. Maybe, you pulled your ARules hotpants up too high when you were watching on your couch & your vision was impaired?
sheek
Roar Guru
Yeah, I reckon we had our fair share of luck in 2006. Everyone raged (including me) about the Neill penalty at the death of the second round match against Italy. But how about Italy? The send-off was unwarranted. The Italians played for 40 minutes with a man down, but still made more opportunities. Australia couldn't take advantage of a man up and ultimately, we didn't deserve to progress. I wish we had Huus for a full four year cycle. That probably would have made a bigger difference. The Socceroos rode their luck, but ultimately, they weren't quite good enough. Still, I was immensely proud of them.
Titus
Guest
Either that or a footballer who has just put one well over the crossbar.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Brian how well do you remember that final 10 minutes of the Japan game? I'll tell you what I remember: 1. a frontline of 4 strikers 2. no wide players 3. the ball getting pumped forward and hoping for the best 4. absolute chaos and mayhem. Can we cut out this idea that Hiddink somehow did something brilliant in those final 10 minutes? He plonked 4 strikers up front, and we bombed the ball forward hoping for the best - and we were very lucky that Japan was such a hopeless side and didn't punish us for having ceded the wings to them. There was no science to it. There was no structure to it. Guus rolled the dice and won - he figured that Japan was the money game - and he was right on that score. Let's just try and keep it a bit real.
Fadida
Guest
Bresc's roaming days are over. His lack of mobility would have us ripped open when Franjic gets forward.
Bondy
Guest
Craig Joubert I thought it was a hurdler jumping hurdles, I'm convinced of it.
Worlds Biggest
Guest
Nice one Tony. I just want our boys to be competitive in each game, that is all.
Statler and Waldorf
Roar Guru
i've wondered about the avatar - is it a ballerina?
Punter
Guest
I think his avatar gives you an idea & explains his poor football knowledge.
Brian Orange
Roar Guru
You refer to yourself as Mister Football, which football is that? You seem to have a very poor grasp of football to be calling yourself Mr Football. I said 2 strikers, not 4.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Four strikers on at once against any of our opponents in this group? I don't think so. Ange might have courage, but he's not stupid. We will never again get to play a mediocre Japan at the group stages - we got it once - let us be thankful.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
If you recall, we've had our fair share of bad luck during the WCs Luck, ref decisions, etc. evens out in the end.
Dasilva
Guest
Australia had a bit of luck as well. I remember Tim Cahill made a poor tackle inside the box that should have gave him a second yellow card plus a penalty that would have gave Japan a 2-1 lead. Imagine an alternative history where instead of Cahill being our hero, he became a villain and Guus Hiddink socceroos left the World Cup with disappointment Such fine margins between hero and villain (I know that the Japanese goal was a foul on Schwarzer as well but I guess I'm just pointing out one incident where history could have split)