What’s wrong with Matthew Leckie?

Im not sure if Skillaroos is the answer, but pretty much he lacks the final finishing touch, that he may had developed if his development started earlier, i.e. at the age of 10 instead at the age of 13-14. Although he is an exciting player and has done well. Lets hope he can get better at finishing and bring that to the National Stage.

This is where we MUST expand the talent pool in the front three area. Young players that refuse to believe that they must not be complete players because they play for Socceroos, and not a top 10 national team. It is a four year cycle, therefore, Ange must start to infiltrate younger fellas in there. I want to see Jamie McLaren, Chris Ikonomidis with Tim Cahill and James Troisi next. Or Troisi in the midfield with Luongo and Jedinak. This means another left winger. That header-miss from Nathan Burns, those near misses from Matt Leckie against Germany, and multiple failure in scoring by Robbie Kruse and Tom Oar previously, at this level tells me lets start looking. We must keep looking at raising the standard. T Oar gets shoved around by talented physical international players too much.

Absolutely he needs to be finishing, whats more frustrating is he'll have you on the edge of your seat with his build up play ( who could forget that run against the Chileans) and then fluff his lines when it comes to pulling the trigger. I have a feeling when he does score it will be special, though i'm sure he'd take one going in off his backside at this point.

Yep, exactly punter. I guess my point is that creating chances is important but putting the ball in the back of the net is the aim of the game and the players who have that talent are very valuable.

Gerd Muller & Gary Linekar were the same, very few goals were spectacular, they were just Prolific.

Exactly AZ. Some of the chances that he misses really do leave me wondering. I'd hope that any international level player would sink some of them at least. Having said that, it just goes to show the value and importance of true goal scorers. I always shake my head when I (frequently) hear fans saying that their team that should have scored all these extra goals, should have been 3-0 up at half time, it was easier to score than to miss etc. It's actually hard to score goals at professional and international level, there's always pressure, very little time etc. That's why the guys who do score regularly as so sought after and highly paid, even if they don't do much else. I'm thinking Ruud van Nistelrooy, Filippo Inzaghi, Romario, Dimitar Berbatov etc

But all you have to is just kick the ball. Anyone can do that!

If Mathew Leckie went through the now called SAP/Skillaroos where they focus on the technical ability of young players from 8 to 13 then he would've finish off those chances. :D The reason why he lacks the technical ability is because he's a late arrival to football i think he played AFL up upon till 13 or 14 by the time kids turn that age its too late to develop technique which is why he looks like a athlete without the skills. But i do hope the older he gets the understanding in his game will only improve.

So do these people choose not to earn 65 million euros a year and let Messi get it easily?

Try telling that to the 'soccer is easy to play'crowd :(

Always go back to what Wenger said. A kid must have the requisite technical ability by age of 14 if he/she is ever going to make it as a professional. The physical and mental side can be put together at a later age.

Maybe it is related to a lack of technical coaching and training conditions in underage football. Allow me to draw an analogy; my brother in law is a professional golf coach who has several well known Australian International golfers under his wing. He sees many young golfers who play off scratch. But they struggle to advance to the next step because of flaws in technique that should have been corrected by a coach years earlier, before these slight faults become cemented into a players system. He thinks a younger, less strong, slow developing junior has a better chance reaching a higher level because they are "forced"m to spend much more time on technique, than a more physically advanced child that can 'hit the ball out of site'. The longer children are "forced" to spend on technique when they are still developing, the better their game when they mature. When I say "forced" it simply implies that they are not yet strong enough to physically compete. But when they are big enough, their game is far more rounded. And so I wonder to what extent very early coaching in football impacts on players that seem to have it all , but in the final analysis, something undeterminable is obviously sadly missing.

He seems to fit in well with the system Ange has the team playing. Hopefully Macedonia offers him the chance to find the back of the net. Interested to see if Ikonomidis gets a (decent) run.

I thought he was our best player on the park against the Germans & I agree he needs to score more. I agree with Stevo, he is a limited player, but has great speed & a great athlete, has good skills but lacks the poise to be a great player. However, he more then any other player apart from Timmy Cahill, shows he can get the best of his ability & shows the Aussie spirit of punching above his weight. I saw him live during the Asian cup & he is a beast, his work rate in immense & he is not afraid to throw himself around. I can see Leckie getting a lot of goals during this WC qualifying campaign. I disagree with Stevo on Robbie Kruse though.

I think Stevo is absolutely right. Leckie is a great player but there are just some skills that are genetic and just are in certain players. Leckie is not one of those goalscorers that will have that touch even though overall he is one of our best players. Juric may develop it. I am old enough to remember Jimmy Greaves who would do little over a game but over 5yards with an eye for goal would always score every game I saw. This was with a bad cigarette habit and a few beers. The opposite type of player but one you would also have in the game.

But he still needs to be putting away the easy chances regardless of what his overall role is in the team.

He's never going to be a super prolific goal scorer anyway and we really shouldn't expect too many, if he can chip in with goals here and there then that's fantastic. I really think his strength lays in being a provider, that ball he put on a platter for Juric in the asian cup with outside of his foot was a thing of beauty.

It's not that unusual to find players who have no problem scoring for their club, who struggle to replicate that on the international team. It's happened to players as elite as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. I don't think I've watched any Ingolstadt matches this season, but I note Matthew Leckie is the 4th highest scorer with 5 goals (top scorer at the club has 8) and he's equal 2nd with 4 assists (top assists are 6) with a team that's 3 points clear on top of Bundesliga 2 and has been there for most of the season. With scoring goals in football it's often about confidence. "Once the first one goes in, the floodgates should open" is not just a cliche. I recall Mark Viduka also struggled to score goals for Australia, but his value was in setting up others to score.

They had some great players on the bench for sure but we also had 3 of our starting 11 out, a CB pairing who had never played together before, a captain who hasn't played for a month.....add to that half the team flew in from the other side of the world and the team as a whole had a day to prepare for this match. I think that evens things out. We certainly are just missing 1 or 2 top players that would make this side pretty scary. I mean you put a 23 yr old Harry Kewell in positions Lecks got in last night and it's a hat trick. Finishing is certainly something that can be worked on and i also think it's a bit of a mental issue for Leckie at this stage in the green and gold, perhaps he might finish these chances with his club. I agree with what Andy Harper said in commmentry that when the first goes in many will follow, let's hope he can put one past Macedonia.

There's nothing wrong with Leckie it's just that he's probably reached his footballing potential and there isn't much more to give. He can run fast and beat opponents for pace that's for sure. But things break down the closer he gets to goal. Poise and finishing just not at the highest level. Same goes for Kruse. Will wait and see how Juric goes. Just watch videos of Viduka for fine examples of poise and finishing. That's the difference. And if he hasn't got it by now well maybe that's just where his football level stops. He's done very well though.