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Ange Postecoglou yesterday revealed his chosen 23 for the Socceroos’ World Cup qualifier in Thailand, and he’s again missed a valuable chance to blood the hugely talented Luke Brattan.
It’s not the first time Postecoglou has named an extended squad, only to drop the Melbourne City player at the final asking. He’s also included him in the actual squad a number of times, but he’s never made it into the park.
It baffles me that a player as talented and as unique as Brattan is uncapped – let alone not yet a mainstay of the team.
He fits the mould – Postecoglou wants a team that dominates possession and therefore their opponents, which means crisp delivery and a care for the ball is required in the number six position in midfield.
Mile Jedinak and Mark Milligan, the current deep lying midfielders are breakers up of play, rather than tempo dictators, while Jedinak particularly has a careless streak in possession.
The twin talents of Aaron Mooy and Tom Rogic can be utilised as two 10s, but to do that they need to be able to receive the ball in advanced positions in midfield where they can find space between the lines and create opportunities.
So far, Postecoglou’s solution has been to play a midfield diamond, with Mooy playing deeper than Rogic in order to ensure safe passage of possession from the defensive third to the attacking third.
But in Brattan, Postecoglou has a ready-made solution on which Australia’s platform for attack could be built.
To not at least take a look at Brattan in a match environment as yet is an oversight by the Socceroos boss.
One could argue that Postecoglou knows him well enough from their time together at Brisbane, but it is under Mike Mulvey that Brattan really flourished, before he was pushed a little further forward by John Aloisi.
His career is back on track after a terrible spell overseas and he is the fulcrum of the Melbourne City juggernaut, the lynchpin of their possession based game.
The argument that the Socceroos midfield is stacked is a sound one in terms of numbers, especially with Jackson Irvine in such fine form in the UK.
But Brattan is unique to the rest. He has a sixth sense for the tempo of the game and knows instinctively whether to accelerate it or slow it down, via his equal capabilities as a long and short passer.
He has bite in the tackle, and he is a goal threat from distance too.
Massimo Luongo and Irvine are box to box players, Rogic and Mooy playmakers, Jedinak and Milligan destroyers.
Brattan, as an orchestrator and chief string puller, is different to all of them.
I’m not arguing that Jedinak and Milligan are finished in the Socceroos midfield, but one day they will be.
Brattan is the heir apparent – and it’s about time we saw him in green and gold.
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