Postecoglou preparing for busy January

AP continues to play Mooy and Rogic together which is fine against Bangladesh and teams of their ilk. That combination is not working with Rogic a 69-65 minute player at best. Mooy has been going missing either due to injury or high defensive workrate. The midfield should be Jedinak, Milligan/Irvine/Luongo and Rogic/Mooy if the 4-3-3 formation is persisted with. Kruse with no club time off to the bench and bring in Goodwin. Plus I hate to say it but Wright in for Spiranovic and Gersbach or Behich for Brad Smith. none of these guys are a Kewell or Viduka or Bresciano at their peaks.

JB, one of the sports books I ever read, 'You never walk alone' Craig Johnstone. I think we are both on the same page.If we can produce more ball players, with our natural athletic ability, we can compete well as a footballing nation. You have some grievances on the Int'l coaches paid huge monies to introduce small sided games. This is something you have more knowledge on. I have a friend from Argentina, who says that 3 noticeable difference between here & Argentina is they play small sided games till 16 years there, you see more kids kicking a ball about either with friends or by themselves & football pitches at grassroots levels way above Argentina, so fallacy of uneven bounce is rubbish in this country. Iceland a great story & many lessons to be learnt.

Punter - Don't know whether you viewed the recently televised story on Aaron Mooy where his own mother and brother pointed out that Aaron's love of playing with a ball ,even when alone,could almost have described him as an "introverted " kid. Recently in another blog area we have had a respected journalist from our game erroneously again tell us of how the people ,hired at great cost, into the coaching world of the HAL had introduced small sided games on small pitches as a means to an end in getting a kid more touches at the ball.thus forming the basis of our "curriculum". This is simply not true,the idea is really quite old having been introduced into our football in 1974 and was a junior coaching method enjoyed by many of our so called "Golden Generation". The myth is perpetrated.!!!!! the truth ignored. Then we have Craig Johnstone in his book relate as to why Jack Charlton said he had the worst "first touch" he had ever witnessed. Craig went on to describe how he overcame the problem and then went on to win European Championships with Liverpool. You may ask the purpose of these examples?. We are still producing a few players with the hoped for skills but for a country with such a huge population of junior footballers what should we be looking for as an acceptable number of graduates with the skills that you so desire. Take Iceland for instance. With a population of 330,000 ,and weather that is not conducive with football for 6 months of the year,the country,setting up for an assault on how their game is run ,have in just 6 years taken their national team's world ranking from 110 to 21 while we, in the same time frame, and millions of dollars spent, have fallen from a "high " of 20 in 2010 to our average ranking of around 45. Is there something to be learned from this example do you think ???? Cheers jb

JB, As you yourself has mentioned we have 3 players showing high levels of skill, I would go further, I would add Sainsbury & Luongo, to that list in the Socceroos squad. If you go further the following players have not yet reached Socceroos level due to to lack of consistency, youth, inexperience but also showing glimpse of football skills include Amini, Mauk, Da Silva, Kalik, Antonis. There are others like the young Melbourne boy who just signed for Ajax. Why I said ten years is as you know geniuses don't pop up every day. But imagine a Athletic boy ala Robbie Slater, Brett Emerton, Timmy Cahill, Brad Smith, with high quality ball skills that far exceeds anything we have produced in this country. Gosh I'd even take a combination of a Cahill & Viduka.

punter - I thought we had established long ago in our discussions that what you spell out as your desire for our output of local players was exactly the same as mine.. My only debate on your latest effort is why does it have to take another 10 years.to produce the player you describe for we have now had our youth subject to the coaching information in the "curriculum" for at least 3 or 4 years,in fact it has been upgraded,and I don't believe that the only juniors used in it's implementation were 6 year old players. Aaron Moy ,Rogic and Bratten are 3 players who jump to mind that are showing high levels of ball skills but my thoughts are ,why only 3 ????. Cheers once again jb.

Mark - You may be a newcomer to this site but Punter and I have had long previous discussions about football and as I said in this latest confab I agree with almost everything he said in his comment. What I pointed out was that in comparing styles of football played by what many would describe as the world's 2 best club teams, and how he perceives the efforts of AP to get our Socceroos to play that game, is a dangerous area in which to draw comparison. There is no antagonism intended in this ,just a difference of opinion. Ps keep up the flow of debate ,it is healthy. Cheers jb.

JB you have misinterpreted my point. Let me gather what you said about Arok's athleticism and my desire for what an Aussie player can produce in 10 years time Imagine a Timmy Cahill with the touch & vision of a Thomas Broich.

JB, you're taking something Punter said to a ridiculous conclusion that is completely removed from anything he intended. The point Punter was making is that teams need to adjust their tactical approach depending on the skills of the players at their disposal and the opposition they're playing.

Punter - we are in a dangerous discussion area here when we discuss Ange's desire for playing a style of game and then using the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid as examples of how the game is being played at the highest club level.. It is no accident that those 2 clubs have "purchased" 6 of the "deadliest "strikers in the game so that the whole structure of their game plans is to get the ball forward to these men as often, and as accurately as possible. Now unfortunately AP does not have "strikers" of that quality constantly roaming the front third, so the question has to be asked ,will we,the Socceroos ,ever be able to master that type of tactic.? Frank Arok,in his successful run as the part-time Socceroo coach,always preached that the one advantage Australia had over potential opposition was their athleticism and strength, no doubt thinking of the conditions under which our players were being raised. Now before we are inundated with reminders that Arok never went to a World Cup let us remind ourselves that he still attained some memorable results due to the fitness and aggression of his "athletes", and it is this perceived advantage we are discussing here,not the success or otherwise of "successful"coaches. That brings us back to the present Socceroos. When,where,and how is Ange going to get the players needed to perfect the system he, and more of us, admire. He,like the two examples you give ,cannot purchase the required players,they have to be produced by "the system" which ,since Arok's time at the turn of the century, it, the system, has failed to do. Solutions??? In a discussion I had with friends the other night discussing the actual football standard of the HAL, the question was put,"How can the standard be improved quickly???? The answer? Increase the number of foreign players allowed in each team. There is no doubt that would solve the problem but surely would not help the youth of our country to achieve "national team status". None of us want that to happen or do we????? You'd have to put that question to the clubs that are struggling to get better in the competition. It is not an easy problem to solve my friend ,is it?. cheers jb.

JB, I do not agree with playing possession football for the sake of it. I believe a country like Australia & definitely England, all British sides to play possession football to improve their ball skills. Real Madrida few years under Mourinho was under pressure to play the beautiful game against Barcelona & was smacked 5 nil. Now Real Madrid plays counter attack against Barca & hits them on swift counters, but when not on, the players keep the ball as to stop Barca just relentlessly attacking & tiring their defence, but if they try to out pass Barca, there is only 1 result. To do this you need players who can hold the ball.

Thanks JB, I appreciate it. Now this is the point Mid was trying to get across, we don't have these players. Players with massive physical abilities like Smith & Leckie, but their first touch lets them down a bit, Ange is not suddenly going to make these guys technically proficient, but that 10 year kid watching his heroes at home, learning that 'ball skills' is important & this is how the national team plays, I need to keep practicing the 100 'aerial touch balls'. Take last WC for example, playing Spain, we were never going to out football Spain, we tried & failed miserably. However, maybe if we played the Physical game, we may have got a lot closer, especially as Spain was at a low ebb, but no we need to be practicing playing football, this is the new style from top to bottom. Long term gain over short term results.

Punter I am not in any way trying to denigrate what AP is doing or has done. You and I have obviously a totally different concept of what "possession football" is all about. I comprehend the thoughts behind "keeping possession" based on the ill-conceived notion that as long as you have the ball the opposition can't do anything to overpower you,but I can never lose sight of the main aim of the game is not only to control the ball but it has to be despatched into the net as often as possiible if a successful outcome is to be achieved. I sometimes wonder if this factor has been totally ignored by those who profess to enjoy their "attractive" football. Cheers jb

Punter - I agree with everything you have stated in your "go", only digressing in one minor viewpoint. You say Ange is trying to get Australia to the stage "where each and every player is comfortable with the ball at his feet" I get the point you are trying to make but my friend that is NOT Ange's job,as I spelled out Ange's job is to get us to the World Cup Finals and to do so he is expected to use some 30 odd players who at an average age of around 25 one would have expected they had acquired their "ball skills" long before coming under Ange's tuition. Ange gets these players for a week or two at a time, maybe four or five times a season, and that time has to be used in analysing their opponents, and planning how to defeat them,definitely not doing 100 "aerial touch balls" against a concrete wall. Get my point. Personally I ,and I would imagine Ange, would love to have the players you mention as Aussies but--------Cheers jb

The Thais were technically better then us & if that is not something to worry about, I do not know what is. This is not just this Ange's team, they were technically better under Arnold & Pim, but we won because we belted them physically, Ange is trying to do something different.

RF, I am not doubting it was a shambles against the Thais, not only Ange's selections but the players were poor too. However my point being, I have seen us struggle against the higher technical Thais before, but our professionalism & strength fitness etc beat them, not our footballing ability. We are trying to win games playing football these days not just using our physical attributes.

Agree, Ben. The team urgently needs a left sided flanker for balance. Neither Leckie nor Kruse play effectively as inverted wingers. It really is an either/or situation with those two.

"Just belted the Thais", Punter??? Mate, what do you think Ange wanted to do? Struggle to an undeserved draw? He stuffed up the team selection and the tactics and he seemed unable to motivate his players. It was a horrible failure of coaching. One that no doubt has given him much cause for serious thought.

Figures. You are clearly a one idea kind of guy.

On every count, Mid? I have to disagree. Overall, yes, but his performance recently has been questionable on tactics and team selections. Most worryingly, he seems to be falling into the national team trap of selecting favourites, Jedinak and Kruse being two. He has also reneged on his statement that he would only select players who are playing for their clubs. If I rated his performance up to and including the Asian Cup, I would give him 10/10. Since then 6/10 and slipping.

This is where we disagree JB, I believe Ange has the Socceroos playing possession football better then at any time of the times I have been watching the Socceroos. Sometimes even at the peril of getting exposed. We are doing it with less credential players then say the Golden generation, if you don't believe me, have a look at some of the Socceroos games under Hiddink or even before, we had strong mentality, strong & fit men who played at the highest level, but we were not a team with highly technically gifted individuals. I believe Ange could've kept it safe & just belted the Thais, but this is not his style.