Brisbane Roar coach John Aloisi reckons the shortage of Australian strikers getting A-League starting opportunities is a “massive issue” for the Socceroos as they begin life without Tim Cahill.
Aloisi may well end up providing new coach Graham Arnold with one of his best options up front after recruiting former Socceroo Adam Taggart from Perth Glory for the upcoming season.
Taggart, 25, is a rare case in the A-League – almost every other club has an import starting at the point of attack, which Aloisi believes has contributed to the country’s failure to develop a reliable goal-scoring striker to succeed Cahill.
“It’s a massive issue, and I made it known during the World Cup that we lack strikers, we lack goal scorers,” Aloisi told reporters on Wednesday.
“I believe in young Australians and that’s why with Jamie Maclaren, the opportunity was here for him when he was here.
“The same thing with Taggart.
“I’ve always kept an eye on him because I believe in young Australian strikers, but they need to be playing regular football and scoring goals and hopefully our national team ends up getting the rewards as well.”
With Cahill retiring from international duty, Arnold will need to look closely at his striking options for the January’s Asian Cup.
The Socceroos failed to score from open play at the World Cup in Russia and clearly lacked a cutting edge in attack.
Taggart, a proven quantity in the A-League, can propel himself into calculations with a good start to the new A-League season.
“It’s always refreshing with a new era of a gaffer in the national team,” said Taggart, who was part of Australia’s squad at the 2014 World Cup.
“There could be a lot of fresh faces given there’s a fresh manager in there.
“Obviously I want to do the best I can do to get back to the national side.
“Everyone’s on their own journey and mine has led me to here. I’m going to make the most of what I can here and that’s the only thing you can focus on really.
“If you can do that, you’ll get those opportunities, and they seem to follow you rather than you chasing them.”
Rodney Maddock
Guest
Could Jackson Irvine be the striker we are looking for? He has the right physical attributes - speed, height, mobility. He also seems to have the right attacking mindset, scores goals, heads the ball well etc.
Kangas
Roar Rookie
We need a finishing school for strikers. Pun intended Ffa or whoever has the cash hire a Juergen kinnsmann type coach for our best 9-15 year olds Strikers have to be selfish predators. How about we apply a play forward diagonal passes quickly as a rule of thumb. With attack minded mids who don’t have to play as part of a back 10 in defence. I would love to know how the other coaches of young teams on this site , set up their team to play. ??
Lionheart
Guest
I certainly hope Taggart scores heaps of goals for Roar and, in his absence with the Socceroos, I hope the young guy Wenzell-Hall, coming back from NPL, and young Daniel Leck score heaps too.
Nick Symonds
Guest
"With Cahill retiring from international duty, Arnold will need to look closely at his striking options for the January’s Asian Cup." Only one shot was made by a striker across all three WC group games. It came from Tim Cahill. - OTHER OPTIONS Tomi Juric – 8 goals from 38 matches for Australia + 15 from 57 at Luzern Tom Rogic – 7 goals from 40 matches for Australia + 20 from 86 at Celtic Jamie Maclaren – 40 goals from 53 matches at Brisbane Roar and 8 from 15 at Hibernian + 9 from 17 for Australia U20 and 9 from 15 for Australia U23. None for senior socceroos squad from 6 matches. Adam Taggart - 20 goals from 38 matches at Perth Glory and 3 from 7 for Australia. - Given the difficulty with strikers maybe they should play with 2 up front to maximise chances.