Well the reign of Graham Arnold has begun. It may not be the regime we wanted – or deserved – but we enter this new age pre-warmed after Bert Van Marwijk’s World Cup custodianship.
Bert was, for all intents and purposes, a gold-plated Graham Arnold – a pragmatic middle-third man who liked to transition directly and with purpose.
In many ways, BvM was a ‘gateway’ Arnold. He rode into town like a career bikie and offered us a ‘taste’.
And while the results didn’t go our way in Russia, our defensive posture and weight of chances showed this country the power of pragmatism (we had more possession than Denmark and Peru and created 27 chances to their combined 14).
So we are never more ready for Graham Arnold than we are now – in terms of style and personnel. That is why Arnie needs to meet whatever goodwill is surrounding his arrival with a big generational broom.
Arnold needs to set his sights immediately at 2022. That means that every player in the World Cup squad over 28 should be politely retired from the national team.
Arnold has had one big (not unexpected) name announce his retirement in recent days. Tim Cahill – the legend – has officially retired from the national team. Joining him on the official list is Mark Milligan, who ended his Socceroo career on the pitch in Sochi.
It may seem like a countdown before other players join them, however, there is talk that Mile Jedinak is eager to go on into the Asian Cup next January.
Mile’s time at Aston Villa seems to be over, and he is now 33-years-old looking at a drop to a less established or competitive league to continue his career.
When he is 37, Mile will not be in calculations for 2022, and therefore should not be considered for the UAE 2019.
Like his long-term predecessor, Ange Postecoglou, Arnie has access to a cup competition early in his tenure to design a team in his principles, and to get a good look at the talent in the pool and their ability to play together in his system.
As he pencils Aaron Mooy and Mass Luongo’s name into his central midfield for 2022, he has a sensational opportunity in the UAE to get them together sooner and not later.
Ange’s big broom was severe – if not a little selective. Both Cahill and Bresciano were retained while other massive names like Lucas Neill, Mark Schwarzer and Luke Wilkshire were moved on.
Cahill and Bresciano, it seems, were then needed to fill positional gaps in Ange’s system.
Arnie doesn’t have these gaps. He has ballplayers, he has central midfielders, and he has extreme talent out wide.
In Russia, we saw the Premier League version of Mat Ryan take charge of the box. Trent Sainsbury emerged as a top-shelf ball-playing central defender, worthy of any league in Europe (bias notwithstanding).
Aaron Mooy and Matt Leckie put themselves in the shop window for truly top clubs.
And Daniel Arzani dazzled.
With so much talent on the good side of 30, Arnie has a fantastic opportunity to grow into this World Cup cycle with a group of players who are peaking when 2022 comes around.
Is there a lot of pressure on Australia to go back-to-back? Unlikely. Given that Japan, Iran, South Korea and Saudi Arabia all outscored the Socceroos in Russia – with Japan going through their group – we are unlikely to appear in the top three favourites.
Even with Japan and Iran flagging some major retirements, there is enough young talent in those squads alone to threaten the Socceroos.
Arnold’s primary (and only) challenge, is to qualify for 2022 with a team that has the cohesion and dynamism to be competitive in the tournament.
(AAP Image/David Moir)
For that, he needs four years of side-by-side development, galvanised by a cup run and time together in camp.
He needs to pair Aaron Mooy and Mass Luongo in central midfield to create the symbiosis that comes from experience together.
He must introduce Daniel Arzani into the starting XI as soon as possible in order to ride the inevitable development of his club career and fitness base.
He should hand the captains armband and metaphorical baton to son-in-law Trent Sainsbury to allow him to grow into the role in readiness for 2022.
He should be integrating his set-up with excellent young talents, Ajdin Hrustic, Chris Ikonomidis and Riley McGree – just to name a few – who in four years and a mix of luck and hard work could be competing in the top leagues in Europe.
Filling an Asian Cup squad with quick-fix older players pinches a learning experience from one of the players above.
The same applies to defenders. Both Aleksandar Susnjar and Alex Gersbach have age and European experience on their side. They need to be included – even as first backups – ahead of the options we could take to the UAE.
Arnold can afford to take a punt on a forward – or a forward structure – and stick with him or it for a run of games.
We are blessed to have experienced players in their mid-20s playing in top leagues. Between Mooy, Luongo, Sainsbury, Leckie, Behich, Rogic and Ryan we have hardened professionals on each line who can lead this team.
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In essence, he can afford to call the 2019 Asian cup a ‘developmental squad’ or ‘generational change’ to buy himself time if we go out in a quarter or a semi but show enough at times to inspire hope.
To do this right he needs to make his stand. Mile Jedinak, Robbie Kruse, James Meredith, Matt Jurman, and backups Brad Jones and Danny Vukovic should not be considered for the Asian Cup and beyond.
We thank, we admire, we adore – we build statues outside the MCG – but we retire our heroes for the good of 2022.
jbinnie
Guest
Nem - And????? From where are the players you mention going to advance their technical improvement ,that factor that you put so much faith in.? The "new" coach for the national team has been there before and nothing in his management of his HAL teams suggest that he has a magic wand that "upgrades" local players, in fact his choice of quality overseas "imports' suggest that he too thinks we are lagging behind in our football education.. In these columns we often read about our "world ranking" and when one considers the data I supplied above it can be seen in our Won 2 Drawn 3 and lost 8 performances over 12 years we have come up against a mixed bag of international opponents in Japan (2),Brazil,Croatia,Italy,Germany,Ghana, Serbia,Chile,Holland,Spain, France, Denmark,and Peru,which you have to admit is a pretty good cross section of football talent across the globe. So while your confidence is admirable the answer you supplied is vague in how these improvements are going to be achieved, That "how" is really the crux of the discussion and I would like to read your thoughts on how it is going to be achieved,for the rest of the football world is not standing still. Cheers jb.
Nemesis
Guest
jb I'm not using statistics from the past to make my forecast because I honestly believe the WC2022 XI will look nothing like the WC2018 Starting XI. In fact, from the whole 23 man squad, I expect most won't be there in 2022. I'd only expect the following guys to be there, if they maintain their form, or improve dramatically: Arzani, MacLaren, Irvine, Rogic, Petratos, Luongo, Risdon, Ryan, Sainsbury, Mooy. Even from that group, it's likely, with age, some of that group might have lost whatever edge they had at mi-20s. But, we'll have technically better players pushing up: Pasquali, Theoharous, Caletti, DeSilva, Italiano, Atkinson, Deng, Tongynik, McGree, Mauk, Champness, Hrustic, Susnjar, Gersbach, etc. etc.
jbinnie
Guest
Nem - Stats don't back you up on this claim. We have qualified for the last 4 world cups and in going to play in them we have used 4 different coaches, 3 of them "imported" Dutch coaches, 2 of whom were on extremely short contracts. When one follows the train of thought in these, and similar columns, over the years, one cannot help be filled with hope for the immediate future and it is here the stats have to be looked at. Here are our performances per competition. 2006 Won 1 Drew 1,Lost 2 Goals For 5 Against 6 2010 Won 1 Drew 1, Lost 1 Goals For 3 Against 5 2014 Won 0 Drew 0, Lost 3 Goals For 3 Against 9 2018 Won 0 Drew 1, Lost 2 Goals For 2 Against 5 So statistically in 13 World Cup ties,we have won 2, drawn 3, and lost 8, scoring 13, conceding 25. As you can see there has been no great overall improvement over the last 12 years and one has to assume that to guarantee improvement some drastic thinking and action is going to have to be undertaken. Can Arnold succeed where it could be argued others have failed? Time will tell of course but history is not saying his task is going to be an easy one. Cheers jb.
Peter Bedo
Roar Rookie
People do learn
Peter Bedo
Roar Rookie
Totally with you on Juric and Kruse. Ill join the chorus on Arzani but not sure on the rest of the final third.
Doran Smith
Roar Guru
Wow you have a good knowledge of Australian soccer!
Steve
Guest
Some new faces...some not first team yet but with big clubs. This shouldn't matter...its time to take a gamble and bring them through together so that they have confidence to grow together... Anthony Carter Reno Piscopo Ajdin Hrustic Mirislav Popovic John Iredale Panos Armenekas Chris Ikonimidis Ben Folami Seb Pasquali Ryan Blumberg Con Ouzounidis Curtis Good (barring injury) Thomas Deng Ruon Tongyik And many more...
Nemesis
Guest
With WC2022 played in Asia & a squad likely to be filled with the most technically advanced players since 1997, I'm willing to predict AUS will perform similar to ENG at WC2018. Work to be done, but we'll have the players & we'll be more physically prepared than any European nation.
shirtpants
Roar Guru
Define "deep into the tournament" because the core of our squad does not resemble anything more than possibly scraping through an average group.
MQ
Guest
Well, we don't really know whether they will be disaster years, but there's really nothing to suggest that they'll be wonder years either. I wonder if some of these young writers know that Arnie has been in the job before, and it wasn't great (even with the best players ever assembled in the one socceroos squad).
Paul
Guest
Arnie wonder years? Will be the disaster years.
reuster75
Guest
Your point about using the Asian Cup for the launchpad for 2022 is well made. Ange has done a lot of the hard work in terms of generational change and now it's simply a matter of Arnold finishing up the last little bit. The core of this squad is capable of going deep into the tournament but the priority must be to continue building on the work done by Ange in an attacking sense. Time to play Maclaren up front and if it doesn't work out no big deal as he wouldn't be keeping anyone else out. One player i'd love to see in the squad is Matt Spiranovic as he and Sainsbury were a great central defensive pairing. Hopefully under Popa at Perth he can rediscover his form but more importantly his passion for the game. Ange has left a very strong core for Arnie and all the core are all experienced players at international level now so the Asian Cup needs to be the start of a long term plan to do more than simply qualifying for 2022 and the media need to get on board with this and shape their reporting with that mindset. It'll be an interesting tournament as Asia struggled once again at the world cup so we'll see in this tournament what, if any, the reaction to that has been.
Kangas
Roar Rookie
Nabbout and petratos link well , however Nabbout is a better wide player Mc Claren has linked well with petratos previously I believe. Time to try something new . I hope Leckie scores like Cahill
Redondo
Guest
Nabbout will be the Matt Simon in Arnie’s national team. And Leckie may well morph into the new Cahill.
Kangas
Roar Rookie
And Riley McGree
Kangas
Roar Rookie
Time for a front third to include combinations of Arzani Petratos MClaren Leckie and Nabbout, get Ikonomidis and Theoharus in the squad also . Say goodbye to Juric and Kruse