The Socceroos struggle to score goals from open play against strong sides, and this was highlighted in the World Cup.
Graham Arnold’s era had a winning start, defeating Kuwait convincingly after Apostolos Giannou, Tom Rogic and Awer Mabil came on the scoresheet.
However, there were many negatives to take away, such as Mathew Leckie, Robbie Kruse and Tomi Juric failing to score and Josh Risdon occasionally being caught too high up the field.
Australia’s low-ranked opponents, at times, deserved to score a consolation goal.
Australia’s front third will face possibly the best defence in Asia – South Korea – who held World Cup powerhouse Germany scoreless. Even on home soil, will it be possible for the Socceroos attack to break the best defence in Asia down?
Australia’s attackers
Martin Boyle is in fine career form in Scotland, scoring five goals and setting up his teammates three times in 18 appearances in all competitions.
In the Scottish league, he has only played 11 matches but has seven scoring involvements. A versatile attacker, and can take on a defender.
He could be the key to filling in the centre-forward position. He’s played there before, of course.
Craig Goodwin has only played eight games so far for Adelaide, including four appearances from the A-League and four in the FFA Cup, but has scored eight times and had two assists.
In the league, he assisted twice and scored three times in four matches. He is Adelaide United’s talisman at the moment and is solving the issues up front, with a hand in all of their goals.
He deserves more than most to start against South Korea, but is only a train-on squad member.
Tomi Juric, Australia’s first-choice striker for a few years, especially under Ange Postecoglou has already featured six times this season in all competitions.
His overseas form is disappointing, as he only has two scoring involvements, a goal and an assist. He also has failed to score in the Swiss Super League so far in five games.
At an international level, he failed to score once this year after playing seven matches, although he did assist Awer Mabil’s goal against Kuwait.
Not an ideal player to be starting for the reigning Asian Champions.
Robbie Kruse, who copped a lot of stick in the World Cup, is not in good form in Second Division Germany.
In eleven games in all competitions, he has only scored once and assisted twice. Despite being commended on his performance against Kuwait, he is simply not good enough at international level either, failing to score in the past year. Does he even deserve to make the squad?
Mathew Leckie, in the Bundesliga, is yet to score or assist in four appearances off the bench.
It should be taken into consideration that first division Germany has some of the best defences in the world, but he played poorly in his last two matches against Peru and Kuwait.
He could chip in with a few goals, scoring an average of one goal every four games since 2017. Of course, he still hasn’t scored since playing against the Czech Republic earlier this year.
He is one of the better attackers in the squad, but is he overrated and deserving of some time on the sideline?
Awer Mabil is in perfect form and was the best player on the park after coming on with only a few minutes to go, and he thoroughly deserved his first international goal.
In the Danish Superliga, Mabil has scored four times and assisted eight times in only twelve matches, including four scoring involvements in FC Midtjylland’s last fixture.
Jamie Maclaren – an FC Hibernian striker and teammate of Martin Boyle – has now struggled for game time after returning from a back injury.
Jamie McLaren. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
In his eleven total appearances, only five which were starts, he’s scored one goal and assisted twice. Some see a future forward partnership between him and Boyle, but to improve his chances of starting, league form needs to certainly improve.
He has not yet scored for the Socceroos.
Andrew Nabbout returns after injuring his shoulder in the World Cup match against Denmark. Since his transfer from Newcastle, however, there is little to write home about.
He hasn’t scored for his new club yet. He did chip in with a couple of assists though, in 11 appearances in all competitions this season, which is reasonable considering he only started one match.
Nabbout’s former teammate, Dimitri Petratos, has failed to hit the heights he hit last season. In six appearances in the FFA Cup and the A-League, he is yet to score and has only assisted once.
This lack of involvement is unacceptable and he doesn’t deserve a Socceroos call-up, especially since he hasn’t impressed at international level. He is a train-on player of the squad.
Now, unfortunately, each player in the attack either lacks ability, international experience or both. Mabil, Goodwin and Boyle, possibly Australia’s greatest frontline due to their form, have a combined four international appearances altogether. Leckie, Kruse and Juric, Australia’s three most capped players in the attack have 21 international goals altogether in 164 appearances, although two of the three haven’t scored in over a year.
Their record overseas combined is slightly better, with two goals and three assists in 21 appearances but Boyle, Mabil and Goodwin have better form than these three combined.
Of course, Nabbout, Petratos and Maclaren are delivering little as well, while also lacking international experience.
So, there are two solutions, to either cap players who aren’t delivering at an international level but have experience, or to cap new players who haven’t played internationally but show promise at times overseas.
So, what are you for, the forward line of Leckie, Kruse and Juric? Or the forward line of Goodwin, Boyle and Mabil?
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