Leckie on the spot to fire Aussies to Asian Cup quarters

Irvine was the official man of the match. Probably says something about how underappreciated our midfield is when they get the defensive side right. We've tended to overthink attack and underthink defence in these games and while we clearly still overthought our attack last night, our defence was just about spot-on. Uzbekistan aren't slouches, they scored 7 in their group, but after that hairy moment in the 10th minute, they barely got a sniff last night. A lot of that is down to the work Irvine and Milligan did.

RF I think you'll find the old boys club permeates media, coaching, football institutions etc. They can't help themselves!

A reminder of the players missing that will come back into the squad if playing well. How different a lineup of all players fit? Can only speculate on the performance even then.

I think his citizenship had some hiccups for this tournament. but bring him in next time .

"Same with our wingers Mabil & Ikonomidis who may beat two defenders but then lose out trying to beat a third" - Arzani has the same problem of trying to take on half the other team by himself. Just 2 goals from 24 matches at Melbourne City.

They do have options to replace him, but it's just been a terrible attrition rate.

Yep ! We are just missing a fair chunk of class all across the park. We have a team that generally battles hard, but then regularly falls down in the vital areas that are needed to achieve the results. Take our fullbacks Behich & Ryan who do so much running forward in attack , yet rarely put in a decent cross to create a scoring opportunity. Same with our wingers Mabil & Ikonomidis who may beat two defenders but then lose out trying to beat a third, or misdirect a pass too far in front of a support player. Or take McLaren whose main attribute is his speed to get in behind the defence, but he never gets any decent through balls to use his main skills. All these things just indicate a lack of class with the individual players currently within this team. I would rate Rogic & Leckie as the only two players we have with a bit of class that might occasionally create something for our team with a run , a pass or a shot on goal. And even their form is inconsistent at best. And now Rogic is out for the next match and Leckie still seeking fitness to try to last a full match. The rest are just trundlers trying their best. I fear we are pushing it up hill coming to the pointy end of this competition.

Griffo, Rather astute assessment. I am consistently impressed with Giannou. Question is how will we go against UAE, they are another side that's no slouch when it comes to quality football. It's a real shame that Nabbout is injured, I am keen to see him back in full flight. A quality player in my opinion, and the same goes Boyle.

I like your thinking. Makes sense : )

I think Giannou is in line for a start at #9, even to freshen up and try something a little different over Maclaren. I think he also is more of a threat to score, even coming on later in the game against fatiguing defences. Although Irvine didn't have as great a game as previously, he probably will start forward of Luongo with Rogic out: I'd prefer the reverse, at least initially with rotation between the two. Luongo is good enough but also good to have this amount of backup in the squad. Leckie and Mabil were like for like but the difference was obvious out right when Mabil came off. Perhaps another bench start for Leckie to ease into a full 90 minutes as I doubt Mabil would go left in place of Ikonomidis. Sainsbury is starting to concern me but is Jurman a better option? Milligan is better at DM screening and could offer passing options against UAE. Overall we need to pressure as we did against Syria even before the first goal. Last nights performance on repeat will put undue pressure on our defence again. Those large periods of sideways passing was unusual as it was glaring, and we appeared to not be looking as much for balls forward to runners, going back to Degenek or Sainsbury. Uzbeks still yet to score against us in open play but they are so close. Happy for the win. Move on to winning the next game.

Behich was a bit frustrated at times with Ikonomidis final pass. Perhaps the occasion got to him a little? A few were having moments, and the constant sideways passing at the back was a real feature compared to previous games. Even though the Uzbeks were setting up deep in defence, we showed a real lack of conviction in taking players on and combination passes through the defence, compared to say Syria. I think it was a little worse than the opening Jordan game. Rogic yellow aside I would be thinking tournament fatigue could be setting in with similar lineups, but we did have an extra two days prep over the Uzbeks.

I don't think Maclaren is out of form by any stretch. I think his game isn't particularly suited to the game the Socceroos want to play. He's a great counter-attacking striker and a great goal poacher, as evidenced by his stint with the Roar and what I've seen of him so far at Hibs. I'd almost go so far as to say it's not worth taking him to the Asian Cup or even WC qualifiers, where teams are sitting back waiting for us to attack them, but bring him in at WC where we're the team soaking up pressure and hitting on the counter. I don't think this will happen, but it seems to be a better use of his talents IMO.

that's bit defeatist isnt it!! What about Terry Antonis, they guy is going gangbusters, one of the best players in our league at the moment

Over 14 World Cup Qualifiers under Pim Verbeek, Australia conceded only 4 goals. Australia never conceded more than 1 goal, which means we kept 10 clean sheets. That's an extraordinary set of numbers. For sure Schwarzer played a huge part, but unfair to say defence issues started under Verbeek. I'd say Verbeek contributed to extra pressure on the defence by not wanting to take games to the opposition, which meant the game was often played inside Australia's half. Anyway, I'd be more than happy to have AUS keep 10 clean sheets & only concede 4 goals in every World Cup qualifying campaign.

Is Arnold set in his ways or is it that he has a limited range? As much as Sydney won, it was because of player quality no tactics and structure, they were the same set up week in week out.

Ikonomidis made some good runs last night and really panicked the Uzbeks. But he stuffed up the good work with poor passing or wrong turns. But he did enough to make me look forward to a team with some combination of Leckie/Arzani/Boyle/Mabil/Ikonomidis/Rogic, all fed by Mooy. That would be Arnold’s dream I guess.

Ryan the hero really! No Rogic - no chance.

Afternoon All, You blokes are probably not going to agree with me, but our midfield as experienced as they are, are not feeding our forwards to a signficant standard that permits goals. Mix it up, get someone with a big engine, who will run all day, who can put a pass in that will be like a hot knife through butter.........bring in our new Aussie, Isaias. He is a class player and will provide stimulation and make it mighty hard for the opposition to keep tabs on him because he never stops. And no I am not a paid up member of Adelaide. I just recognise a good footballer when I see one.

Redondo how much better did we look when Leckie came on? You can see why he plays in the bundesliga. Throw in Arzani and Boyle and we look to have a cutting edge that at the very least, should put a team like Uzbek away. We lacked that little bit of quality last night in the top 3rd

Irvine goes up to CAM and Luongo goes at CDM IMO. Will be a tough game considering the home crowd advantage they will have.