Aaron Mooy cruises as Socceroos smash Kuwait 3-0

They are now. Come Dec 22 the starting 11 reads like this: Ryan 30 Behich 32 Degenek 28 Sainsbury 30 Grant 31 Jeggo 30 Mooy 31 Irvine 29 Leckie 31 Taggart 29 Borello 27 Injuries, form, fitness and the like of the current players will mean the likes of Arzani, McGree, Gersbach, Souttar, Deng, Hrustic, Genreau are likely to feature in the big dance should we qualify. Hence there is value in giving some of these players decent time on the pitch in the games where we are looking comfortable. Nepal and Taiwan offer such opportunities. Just thinking ahead as games in the next round against the likes of Iran and Japan will not offer such.

Luongo pretty much missed the entire pre-season while QPR were trying to sell him. And he's only had cameo roles for SW so far, so wouldn't be surprised if he didn't come through the week training in ~40C heat too well. Add to that Irvine has been in career-best form for Hull and it looks like Jeggo has established himself as a more defensive midfielder rather than a box-to-box type like Mass and Irvine, so they were easier to pick in this set-up.

Hard to take too much away from a game in 37C heat against opposition who've been out of action for 2 years, but liking the energy and (for the 1st half at least) fluency of this current lineup. Looked like Jeggo in a holding role in place of Milligan and he added pace and handled the conditions really well. Having Mooy and Irvine in a two-pronged attacking midfield was generally much better value than relying on Rogic, IMO. Also impressed by Borrello. Even if he wasn't particularly flashy, he just had a confidence and competence on the ball, to be able to keep testing the defence and maintain pressure, that we've been missing when Kruse was in that spot.

Thanks for the in-depth opinion

I'm not sure who won't be there Ben?? Milligan aside they're all in their peak years....

I suspect it is either he or Mooy. Not both. Puzzling though, given his undoubted quality

Huh? 2022 is only 3 years away, so guys aged 26-27 will be right to go for then (assuming we make it of course, and so long as they can keep their place in the team). I’m more confused about the point of playing someone like Milligan. If he is still in the squad in 2022, that will be a sad indictment of the standard of our young players. The current phase seems like a perfect time to test replacements for him.

Always good to get that first game out of the way but a long way to go. Taggart did fairly well although he had a good chance in the first half after making some space and opening up the left of goal, only to scuff it to the right in what was a tame pickup for the keeper. Generally the passing was firm and the receiving of the ball in tight spaces was sticking to the feet. Just a little more inventive when a tighter defence is presented will do.

From 2015 Asian Cup player of the tournament, Luongo soon followed with fewer appearances than you'd expect. At the World Cup he had high hopes of making a starting impact but didn't ever feature. Something we don't know? Better players ahead? Hard to see this is about which club he plays for since he regularly starts in that time.

Australia will not be going to 2022 worldcup.

Was a good win, considering the heat, thought the midfield played well, defence was shaky at rare moments in second half but Maty Ryan made a couple of excellent saves. Jeggo looked good along with Borello. Two for the future I reckon. Would have been good to see Adam Taggart score but had a good game overall. More goals also would have been nice but 3-0 away to Kuwait is very good. Hopefully can get some more wins and a higher goal difference in the Nepal and Chinese Taipei games next month.

Kuwait didnt turn up in the first half

average

That's great sounds like he's come along way. Whilst different players, I'm surprised to see him surpass Luongo who had such high hopes.

It was a perfunctory win, but an important one given Kuwait away is on paper the toughest of the non-Jordan fixtures. My main concern is the age of the squad. At 23 Mabil was the youngest of the squad to make it onto the pitch with most of the squad in the 26-27 year old range. That means many of the players are unlikely to feature in 2022. Hopefully the Nepal and Taiwan games feature a few of our younger prospects for 2022 (should we qualify) as there won't be as many opportunities to do so in the Third Round (assuming we qualify) where the level of the opposition improves considerably.

Very well. He was crisp with his passing and broke down the Kuwaiti's attack. Some of his tackles were enthusiastic however he was playing the type of position where if you play well you don't get mentioned but if you have an off-day you are headline news. The nice thing was he freed up Mooy to play a more creative role.

Comfortable 3-0 win away from home playing in a furnace in our first competitive match since January. I will take that. The article writes about mooy not playing in epl but he will. Brighton are not much of a quantum leap in quality compared to Huddersfield when you compare their squad /form over last few seasons. Mooy only joined on loan day before epl season started so he was always going to have to bide his time. Give him a bit of time and assuming he’s training well enough he will get the chance.

How'd Jeggo go?

An ideal start to qualifying, 3 points on the road at what appears, behind Jordan, to be the Socceroos most difficult group opponent. The key is to build up cohesion as the team prepares for the matches against Jordan which right now appear to be the ones which will decide who wins the group.