The list of young players coming up through the ranks who could be Socceroos is getting quite long and there’s plenty of talent to choose from.
This is creating a sense of real optimism about the future and Graham Arnold has already said this could be the next golden generation.
The first criticism that immediately follows, of course, is that the ‘golden generation’ were all playing at top European clubs in top European leagues and that these new players aren’t. But that’s a point that Arnold himself seemed to acknowledge when he said that this “could be” the next golden generation.
Having said that, he’s already proved his doubters, who said that the squad he selected for the Olympic Games qualifiers in Thailand wouldn’t make it, wrong. This criticism may have also been a hangover from the World Cup in Russia and the Asian Cup in Qatar where goal-scoring was an issue.
(Photo by Tom Dulat/Getty Images)
But the squads who were sent to Russia and Qatar were unusually poor at goal scoring. In the final World Cup group match against Peru, the players in the starting front four had just 28 goals from 201 games between them, or less than one in seven. In Qatar, no player had more than ten international goals to their name and the entire 23-man squad had just 49 goals between them, which was only one less than Tim Cahill’s career total of 50.
Compare that to who we have now and who’s coming through.
Adam Taggart is fit unlike in 2018, while Jamie Maclaren seems to have improved as well. Deni Juric is going berserk in Croatia and Nikita Rukavytsya is making a real name for himself in Israel.
All four of these players have goals per match ratios around the one goal per two matches benchmark that you would expect from a good striker. These are the older experienced players, but the youth ranks don’t look bad either.
Dylan Wenzel-Halls has been a standout at Brisbane Roar and it’s hard not to see him scoring consistently as long as he’s given the opportunity and improves his fitness. At Adelaide United there’s a whole production line of talent, but Mohammed Toure seems to be the best prospect for the future. Like Wenzel-Halls, it isn’t hard to imagine him being a prolific goal scorer in years to come.
(Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)
His older brother Al Hassan Toure also looks like he’s going places and once he makes up for the time he lost from his injury setback, he’ll be a serious goal threat once again. Then there’s Riley McGree, who’s another Adelaide United product that we can expect to see in the national squad at some point. He’s now at Birmingham City after scoring ten goals from 23 matches in the A-League last season.
There also look to be some very good prospects in academies overseas, too.
Marlee Francois scored a bunch of goals for Bristol City in their U18 squad last season and has now signed a professional contract with them. He plays on the left-wing but likes to make runs direct into the box and score from there, which he seems to be good at. His coaches have also noted that he’s hard for opposition players to try and mark.
In Germany, John Iredale has now recovered from his broken foot, which doctors described by saying it looked like it’d been hit by a truck. He had scored ten goals from 13 matches for the reserves at Wolfsburg before the injury and seems to be back on track again with five goals from eight matches so far this season. He’s tall at 189 cm which allows him to be an aerial threat, but he can also score with both feet and can turn his back to goal and hold off defenders.
Then you come to the big two future prospects, Alex Robertson and Cristian Volpato.
Alex Robertson was signed by Manchester City from Manchester United after their scouts saw how good he was at their youth side and didn’t want their rivals to have him. He was doing so well that Pep Guardiola even considered giving him time in the EPL squad when he was just 16, but an injury got in the way.
Robertson had scored six goals from six matches in the U18 side before the injury, but has now recovered and has scored seven goals from as many matches with the U23 squad.
Cristian Volpato, meanwhile, has just signed a professional contract at Roma, with Francesco Totti as his agent and mentor. Born and raised in Sydney, his talent was first noticed when he scored 25 goals in a match at Abbotsford juniors as a five-year-old, after which a parent asked for him to go to the AC Milan Academy in Sydney and then later went from there to the Australasian Football Academy. His coach there, Tony Basha, saw his potential and called his contacts at Roma to set up a trial, where he scored a hattrick within just 15 minutes of being brought on.
Now coming back to the idea that this could be the next golden generation, I think there’s good reason to be optimistic about that. All the players I’ve mentioned have goals per match ratios of (or look like they soon will) around one goal in every two matches. That means you could fill the front four attacking positions three times over with good goal scorers, or even more if you extend the list a bit, which means there’s plenty of depth.
There’s also a good chance that most of the 12 I’ve mentioned will soon be playing in top European leagues, too.
That sounds pretty good to me.
me too
Roar Rookie
They can certainly learn from them, but its more that fans could temper expectations with a little reality. "The success of the Socceroos' 'Golden Generation' was an outlier, with the talent pool of today a matter of Australia reverting to the mean, according to a study completed by Australia's players' union."
Nick Symonds
Guest
NPL NSW Men's Round 2 – Sydney United 58 v Sydney FC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7erY9vE-sfg
Befuddled
Guest
Wonderful news. So that youth development system and getting rid of the AIS turned out trumps. Well done to all concerned. I guess we should be talking about quarter finals in Qatar now?
Nick Symonds
Guest
NEWS FROM LATE 2020: Scottish giants Rangers have signed Sydney FC midfielder Adrian Segecic according to Scottish media reports. - "Segecic is one of Australia's most promising young midfielders and will likely join the highly-rated Rangers academy under coach Craig Mulholland, as he looks for first-team opportunities under one of the finest midfielders in history, Steven Gerrard. "Segecic previously trialled at Ajax and spent time playing in Croatia, in addition to making his way through the Sydney academy system." - https://www.ftbl.com.au/news/scottish-giants-sign-sydney-fc-midfielder-report-553439
Will
Guest
Yesterday I saw this kid for Sydney FC youth vs Sydney United where the later won 5-2 (great game by the way) and Sydney had this 16/17 year old kid called Segecic, a left footed playmaker and this kid could really play especially with his dribbling and ability to make killer through balls. I think we will be seeing him more often in the future. There is also others such as Jake Hollman who is a decent dribbler who's brother played yesterday played in the same Sydney FC side.
Nick Symonds
Guest
It would be good to see shots and shots on target to goals scored conversion stats more often.
Newie
Guest
Totally agree with your comment. We were completely 'in' that game against France, which they won due to a poor attempted clearance from us. There are so many marginal moments in football games that can lead to totally different outcomes. I can never forget Luke Wilkshire's scuffed shot against Ghana at the World Cup in S Africa that would have won the game. How differently might we be talking if he had scored? What other moments might have led to different outcomes? I get slightly tired of this golden generation nostalgia like those lads are the only decent footballers we've ever produced. We were all but gone by the third game unfortunately.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
No mention of defence Nick. A lot of these young A League players you name look very ordinary against decent defenders, and some A League teams have some very ordinary defenders at times. There are a few good defenders in the A League, including a couple of young Australians.
jbinnie
Guest
Nick - Just from watching a-league match after a-league match it is not too hard to assess the finishing skills of the players involved. Some keen person involved usually post stats before each report and in those reports it can be seen the shots "on target" can be compared with the "total number of shots" and of course the goals scored from those "on target" attempts. You may get a surprise at the percentages generated from these figures for it is not abnormal to see "40% accuracies" and even worse actual goals scored from the attempts, By the way there are many observations on these pages that we have seen "heaps" of goals scored this year when in fact after 58 matches in both years, (last season), the "goals for" is standing at 173 scored this year, 169 last year, a 4 goal difference!!!!!. Cheers jb.
Ad-O
Guest
Hmmm... I'll believe it when I see it
Nick Symonds
Guest
Cristian Volpato I can't find a highlights reel of him, but there is a training session he did on YouTube and during a bit of shooting practise with a moving ball he scored 14 times, 2 balls went too high for him and 1 was saved. It isn't much, but his accuracy was basically right on target. Marksman like. His finishing skills look very good.
Nick Symonds
Guest
It's possible, but even so it shows they can put away chances. They still need good finishing skills to get the goals. Also, if you're comparing two players from the same league then it doesn't really matter as it still shows who the standouts are. The other thing that a good goals per match ratio can show, regardless of level, is that a player has an eye for goal and has the right instinct. That in itself is a good way to narrow the field if you're trying to spot talent and sort the wheat from the chaff. If the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour, then having previous goal scoring form is probably a good indicator of how a player will perform in the future.
stu
Guest
great news on the young talent coming through......one important question to consider before elevating them to international status.....do they look good because they are perhaps in a 'Youth' A-League.
Nick Symonds
Guest
Andrew Nabbout (28) Melbourne Victory 2013–15 = 5/40 (1:8) Negeri Sembilan 2016 = 8/12 (1:1.5) Newcastle Jets 2016–18 = 18/46 (1:2.5) Urawa Red Diamonds 2018–19 = 1/16 Melbourne Victory 2019–20 = 8/22 (1:2.75) Melbourne City 2020– = 0/1 Australia 2018- = 2/9 (1:3)
Nick Symonds
Guest
Deni Juric spoke of wanting to play alongside his brother Tomi, but they also have a cousin, Noah Botic, who has played for Australia at youth level. He scored four goals in three consecutive matches at the 2019 U/17 World Cup. Hopefully Deni Juric will choose Australia, but they'll have to ask him first though.
Nick Symonds
Guest
OTHER PLAYERS WHO LOOK LIKE GOAL SCORERS: Panos Armenakas - 2 from 6 at S.V. Zulte Waregem in Belgian first division Ramy Najjarine - 3/9 for Aus U17, 3/5 for Aus U20, 3/7 for Aus U21, 16/20 for M. City NPL Noah Botic - 3/7 in 2019-20 and 1/2 in 2020-21 for Hoffenheim under-19 Moudi Najjar - 24 from 34 for Melbourne City NPL in 2018-20 Cameron Peupion - 8 from 13 for Brighton & Hove Albion under-18 Nick D'Agostino - 3/12 in 2019-20 and 4/7 in 2020-21 for PG + 3/2 Aus U17 and 5/9 Aus U23 Alou Koul - 6 from 10 at CCM Patrick Wood - 11/13 for SFC NPL and 3/9 for SFC Valentino Yuel - 4 from 10 at Newcastle Jets Carlo Armiento - 15 from 33 in NPL SA and 3 from 7 for Perth Glory Kosta Grozos - 16 from 33 for WSW NPL Ayom Majok - 9 from 21 in NPL SA before going to Western United Pacifique Niyongabire - 23/53 at Adelaide United NPL and 1/7 at Adelaide United Harry Sawyer - 15 from 7 at Western Pride, 13 from 24 at Davao Aguilas, 4 from 10 at Tai Po, 4 from 6 at South Melbourne and 15 from 19 at Gold Coast Knights - He's consistent Rafael Rech, son of Fernando Rech - Stats unknown “Rafael plays pretty much like I was playing at that time. He actually looks just like me, even physically, he’s a strong boy, a fast boy, he can score goals from anywhere in midfield so yeah he’s pretty much like I was as a player.” - Fernando Rech https://www.foxsports.com.au/football/a-league/his-dad-was-an-aleague-hero-now-this-brazilian-hotshot-is-dreaming-of-being-a-socceroo/news-story/363d6c1cb438cbd8438e45ed4ab98a24 Brazilian football talent Rafael 'Rafinha' Rech (18-11-2002) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnhkZfEFBp0
Nick Symonds
Guest
"technique, comprehension and fitness levels" - Agree with the technical side, but another big thing needed at the development level is just basic ground upgrades like lighting and drainage. There's a billion dollar gap that needs to be filled and they're all shovel ready projects, ready and waiting to go for an economic stimulus program. Increasing player and match capacity at grounds will increase the talent pool and that would be a big help in itself, in addition to all the other things.
Nick Symonds
Guest
I couldn't find his stats. But the last news story about him that I could find was from August 2018 when he was 18 or 19 at the time. He'd just signed a 2 year contract with Leganés who were in La Liga, but they've since been relegated. https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/meet-the-cocky-aussie-rookie-with-the-la-liga-contract He's been described as Arzani like, but Arzani only scored twice from 24 matches for Melbourne City. Reno Piscopo is a similar story with just 5 goals from 51 matches for Renate in Serie C and 2 from 20 for Wellington. Ajdin Hrustic seems to be on a similar trajectory with 5 from 65 for Groningen in the Dutch top flight which works out to 1 goal every 13 matches, and he's hasn't yet scored from any of his 6 matches for Eintracht Frankfurt so far. They're all good players, but if they don't score goals when there are other players who do then you have to wonder if they should be selected as attackers. It's hard to leave out good players, but if you want the best team then you might have to. Who sounds like the better three: Arzani - Cho - Hrustic or Toure - Robertson - McGree
A League is Awesome
Guest
City have a potentional of 5 Socceroos or more with JMac, Good, Nabout, Glover & Atkinson. Do we really need to look overseas? Plus these 5 play together week in and week out so they hit the pace from the opening minute instead waiting on these superstars to implement a style of play that no one knows how to implement consistently. Hopefully the A League Finals are over before the Socceroos Qualifying starts. The Golden Generation made it to a World Cup and got out of the Group Stages once. I think the Expectations should be higher and we should far exceed any previous Golden Generation instead of trying to replicate something that the sands of time have passed. Graham seems to be doing a magnificent job and has a tremendous amount of passion but I just hope that his end game isn't playing a Sydney FC style of play from a couple of years ago. Ange went way too far, way too quick with no fundamentals for his style of play and hopefully Graham learnt from that but doesn't become conservative from it. Attackive football wins games as the top teams in the A League are starting to show week in, week out.
jamesb
Roar Guru
Australia at the last world cup was competitive against France, who ended up as eventual world champions. Rather than saying that the golden generation of the past was an "outlier", young players from today could learn something from the likes of Viduka, Emerton, Chipperfield etc.