Should Graham Arnold continue leading the Socceroos?

The World Cup result was a shock to a lot of people’s opinions…….. Arnold changed course after Peru and his normal game plans no where to be seen. He said he had a plan ……. which is consistent with the results. I am not sure how much “the plan” gets credit over the a-league players that applied it. I suspect that what we saw has been seen before, from a previous football teams squad wearing Man United colours. Having said that I believe Arnold would be better suited now to a job overseeing Socceroo squad players in general…….. moving up the ladder and leave the Socceroos to the current assistants. Win Win

Having read the discussion so far, I would like to take it in a slightly different more wholistic direction. The last 3 or so World Cup 4 year cycles has seen the pool of elite Australian born male players diminish in, as Goodwin noted, their technical standard. With the physicality and speed at the elite level in the top UK and European leagues improving along with the technical abilities, Australian players have not been improving to match the evolution of the world game at its best. And the pool of the best Australian players has been so diminished that the SPFL in Scotland was by luck the hunting ground for last minute Socceroos selections like Mooy, Devlin, Rowles and Baccus. Along with Scottish born players with an Australian parent like Cummings and Souttar Arnold was to be honest scraping around for players, and especially players who were game fit given the timing of the A League. If you had said 3-4 years ago that this scenerio along with the Covid pandemic was going to eventuate, you would not have been telling the truth. The point I am making along with the last minute luck of the Wiggles episode is that the so called Australian youth development pathways have had for the last 12 years or so had a wrecking ball destroying wave after wave of youth talent for all the reasons repeated over and over again in these pages. Post-Brexit Visa restrictions, the rapidly smaller pool of young players able to access European Union country passports, time poor Australians not able to spend time volunteering to coach, referee and administer the game, increasing equipment and grounds costs and immigration being dominated by non-football nations like India and China are factors that continue to have serious impacts yet to be dealt with by the geniuses at the FFA. The discussion should not be about naming a few 18 year olds as future stars and national team saviours but about how the youth development system can produce waves of talent like the football superpowers so that individuals don't matter. Having experienced as a parent the current system with its nepotism, cronyism, strongly suspected financial corruption, excessive financial and time costs to parents which is much more than just excessive club fees, the limited number of gatekeepers at the elite levels in youth, the privatization and corporatization of association football, the marginalisation of futsal, school football, etc. as serious development tools, the commercialisation of the game generally from private coaching academies to the entry charges, food and drink at A League games, the sham of the A League academies, etc etc. expose a system not fit for purpose and not capacities to continuously adapt and improve. Most of the correspondents to The Roar discussions know these issues. I shake my head with the amounts of money the FFA has and does deal with and the salaries of the FFA people like Arnold, Johnson etc take home. Arnold takes the large sums of money, talks the talk but nothing changes in the player development system. There needs to be BOTH a roots and all SYSTEMS review of all elements the youth development pathways AND serious transition policies put in place so that people like Arnold can be moved on easily and that the game is put back into professional administration where specialist expertise, experience and results rather that Socceroo caps are the priority. If playing and number of players in the top 6 professional leagues in the world is the most important, make it an annual key performance indicator and out their jobs on the line.

Who can be the next Socceroos' coach? Any suggestion?

Australian pitches are often dry thanks to our climate, if they were better irrigated they would have a much better surface and would produce better players. We need more aqueducts!

Of the Australian coaches available at the time, Arnie deserved his chance. The team performed better than given credit for at the Asian cup ultimately bring knocked out due to a defender slipping over. However the next few years has provided evidence that he wasn't up to it. The tactics were not ambitious and he picked favourites. His crowning glory before the world cup seemed to be the genius in picking the grey wiggle for a penalty shoot out, that was it! Everything else was diabolical. The standard of the game itself was like watching two bad ALeague teams saving their worst performance for their biggest game. Very pleased he had some success at the world cup but I believe more credit goes to the players and their competitiveness, not Arnie's tactics. I agree Waz #ArnieOut

Can’t believe that people are seriously saying they are really impressed with the Socceroos’ performances at the World Cup. They won 2 games both by 1-0 and were eliminated at their first knockout game. They were also hammered 4-1. What low standards Socceroos fan have.

Home grown head coach, at least one European assistant coach who could even be based in Europe. That way we preserve the cultural beliefs without eliminating any useful outside influences.

I guess it depends what sport you follow as to what success is - beating the West Indies in cricket (about 8 actual world teams) - successful? Beating Samoa to win a World Cup in league (about 4 actual world teams) - successful? Making it to a final group of 16 teams in a true world game made up of over 200 actual world teams - I think that’s successful and would be a great benchmark to have in future World Cups.

“Arnold must go” was my opinion before the WC. If we are serious about advancing as a football nation he must still go. His Asian Cup campaign was poor, fair enough it was early in his reign. His qualifying campaign was awful. That has to be his measure and the deciding factor of whether he stays or goes - we learn from history or we repeat it (and next time we’re not saved in the last minute by the post or lose in the lottery of a penalty shoot out). The France game could easily have been 1-8 as he got his tactics badly wrong (as he did in qualifying) and the two (marvellous) 1-0 wins could just as easily been defeats. The Argentina game was his best, good tactics and confidence. Arnie’s contribution seems to have been “call on the Aussie spirit”, that’s not coaching - that’s cheerleading #ArnieOut

UK in December isn't an obvious holiday destination...does he have family there? Maybe he is networking.

I’d be more than happy to extend Arnie’s contract. The guy is a legend.

"the socceroos played perfectly to their strengths" - Giving away possession in midfield and playing defensively.

:laughing:

Aqueducts...?

Nah, get rid of him. I mean, what's Arnold ever done for the Socceroos?

Interesting that Football in Australia sets such a low benchmark for success. Getting to round of 16 is a huge. A win over Denmark is remarkable even though Australia has 5 times the population.