Not really feeling it

[Stuckey]

Its exactly the sort of performance those same people who bag out if AU did that in the ACL.

[shinAUFC]

Its exactly the sort of performance those same people who bag out if AU did that in the ACL.

Good point,

Piss poor that our national team plays more basic backward and lets be honest impotent football against probably a state league quality team.

Yet last years second last placed Aleague club against the best club squads in asia excelled.

can someone please explain this to me ????? Because ACL teams are light years better then the squads in our WC group (japan excluding)

So its perfectly questionable if the Socceroos would even be competitive in the Aleague, and if thats the case why the hell are we not loading the socceroos with Aleague players ??

[Stuckey]

Personally I feel the real immediate issue with the Socceroos is that Holger is playing his favourites regardless of match fitness. Carl Valeri played his first game of football for two months in the Iraq game. How can that be?!
Its like when Pim Verbeek said before the 2010 WC when he included Harry in the squad based on a quite large lack of football over the previous 6 months. He said "A 70% fit Harry Kewell is better then the alternative." Personally at the time I agreed with him (not so sure about a 70% fit 34 year old Kewell now!) but I feel Holger has now taken that approach with almost the entire squad.
All I can say is thank God Neill and Valeri are suspended for the next qualifier! Now it will force Holger to actually consider changes.
What happens if a Neill-less defence in the next game is rock solid? I think how he selects the squad after a game like that will really highlight just where Holger's head is at.

[Interloper]

I feel the same way about the national team as I do with a lot of Adelaide's play. Theres no target for the unfashionable "long ball", yet There doesn't seem to be anybody actually playing in the second striker/playmaker/attacking midfield/whatever position to turn good possession into a goal-scoring chance. So the idea for every attack is.

1. win ball back.
2. Play out of defence
3. maintain good possession with short accurate passing in the midfield.
4. Then a miracle happens
5. Goal

It looks great when it comes off, but it's very one-dimensional the defence can set itself for one form of attack only. They don't even look that threatening from set-pieces.

re: the comment about Kewell. Kewell is/was a lot better as a target man than any of the other attacking options bar Kennedy, so was always a credible threat that forced the defence to worry about the more direct route.

All that said. the 3 away games in the middle east are done now, 1-1-1 isn't the worst record you could have from any 3 randomly selected games played there.

[Stuckey]

Sum up my thoughts very nicely. Regardless of how the squad is travelling. 1-1-1 in the middle east is probably something I would have taken if offered.