I'm not sure if this is true but I read that Dwight Yorke will be the only A-league player at the World Cup this summer. Being a Trinidad & Tobago and A-league fan I've kept up with the league, watched the Grand Final and other games and can safely conclude that the A-league has many fine Aussie players. I know there's a smattering of Australian players playing in Europe but why is Hiddink disregarding the A-league's footballers? Any thoughts?
Should be in Australias sub forum, or Asia... As Australia arent part of Oceania anymore. Michael Beuchamp from the Central Coast Mariners will likely be in Australias squad in Germany.
if there's no A-league's players in the squad which means all of the players are foreign based players, so does australia have that many players playing abroad?
No they actually have about 6 of their starting 11 playing in higher leagues.The EPL may be the be all to the poms,but it isn't.
Don't get worked up Andy.Its actually quite funny to me,that outsiders say we only have Cahill,Viduka and Kewell as top liners.What it really is,is they're the only three players most people know.So in reality they're just uneducated comments and nothing to lose any sleep over.
Not in the slightest. Of the players who IMHO have a good chance of making the starting XI at the World Cup, their club status is as follows: Schwarzer - Starting for Middlesbrough (EPL) Kalac - Backup keeper at AC Milan (Serie A) Emerton - Starting/Bench for Blackburn (EPL) Neill - Starting for Blackburn (EPL) Vidmar - Starting for NAC Breda (Eredivisie) Beauchamp - Starting for Central Coast (A League) Moore - Starting for Newcastle (EPL) Popovic - Starting for Crystal Palace (English Championship) Chipperfield - Starting for Basel (Switzerland) Grella - Starting for Parma (Serie A) Cahill - Starting for Everton (EPL) Culina - Starting for PSV (Eredivisie) Bresciano - Starting for Parma (Serie A) Kewell - Starting for Liverpool (EPL) Viduka - Starting for Middlesbrough (EPL) Aloisi - Starting for Alaves (La Liga) So of the 16 players with a good chance of figuring in our starting team: - 10 are playing regular first-team football for teams in the Big 3 leagues - 1 is a backup keeper at one of the best teams in Europe - 2 are playing regular first-team football for bigger teams in smaller leagues that played in Europe this year - 3 are playing in smaller/lower division leagues without European football. Indeed, those unlikely to even make the squad include Filan (starting at Wigan), Jones (backup to Schwarzer at Middlesbrough, and getting quite a few games this season) and Sterjovski (starting at Basel).
Not to mention Scott McDonald - starting and starring for Motherwell in the SPL (may not be the strongest league, but still a major league) and Ljubo Milicevic (captain, Thun, Switzerland, UEFA Cup/Champions League team (and on the verge of signing for Wolfsberg in the Bundesliga if rumours are true)) A world cup always showcases a nations less-heralded talents onto bigger and better things, and I think quite a few aussies will move to big clubs/leagues after the world cup Milicevic, Beauchamp are heading to the Bundesliga Aloisi will probably find another club especially if Alaves are relegated Bresciano will go to a bigger club i believe Schwarzer could go to a bigger club, as with Viduka Holman could go to a bigger club Carney could go to the Bundesliga Thwaite will go to Wisla
Also talk that Wisla are trying to get Carney over Oh Archie looks like he will be back at Victory nexy year and tech he is still a victory (as he is on loan) player so thats two A league players
Lazaridis- EPL Birmingham Skoko- On loan Thompson- Eredivisie PSV bench These are definate squad members too.
our players in the a-league just are not ready yet. They are improving but give it another 2 seasons and we will be good enough for our better euro players
Kilkenny over Colosimo. Colosimo was poor at best for Perth last season. He didn't have alot around him, but he didn't seem to put up the fight I thought he was capable of... I'm concerned that Cahill in or not, we don't really have sufficient backup for defensive midfield. If Grells gets injured... Milicevic is just not good enough there at that level and Skoko has done well there in the past but it isn't ideal because his strength is going forward and he doesn't quite have the engine. I'd go Kilkenny if Cahill couldn't make it. He'd come out of left wing and jump up the queue a bit, but I think he's a pretty good player. Better than Wilkshire.
Sorry, but this crazy. Nobody knew a damn thing about him until a couple of weeks ago when Lazaridis started talking him up. You don't pluck some 21-year-old kid out of obscurity and put him in the holding midfield role - arguably one of the most important positions in the team. Have you even seen him play? I haven't. Besides, you don't take debutants to the World Cup. Particularly ones like Kilkenny who's probably never even met any of the other guys who'll be in the squad, let alone have any idea whatsoever how to play with them. I'd like to see him play for Australia some time in the future too, but at this stage he's no chance for Germany. I'd take Elrich, Sterjovski or any one of a long list of numerous other guys (including Colosimo) to bolster our midfield stocks before him.
As pointed out, a very silly post. I dont think Colosimo cuts the mustard though. He's been talked up, and for me, he has never reached past the level he was at before he screwed up his knee against Man U in Melbourne lets say almost 8 years ago. His Perth performances were abismal considering he was meant to be their most influential player... and recent talks have him linked with the Victory, which i think would be a stupid move by Melbourne considering the young talent they have in the middle of the park. Anyway, Kilkennys made like 2 appearances of the bench or something, nothign to shout and scream about, i mean, Birmingham are in the first division next year so we will have to wait and see if he gets game time, and he develops properly. IMO Elrich should be taken as a backup midfielder. Not the most skilled player in our squad, but you know when he's on the pitch, he gives it all hes got and thats why i have respect for him.
I wasn't suggesting it was the definite answer to the problem. It was a suggestion, furthermore I hadn't sat there and thought about every single player eligible for the role but suggested I'd take him over Colosimo. What I was trying to address was a plan b to Grella. Who else could handle the role? Right, I'll concede that 6 starts at Birmingham is not the best of qualifications. But he has filled in for an injured Nicky Butt this season and it was through this that he came to recognition. The premier league is of a damn high standard as the pecking order goes and he got to the first team through training with the likes of Nicky Butt, Heskey, Forssell, Upson etc. Again, I'm not putting my foot down and saying Kilkenny should go to Germany. But I'd like to see a suggestion of a backup for Grella that isn't a winger (Elrich). Quite possibly it is our only option to put Skoko back into that role, but it is worth throwing a name or two into the mix. Silly indeed...
We definitely do rely on Grella a lot and I think you're right to point that out. Our defensive troubles are well-documented but with an excellent player like Paul Okon being succeeded seamlessly by a guy of Grella's abilities we've taken it for granted for well over a decade that the vital position of holding midfielder isn't something to worry about. Finding a replacement is difficult because in general we're rather thin on the ground defensively and over-endowed with attackers. We have fantastic midfield stocks but they are almost all of the offensive/wing type. Bresciano is a great playmaker but his strengths are going forward and creating, not sitting back and protecting. Once we're going forward he's fine, but a true holding midfielder is instrumental in turning the tide of play from the defensive to the counter. I agree that the only obvious replacement is Skoko - and I'm actually pretty comfortable with him at present. He handled the job really, really well against Bahrain while surrounded by a very green side with little experience working together. After that there is basically nothing in terms of players built for the role - I think Milicevic would probably be the player best able to adapt and perform the role effectively. The problem is that most of our more forward-minded defenders are wing players. I have no idea if Kilkenny's even a holding midfielder by preferred position. I am not saying that he wouldn't be up to the role eventually but like I said, holding midfield is a massive job. It's a credit to him that he's had some first-team time at Birmingham but in addition to raw ability you need experience working with the players and the ability to command and marshal the players around you. It is no surprise that very often the position will be synonymous with the captain of the team. Really, you cannot take a guy who is essentially a reserves team player for a relegated Premier League club, regardless of potential, and put him in that role as a debutante at the World Cup. He would be worse than useless.
no players from Local league usually makes your league sucks, In me memory that's usually happens in Africa
That's a fair comment to an extent. I would hope that eventually we get a league that's a good enough quality that we can retain a lot more of our players in lower divisions. However if you look at our squad, 12 of the 23 players play in Serie A, La Primera Liga or the English Premier League. 3 others play for big teams in smaller European leagues who are in the Champions League every season. No matter how good our domestic league is, we're never going to realistically be able to keep these guys at home. So of the rest of the squad, 3 play in the A-League and 5 play in lower-division European leagues (like the English Football League or Bundesliga 2). Those last 5 are the players we would hope to be keeping at home in the future. For sure we need to lift the quality of our domestic league, and there are a lot of guys playing overseas who we should be keeping at home. But the lack of domestic players in our World Cup squad has more to do with the fact that most of our best players are playing at the top level in Europe.