Poppa Out

[patjennings]

I can't see a new coach changing much unless it happens right away. The September window is big so that's the chance.

Popovic has been more effective in Asia so one Asian Cup is worth it. We shouldn't expect him to revolutionise things so we're going to try and scrape through.

I couldn't see the value in the extension when it was given. I certainly don't agree with it now. Pay out his 6 months contract and make the change. We will play UAE, Sth Korea, Iran and Japan in the knockouts. We are not winning any of the last three with his squad selections and tactics.

 

[Hounddog]

How is that down to him - he replaced Miller with Italiano because of injury and brought in a generational talent in Herrington. The rest were in place and working well beforehand.

The situation with Poppa reminds me a lot of the situation with David Moyes at West Ham. Fans were complaining about exactly the same things.

Sacking Moyes was the right decision, but was also a big part of West Ham being related.

When West Ham finally found the right manager in Nuno it was too late, and fans were still complaining about the same things.

The siver lining is, being relegated was the best thing that could have happened to West Ham. A lot of things that needed to be fixed, are being fixed.

The judgement on Poppa is IMO simple, this WC is the bar, is the next move higher or lower?

The correct next step is the coaching team get together, review the tournament and plan the next steps.

Good coaches learn from their mistakes. I would gjve Poppa an opportunity to demonstrate that.

Many NRL fans might assume Andrew Johns would make a good NRL coach, fans are often wrong.

 

[rebelliousfeminist974]

I think its okay to hold out until the asian cup as its only a few months away. After then, we absolutely need a new coach to get the best of these young players imo

Agree that we can hold out and retain Tony Popovic as Socceroos head coach heading into the 2027 Asian Cup but the expectation would be that he would bounce back from our disastrous World Cup campaign and lead us either deep into the tournament or even all the way, and if we end up failing to top what will be an easy group and don't get results against Singapore and Graham Arnold's Iraq then Heather Garriock and Football Australia seriously need to think about bringing in a new head coach for the next World Cup cycle.

 

[ClockworkOrange]

The likes of Nagelsmann, Koeman, Bielsa and the South Korean head coach all resigned after their countries didn't get what they wanted at the World Cup, will Popa do the same? I doubt it but you can see the different standards these countries have for their national teams compared to us.

Given their squads, those managers did so much worse than Popa. In all cases, much lower ranked teams either beat them or out-qualified them. Not the case at all for us.
But it’s interesting that a ‘rubbish’ manager like Popa outperformed Bielsa and his 16th ranked Uruguay, and equalled the performance of Nagelsmith and his 10th ranked Germany?

 

[ClockworkOrange]

I couldn't see the value in the extension when it was given. I certainly don't agree with it now. Pay out his 6 months contract and make the change. We will play UAE, Sth Korea, Iran and Japan in the knockouts. We are not winning any of the last three with his squad selections and tactics.

Yet Korea and Iran didn’t even get out of their groups? Either their managers are worse than Popa or their team’s are worse than ours.

 

[JS96]

Given their squads, those managers did so much worse than Popa. In all cases, much lower ranked teams either beat them or out-qualified them. Not the case at all for us.
But it’s interesting that a ‘rubbish’ manager like Popa outperformed Bielsa and his 16th ranked Uruguay, and equalled the performance of Nagelsmith and his 10th ranked Germany?

Popovic is stubborn in his ways but I remember a journalist asking him when he'll start releasing our attacking potential. This was some time last year. He said he was aware of the talent available and wanted to look at ways to win games and keep the opponent out.

I think he should be asked or told again. I don't think attacking more or shifting things would leave us so vulnerable defensively.

 

[JS96]

It's just frustrating we couldn't try Toure and Irankunda together again.

 

[Cunningstunt]

I couldn't see the value in the extension when it was given. I certainly don't agree with it now. Pay out his 6 months contract and make the change. We will play UAE, Sth Korea, Iran and Japan in the knockouts. We are not winning any of the last three with his squad selections and tactics.

He has already beaten Japan with his selections and tactics.

Others said similar things about the group stage at the WC and all through qualifying. Popaball gets results. So did Arnieball. I don't understand the idea that we can't beat better sides. The pens go the other way and these these conversations are completely different. At a certain point the results are secondary. It takes air away from what should be the conversation around if could implement a style and setup to continue the progression of this group and have them reach their potential.

Popa did a great job by turning around our world cup qualifying where it looked like we may not qualify at one point. Popa has been unlucky that the older players are somewhat past it, but the younger players aren't quite there yet (although some would argue they are). Our wing back depth is absolutely shocking, and have been unlucky there with injuries. Although having said that I find his football boring AF, and would prefer more entertaining football.

I think this is pretty much where I am at. But more than just boring football, I don't think it will get the best out of this group as the move into their best years.

 

[ClockworkOrange]

Popovic is stubborn in his ways but I remember a journalist asking him when he'll start releasing our attacking potential. This was some time last year. He said he was aware of the talent available and wanted to look at ways to win games and keep the opponent out.

I think he should be asked or told again. I don't think attacking more or shifting things would leave us so vulnerable defensively.

Yep. I agree. My message to Popa would be: “Popa, you did well getting us out of a pretty tough group. Congratulations. But, when it eventuated that Egypt was our opponent, the new expectation was that we’d try to win that game by outplaying them and scoring goals. Just when we seemed to be doing that, you took wrong options and made poor decisions and we failed (the gk and shootout decisions were also diabolical). If you can recognise these errors on your part and evolve, you’ve earned the chance to do better. If you still believe your decisions were the right ones, then we need you to go.”

 

[Encomium]

It was a par tournament. Could have been better, but it certainly could have been a lot worse. We made it out of the group in second place. Had a great win in the first game. Gave a number of young and promising players invaluable exposure. Those are achievements in themselves and shouldn’t be dismissed. The tournament clearly wasn’t a failure overall.

But far out, it was such a wasted opportunity. It was a unique chance to win a knockout game. It’s very rare to get such an eminently beatable opponent in a knockout round of the World Cup. It will normally be France, Argentina, Italy, Brazil. Look at what happened to poor Japan. It’s disappointing we failed to take advantage of our lucky draw.

Is it?
We should expect to get to the round of 16, this is a new format and a round 32 is akin to the group stages in the old format and coming against Egypt, we should be ambitious enough to expect to go through.
I think personally round 16 is par, this is more like a bogey.

 

[Alex M]

The likes of Nagelsmann, Koeman, Bielsa and the South Korean head coach all resigned after their countries didn't get what they wanted at the World Cup, will Popa do the same? I doubt it but you can see the different standards these countries have for their national teams compared to us.

We might not have got what we (as supporters) wanted, but we played 4 sides ranked similar to us for a win, a loss and 2 draws going out on penalties. That's about what most neutrals would have expected from us and is a par performance.

 

[Cunningstunt]

Yep. I agree. My message to Popa would be: “Popa, you did well getting us out of a pretty tough group. Congratulations. But, when it eventuated that Egypt was our opponent, the new expectation was that we’d try to win that game by outplaying them and scoring goals. Just when we seemed to be doing that, you took wrong options and made poor decisions and we failed (the gk and shootout decisions were also diabolical). If you can recognise these errors on your part and evolve, you’ve earned the chance to do better. If you still believe your decisions were the right ones, then we need you to go.”

I don't understand the desire to change the system he has spent the past two years implementing with the group and that got them to this point with one week notice. I think the difficulties implementing this type of overhaul within a week far outweigh any likely benefit. Particularly when Egypt are still considered a stronger side than us.

 

[ClockworkOrange]

Is it?
We should expect to get to the round of 16, this is a new format and a round 32 is akin to the group stages in the old format and coming against Egypt, we should be ambitious enough to expect to go through.
I think personally round 16 is par, this is more like a bogey.

“Expect” to make the last 16 is a bit arrogant for a side not ranked in the top 20. But we should expect to play a decent brand of football against the teams ranked around us, i.e. Paraguay and Egypt.

 

[Alex M]

Is it?
We should expect to get to the round of 16, this is a new format and a round 32 is akin to the group stages in the old format and coming against Egypt, we should be ambitious enough to expect to go through.
I think personally round 16 is par, this is more like a bogey.

Yes it's a par performance. The luck of the draw gave us 4 opponents ranked similar to us. No superstar teams and no minnows. We had a 1-2-1 performance against teams of similar strength. We came in ranked in the 20's, went out with that sort of ranking and where a team of that ranking should theoretically finish.

 

[Encomium]

“Expect” to make the last 16 is a bit arrogant for a side not ranked in the top 20. But we should expect to play a decent brand of football against the teams ranked around us, i.e. Paraguay and Egypt.

Not arrogant, but ambitious, we should be aiming for a round 16 game as par , otherwise it's advocating for mediocrity.

 

[Encomium]

Yes it's a par performance. The luck of the draw gave us 4 opponents ranked similar to us. No superstar teams and no minnows. We had a 1-2-1 performance against teams of similar strength. We came in ranked in the 20's, went out with that sort of ranking and where a team of that ranking should theoretically finish.

It's mediocrity, that's what you are saying is par, or what we should aim for as par.

 

[JS96]

I want to aim higher and get out own house in order but we're still playing under an ad hoc messy football ecosystem whereas countries like Japan or from the Middle East are investing heavily and neither have won a world cup knockout stage game or don't even get to the knockouts.

We have a very good ROI in that we don't invest it even try and do as well as those throwing millions at it.

 

[Cunningstunt]

Not arrogant, but ambitious, we should be aiming for a round 16 game as par , otherwise it's advocating for mediocrity.

There are two points here. What we as a country should aim for being ambitious. There shouldn't be limits on this, but pushing further to win a knock out match is a good next step.

The second is what is reasonably expected to play out. For this you follow the money. This tells you what people really think will happen because they actually have something on the line. Our opponents were clearly favoured every single match. The world bet money on us not progressing from the group. We did progress and took the knock out match to pens. This is above expectation.

 

[ClockworkOrange]

I don't understand the desire to change the system he has spent the past two years implementing with the group and that got them to this point with one week notice. I think the difficulties implementing this type of overhaul within a week far outweigh any likely benefit. Particularly when Egypt are still considered a stronger side than us.

The system he implemented was the right one for the time and circumstances - to qualify and get us out of the group. 100% agree that he only had a short time with this team. If Volpato was part of the program for more than 2 weeks, the system might have been different.
But, 1: This system relies on good fortune - scoring a large percentage of the few chances created, 2. In future, this group of players are capable of performing in a better system - one that increases the chances of winning.

 

[ClockworkOrange]

Not arrogant, but ambitious, we should be aiming for a round 16 game as par , otherwise it's advocating for mediocrity.

Agree with the sentiment. Just saying “aiming for” and “expecting” are different.
Like top golfers expect ‘par’ while aiming for ‘birdies’.