JS96 said:

I'd take Geria at RWB over Trewin any day. Honestly, with the names now confirmed, we don't really need Trewin as we're stacked in defence and midfield.

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Kai Trewin can be a differential option for the defensive midfield position but Jason Geria should not be played at right wingback altogether as it isn't his primary position and he may end up struggling there throughout our campaign.

Ok Alex cancelled the pod this week so I'm going to give us some hopium. Here are some reasons to be optimistic this year

1. Equal most big game experience since 2010

We have roughly as many minutes in the big 5 coming into a tournament since 2010, with 6 players that have substantial experience


I suppose this shows 2018 was a bit underrated, the drama of Ange leaving and the angst of us not producing players of the same calibre after the golden generation



2. Roughly equal most European minutes since 2010

Even if you hate on the MLS and J league and only rate players in Europe (you probably shouldn't they are probably similar in quality to the Danish League!) this year has a lot of players getting regular minutes in europe showing our depth. In fact, this year remains the best despite controversial selections that would boost this. Despite Segecics defection, Balard and Elders omission as well as injuries to key big minute getters in Mcgree, Miller, Luongo and Souttar we rank very highly. I think there is an argument to say our depth is the best it has even been, even better than during the golden generation


This of course could change, we could have some strange selections cutting some players getting big European minutes, but it will still be similar to 2018

3. Highest ELO since 2006

This one surprised me, we actually have a slightly higher elo than in 2010 where a lot of the golden generation had already started to decline. We haven't played our last friendly before the world cup mind you, and its a close enough call that this could change


Our ELO before the 2006 world cup was 2006 for those wondering, a remarkable achievement for a team that wasn't as battle hardened reflecting the superior talent of that generation

4. Lowest ELO of opponents ever

This will surprise no one, but it might be interesting to see the gap between our team and our group each year

Meanwhile, 2018 was a crazy year, looking through the careers of a lot of those players, so many of them had their best ever season that year. If the world cup was a year earlier or a year later it would have been worse on paper

Wonder if that was partly due to ange adding value to players?

@DDAVIES got a question on ESPN's Socceroos Cup Diaries with Joey Lynch.

FIFA processed his claim, he is now a roo

welcome aboad!!

grazorblade said:

View attachment 7253

FIFA processed his claim, he is now a roo

welcome aboad!!

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I read that Italy gave the ok, which is nice, but since when did countries have to do that?

JS96 said:

Funny how quick it can all go yet we had all this stupid shit with others. Just get them played and sorted!

Volpato is certainly of the grade but it's insane how we didn't trust to play Triantis in qualifiers but we're going to bring someone in from nothing for a world cup. His individual skill will suffice but it goes against Popovic's idea that it takes time to integrate someone.

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Can u imagine how stacked we would be if we kept triantis and sega

Oh well

JS96 said:

Easy response for Popovic but I hope someone asks about Balard and Goodwin. I know Goodwin was underdone but it'd be nice to hear a bit more.

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Goodwin is a victim of his injury, form, fitness and Popovic's system.

He is better wide. Popovic wants him to invert. It was tried but didn't work.

Popovic needs work horses and Goodwin had a fitness issue.

I thought Goodwin would be a good wild card if we wanted to change it up but Popovic doesn't do plan B's.

Balards omission is a joke.