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Socceroos vs Paraguay 2026 World Cup match thread 🇦🇺🇵🇾

LFC said:
No not just like that it’s not that simple.
I luv his gun ho attack but he’s too risky as we’ve all seen.
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He did finish 5th in an EPL season too and navigate knockout football to win. With our decent defence these days and our ball player Popovic refuses to use, it would look quite good.

Ange always dreamed of a back 3. Now we actually have players who can do it.
 
Jackson Irvine quoted in the Guardian:
"Australia has never beaten a South American side at a World Cup, and Irvine is expecting their opponents to be physical, skilful and unpredictable. He said it will be “just a totally different type of game” compared with their matches against Turkey and the USA, and the Paraguay players have “incredible individual quality”.

“Watching Paraguay against Turkey last night, there was a sequence towards the end of the game that sums up their style of football,” he said. “It was with about five minutes to go, and they had won the ball back high up the pitch, and they had a chance to go to the corner. The guy just whips the cross into the back stick with three guys, and they try and score again with 10 men and they’re 1-0 up. Expect the unexpected. I guess that’s probably the best way to put it.”

Irvine said the Socceroos need to start better against Paraguay than they did against the USA“
 
kiro kompiro said:
Would you have Postecoglou back? 0 points, 9 goals conceded?
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Gosh, look at some of the absolute plodders in that squad

Bozanic
Franjic
Davidson
Halloran
Holland
Galekovic
Mcgowan
McKay
Oar
Wilkinson
Troisi
Vidosic
Taggart
Wright

Absolute plodder HQ. Do you think Popovic could’ve done better with a squad full of plodders?
 
rusty83 said:
Gosh, look at some of the absolute plodders in that squad

Bozanic
Franjic
Davidson
Halloran
Holland
Galekovic
Mcgowan
McKay
Oar
Wilkinson
Troisi
Vidosic
Taggart
Wright

Absolute plodder HQ. Do you think Popovic could’ve done better with a squad full of plodders?
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Think you need a thesaurus. If your user name is anything to go by historically on old 442, welcome back!
 
rusty83 said:
Gosh, look at some of the absolute plodders in that squad

Bozanic
Franjic
Davidson
Halloran
Holland
Galekovic
Mcgowan
McKay
Oar
Wilkinson
Troisi
Vidosic
Taggart
Wright

Absolute plodder HQ. Do you think Popovic could’ve done better with a squad full of plodders?
Click to expand...
Plus:
Ryan
Spiranovic
Cahill
Bresciano
Jedinak
Leckie
Luongo
Milligan

Not selected were Mooy Kennedy Rogic. Absolutely scandalous that Mooy did not make that squad.

Under Popovic we may not have got more points but I'm certain we would not have conceded 9 goals.

Also the current squad is really about what it might in 4 years time. They're not any better RIGHT NOW than Postecoglou's squad.
 
kiro kompiro said:
Plus:
Ryan
Spiranovic
Cahill
Bresciano
Jedinak
Leckie
Luongo
Milligan

Not selected were Mooy Kennedy Rogic. Absolutely scandalous that Mooy did not make that squad.

Under Popovic we may not have got more points but I'm certain we would not have conceded 9 goals.

Also the current squad is really about what it might in 4 years time. They're not any better RIGHT NOW than Postecoglou's squad.
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I don't recall the exact circumstances around Mooy at the time. Was he already doing very well in the A League by then? He certainly becae Ange's favourite in the next cycle. Mooy wasn't even in the Asian Cup squad. Here's a name, Chris Herd was!
 
They are both pretty spectacular coaches but have 1 way they play. Ange had our worst world cup but with a weak team and he usually takes time to implement his methods. He won the asian cup at home.

Im not saying that there arent better coaches out there. But the reality is a better coach costs a lot of money. Many countries are spending 10 to 20 million euros on their nt coach. Bielsa is around 5million a year.

we could get better results by investing in better pathways tbh. 2 million a year pays for an nst, 2 million a nyl, 2 million a ais coe, 2 million would pay for parachute payments to sustain p and r
 
JS96 said:
I don't recall the exact circumstances around Mooy at the time. Was he already doing very well in the A League by then? He certainly becae Ange's favourite in the next cycle. Mooy wasn't even in the Asian Cup squad. Here's a name, Chris Herd was!
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I remember mooy struggled to get consistent game time in poppas system. Poppas system requires such a high footy iq and athleticism that some really top quality players get overlooked

Ange was actually more flexible with personal than poppa, playing our best players over his system. For instance he played leckie who doesnt fit his system at all (fits poppas system). He also changed formation to have more midfielders
 
JS96 said:
He did finish 5th in an EPL season too and navigate knockout football to win. With our decent defence these days and our ball player Popovic refuses to use, it would look quite good.
Click to expand...
Sure attack wise would be nice agree.
JS96 said:
Ange always dreamed of a back 3. Now we actually have players who can do it.
Click to expand...
Ange also had better players at Celtic and Spurs than what we got with all due respect.
 
grazorblade said:
I remember mooy struggled to get consistent game time in poppas system. Poppas system requires such a high footy iq and athleticism that some really top quality players get overlooked
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Yer that so Mooysi he made 49 appearances, won an A-League Premiership, and helped the team reach two consecutive Grand Finals.
Struggled eh
 
LFC said:
Yer that so Mooysi he made 49 appearances, won an A-League Premiership, and helped the team reach two consecutive Grand Finals.
Struggled eh
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Struggled might be harsh, but the year in question, 2013/14 the year leading up to the wc, he was in and out of the xi, sometimes dropped from the squad sometimes and often la rocca and poljak where favoured in midfield. Against us (the roar) he replaced la rocca who got injured which changed the game. Mooy was clearly the better player, but in poppas system la roccas positional discipline and physical presence completely shut us out imo
 
LFC said:
Sure attack wise would be nice agree.

Ange also had better players at Celtic and Spurs than what we got with all due respect.
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Proportionally not necessarily. We've got plenty of good ball players that Popovic is overlooking.
 
All good guys
Ange ain’t gonna happen.
As for poppa
Parking the bus staying inverted is not complicated Graz to then break out in attack.
Been done for years not pioneering.
Trouble is not picking the cattle that could actually do damage in the first half backed up by the good defense.
 
B-mac said:
Safe to say you’d take a coach somewhere in between Ange and Popa. The closest we’ve had was Arnie.
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Yeah this and always this.

Also don’t forget that Arnie had a Tier 1 assistant in René Meulensteen who I think had his fingerprints all over the way we transition from defence to attack.

There are Euro coaches out of a job at the moment who have this balanced/flexible approach.
 
Mr Cleansheets said:
I simply don't know what anyone sees in Hrustic.

He used to be okay - in the final third - but does nothing in the back two thirds. Doesn't do enough in the front third anymore either, in my view.

I'd have him way behind Metcalfe, Irankunda and Volpato.
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Huge set piece threat for starters. Prob the best set piece taker ive seen for the socceroos. Has a wand of a left boot on him, can really cross and pick a pass.
 
riquelmes_laces said:
Yeah this and always this.

Also don’t forget that Arnie had a Tier 1 assistant in René Meulensteen who I think had his fingerprints all over the way we transition from defence to attack.

There are Euro coaches out of a job at the moment who have this balanced/flexible approach.
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Farina, Arnie and Gus were the most balanced coaches weve had and in the case of the latter 2, the most tactically flexible.

Venables and Ange both ultra attacking, whilst Pim, BVM, and now Popa all defensive coaches.
 
JS96 said:
He did finish 5th in an EPL season too and navigate knockout football to win. With our decent defence these days and our ball player Popovic refuses to use, it would look quite good.

Ange always dreamed of a back 3. Now we actually have players who can do it.
Click to expand...
No he never 'dreamt' of a back 3.

He religiously is a 433 man, he switched to a 343 or 352 in latter stages of 2018 world cup qualifying after we kept conceding goals on the counter and the media were crucifying him for being too gung- ho. We switched after the Thailand game at AAMI which we drew and the media slammed him.

Im a Spurs fan, and can tell you he switched to a 352/343 sometimes to close out matches, did it at end of the europa league final infact, but it was always a defensive tactic he had up his sleeve when he feared the opposition. Ideally he aims for his 433 inverted fullback system.
 
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