Although I don't like Popovic, we need to consider the timeline. Poppa was appointed on September 24 with the Socceroos looking at not qualifying. There were two FIFA windows left for 2024, October & November and five in 2025. The Socceroos qualified for the world cup in the June window, leaving September, October & November windows. I don't think that Segecic should have been capped prior to qualification, neither his form nor the other potential players warranted his selection (nor for that matter Milanovic). The left the September, October & November windows. The question then becomes what is the purpose for these windows leading to the WC? There was flak given when Patrick Beach was selected because the team is supposed to be gelling.
Also, Ange did invite young players to Socceroos training so that they could get a feel for what is required of them to be considered for the game time.
Arnold has some doing here too. Segecic and Triantis are special dual national cases. It was obvious in March 2023 that these two had immense potential.
I know we had so many mature regulars but they should've been expedited for the Bangladesh game in November 2023. Duke, Borrello and Maclaren scored 6 of the 7 goals. That's not long term thinking. It's Bangladesh at home for god's sake.
What happened under Popovic was woeful favouritism and baffling unwarranted selections.
-Starting Brattan Japan away.
-Playing Teague more than Triantis. Teague did well but why didn't we cap Triantis in the China window?
- The coddling of Okon.
- Ignoring Balard then being shown up by him, Toure and Irankunda against NZ.
- Matthews did well but throwing him in Bahrain away was a risk.
- Bringing in an ineffective Caceres out of the blue.
- Giving Hrustic too many lifelines.
-Beach deserved a go, Al Hassan and D'Agostino in recent windows just shouldn't be happening.
- Ignoring Robertson and Toure risking a switch.
He got he introduction of Velupillay right. The persistence with Boyle and Borrello hasn't worked. I can't remember, did he overlook Irankunda and it got some headlines going?
The youngest I can remember with Ange was McGree in 2017 for the UAE home game. Ange selected players he believed in at the time but got a lot of new blood in after the 2014 world cup.