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Poppa Out

grazorblade said:
1) more yes than no. I dont think anyone can look st poppas tenure and not see mistakes. Sega and triantis, no backup rwb, starting nish and leckie, subbing on the weakest pen saver and not giving them enough notice. But i think poppa is still coaching above our level. I preferred arnie who could be more attacking or defensive depending on the game. The problem is our pool of coaches is thin and every option we have that has had consistent success in the a league has only 1 style. I think foreign coach for the same money would be a step back. So in summary i think we have a coach which is above our current level and we dont have a lot of options to improve

2) absent another flexible coach like arnie id like to see our 3 paths to goal improve. Most goals are coming from counter attacks. We have produced dangerous moments in pressing triggers (particularly against saudi at home) and our set pieces need to improve. Im open to changing our set piece coach. Is it jedi? Didnt he have trouble with set pieces in the epl?

3) no where near our ceiling. If nothing changes in our pathways we hit our ceiling when 8 birth years playing at a higher level are at an age where they can perform at their peak. We are producing better players starting bos's year in 2002 and players these days decline at 32ish. So we will hit our peak in 2034
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1) Popovic, when he sets up to play properly, at least sets us up to counter attack. He did that in one game. The rest were set up not to concede and a recipe to not progress. That is not our level - or if it is we will never progress. If you set up defensively with no route to goal you are playing for a draw at best. Agree about a foreign manager but even someone like Muscat is now out of our price range.

2) Yes we need a pragmatic manager that will adapt to the opposition. Is that Popovic - no. Was it Arnie, at times, but we aren't going back now.

3) I agree that 2034 is probably the target for the players we know of now but 2030 should also be better.
 
grazorblade said:
Not confident

Set pieces could be improved by changing assitants. Counter press, maybe its a time thing. Our best front three is irankunda toure and volpato who dont know the press. If u put metcalf and mcgree in the front three with duke (no long possible) you blunt our counter attack but get the press better. If irankubda makes better decisions in defense, he is our best defender when he gets to situations he can attack. I suspect this is the part of the game that improves the most

Maybe he pulls out a different way of playing? Im pessimistic, so far it has just been adding elements to plan a.

On sega/triantis one concern i have is the new coach starts from square one with their dual national game. Either way we should change coach before wcq starts. We saw with arnie that coaches burn out in the job over 2 cycles
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Fair point on Toure and Irankunda. I reckon we can improve our press just by coaching them up better. They have the potential to be devastating in the press and on the counter.

Dual nationals really should be a technical director job with appropriate resourcing to do it properly. Even if that is a volunteer network like you've suggested.

I'm probably getting off topic there though. While it remains a Popovic responsibility it needs to remain a key focus. Thats true for any successor.

I don't think we'll see much in the way of tactical changes. Small tweaks is the most I expect, I agree, and it kinda kills me a little inside to think it.
 
Quicky said:
Fair point on Toure and Irankunda. I reckon we can improve our press just by coaching them up better. They have the potential to be devastating in the press and on the counter.

Dual nationals really should be a technical director job with appropriate resourcing to do it properly. Even if that is a volunteer network like you've suggested.

I'm probably getting off topic there though. While it remains a Popovic responsibility it needs to remain a key focus. Thats true for any successor.

I don't think we'll see much in the way of tactical changes. Small tweaks is the most I expect, I agree, and it kinda kills me a little inside to think it.
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Its definitely a style only a mother can love haha
 
patjennings said:
1) Popovic, when he sets up to play properly, at least sets us up to counter attack. He did that in one game. The rest were set up not to concede and a recipe to not progress. That is not our level - or if it is we will never progress. If you set up defensively with no route to goal you are playing for a draw at best. Agree about a foreign manager but even someone like Muscat is now out of our price range.

2) Yes we need a pragmatic manager that will adapt to the opposition. Is that Popovic - no. Was it Arnie, at times, but we aren't going back now.

3) I agree that 2034 is probably the target for the players we know of now but 2030 should also be better.
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My read of his xi against usa was he wanted his best pressers as the usa backline was weak and that was our best path to goal given their speed.

I agree with that and it was the best part of the game, however he needed to keep our other two pathways to goal open. This means putting a geniune speedster in the front 3 (i would have put bos in for vellupilay in the theory he is a defender so could be good at the presa and has a touch more speed)

I would have also started two more set piece threats in irvine and herrington. For all our height, only souttar herrington and irvine can score off corners regularly
 
Quicky said:
I think those 3 areas you describe: Pressing, counter-attacks and set-pieces are the big watches for Popovic leading into and at the Asian Cup. We need to do better there. I agree with all those.
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We definitely need to be doing better in terms of defending set pieces heading into the 2027 Asian Cup but there is also some room for improvement with regards to pressing and counter-attacks especially when the Socceroos face tougher opposition like Japan and Saudi Arabia.
 
The main point is that you can be as good at defending as anyone but if you can't find a route to goal then you are not going to proceed. In reality this was our easiest group ever and our easiest playoff group. i.e. It was our best chance ever going back to 1974 and an opportunity we will rue as the CAF get stronger and even the AFC is improving. Does that make it easy - no. Does it mean it was a missed opportunity - yes. Was that missed opportunity contributed to by the way we set up and our squad and team selection - yes.

As a comparison these were FIFA rankings before 2022 and 2026.

YearGroupGroupGroupKOTotalAVGAust
20224103024611.538
20262715342910526.2528




World Cup
Matches Played
Total Shots
Shots on Target
Goals Scored

(2026)
4
32
12
3

(2022)
4
25
9
4

In 2022, Australia had to play the eventual champions and the runners-up of the tournament:
Group Stage: France (2022 Runners-up), Denmark, and Tunisia.
  • Round of 16: Argentina (2022 World Cup Champions).
  • Facing defensive structures like France and Argentina naturally limited the Socceroos' opportunities to look for open shots.
By comparison, their 2026 World Cup run featured a much lower tier of global opposition before their exit:
  • Group Stage: USA, Türkiye, and Paraguay.
  • Round of 32: Egypt.
Efficiency Breakdown
Because they played against heavyweights in 2022, they had to be lethal with the few chances they got. They actually showed better clinical efficiency in 2022:
  • 2022 Shot Conversion: They scored 4 goals from just 9 shots on target (a 44.4% accuracy-to-goal conversion rate).
  • 2026 Shot Conversion: They scored 3 goals from 12 shots on target (a 25% conversion rate)
 
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Alex M said:
I think the view that Popovic is holding back our boys from performing at the level they are capable of isn't grounded in fact. If it were our boys would be performing at that high level week in week out for their clubs. I agree with the view that Popovic is a defensive and conservative coach and if our younger players develop like I hope they will that he may not be the right person to lead us for the next World Cup campaign. If we stick with Popovic, we need to find him some assistants that will help the team develop tactics and systems that help them more with the attacking phase of the game. We also have to hope that Popovic listens to them. It's probably more important that our players work on their week to week club football rather than just hire a different coach. When our players get better the results at national team level will come.
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Jedinak was one of those assistants. What has Jedinak done in a managerial capacity to earn that role?

And if you say he was assistant to Postecoglou at Spurs, then that right there is the problem. It was his role to set up the defense at Spurs, (and as a disciplinarian and motivator in the dressing room, which he may well be good at). The defending looked like Spurs could concede at every set piece and every opposition attack

Popovic really needed to play a 433 with NI as a wide player or 442 with NI as a second striker.
 
kiro kompiro said:
Jedinak was one of those assistants. What has Jedinak done in a managerial capacity to do earn that role?

And if you say he was assistant to Postecoglou at Spurs, then that right there is the problem. It was his role to set up the defense at Spurs, (and as a disciplinarian and motivator in the dressing room, which he may well be good at). The defending looked like Spurs could concede at every set piece and every opposition attack

Popovic really needed to play a 433 with NI as a wide player or 442 with NI as a second striker.
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I believe jedi was our set piece coach and was also spurs set piece coach?

That seems a point of weakness
 
The discussion about assistant coaches is relevant because these days all professional managers come with their preferred coaching team, sometimes even a fitness and medical team.

I'd imagine that would apply to any decent international manager.

The cost of that entourage needs to be considered, plus, it takes the jobs away from up and coming locals.

Arnold was understudy to Hiddink, not sure who Pim's assistants were, would that happen today?
 
Would changing assistant coaches really be enough though? Apart from improving set pieces we also lack possession based attacking plans or counter plans if they are based on trying to pass to an isolated nestory
 
McZero said:
Would changing assistant coaches really be enough though? Apart from improving set pieces we also lack possession based attacking plans or counter plans if they are based on trying to pass to an isolated nestory
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not if we play with NI isolated.
 
kiro kompiro said:
The discussion about assistant coaches is relevant because these days all professional managers come with their preferred coaching team, sometimes even a fitness and medical team.

I'd imagine that would apply to any decent international manager.

The cost of that entourage needs to be considered, plus, it takes the jobs away from up and coming locals.

Arnold was understudy to Hiddink, not sure who Pim's assistants were, would that happen today?
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Usually you pay the manager and give him a staff budget.
 
kiro kompiro said:
The discussion about assistant coaches is relevant because these days all professional managers come with their preferred coaching team, sometimes even a fitness and medical team.

I'd imagine that would apply to any decent international manager.

The cost of that entourage needs to be considered, plus, it takes the jobs away from up and coming locals.

Arnold was understudy to Hiddink, not sure who Pim's assistants were, would that happen today?
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Guus took Arnold but also had his own staff. Neeskens was one. From memory there was arguments from the FA about bringing on his his staff, thinking he would just come by himself. Sometimes small things show that some progress has been made over the years.
 
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