Welcome!

By registering with us, you'll be able to discuss, share and private message with other members of our community.

Sign Up Now!

Socceroos vs Venezuela/ Colombia Nov 25

How should Australia do November?

  • European based camp

    Votes: 23 71.9%
  • Australian based camp

    Votes: 6 18.8%
  • Middle East based camp

    Votes: 2 6.3%
  • Nothing

    Votes: 1 3.1%

  • Total voters
    32
I think that has been Nisbet's carer killer - going to Ross County. Even playing in Scotland, Boyle has scored heaps of recent goals, but I have recorded comprehensive data that shows he struggles to be good enough to be a winning player for the Socceroos.

Now Nisbet is in Eerste 2, he is playing in a league not deemed good enough to transfer to international football. There is a huge drop in standard from the upper and mid - echelons of the Eredivisie down to the Eerste. I've read it is only a semi-pro league.

Given Popa's more favourable rating for the AL than Arnie's, Nisbet may well still be in the Socceroo frame if he hadn't left Aus.

Nisbet won't be the first and won't be the last Euroroo to make a bad club move. I think Jake Hollman is nuts going to English League 2. Based on what he did in the AL IMO he should be in Socceroo discussions too.
Agree, D. Young Australian players have a sorry history of making very poor decisions (no doubt advised by agents with their own interests at heart) when moving overseas. Arzani is no longer in this category, but his move to Hungary is certainly in the inexplicably poor decision category. If he was here with Victory, he would be in the NT discussion, with a change of going to the WC finals. Now he has no chance.
 
Agree, D. Young Australian players have a sorry history of making very poor decisions (no doubt advised by agents with their own interests at heart) when moving overseas. Arzani is no longer in this category, but his move to Hungary is certainly in the inexplicably poor decision category. If he was here with Victory, he would be in the NT discussion, with a change of going to the WC finals. Now he has no chance.
I hear you at the sametime the player themselves agree as well due to not other options.
He made the poor call in the end, I suppose @ 25 he thought damned if you do damned if you don't get me out of Oz its been my dream.
In saying that I think there is some lack of vision/foresight by Poppa and his staff.
I actually don't rate Fox much at all but I suspect he's a good man manager and good lacky/yes boss whereas Okon being the kind of player he was surely he knows what Nisbet can bring to the table no matter where he's playing (abroad) therefore considering they gave many questionable players a run why not have gambled giving him a go in the middle of the park for all I see is not much in that department.
 
Agree, D. Young Australian players have a sorry history of making very poor decisions (no doubt advised by agents with their own interests at heart) when moving overseas. Arzani is no longer in this category, but his move to Hungary is certainly in the inexplicably poor decision category. If he was here with Victory, he would be in the NT discussion, with a change of going to the WC finals. Now he has no chance.
Arzani’s career-potential was already ruined, so he’s not the best example to use here really.

Ironically, I die on the hill that if he’d been loaned out by Man City to a club of/closer to Ferencvaros’ level instead of Celtic in the first place..it would’ve been better for his long-term prospects. His eventual injury notwithstanding, I was never cool w/him going to Scotland.
 
Last edited:
I hear you at the sametime the player themselves agree as well due to not other options.
He made the poor call in the end, I suppose @ 25 he thought damned if you do damned if you don't get me out of Oz its been my dream.
In saying that I think there is some lack of vision/foresight by Poppa and his staff.
I actually don't rate Fox much at all but I suspect he's a good man manager and good lacky/yes boss whereas Okon being the kind of player he was surely he knows what Nisbet can bring to the table no matter where he's playing (abroad) therefore considering they gave many questionable players a run why not have gambled giving him a go in the middle of the park for all I see is not much in that department.
Having had Paul Okon as a manager I can say that he is a poor judge of player. His recruitment was atrocious. the man that brought Asdrubal (ass-dribble) to the ALM.
 
Having had Paul Okon as a manager I can say that he is a poor judge of player. His recruitment was atrocious. the man that brought Asdrubal (ass-dribble) to the ALM.
dam, that put my theory down the tube, wasn't that a general terrible patch at CCM as well though pj prior his arrival ?
Also no $
In any case as mentioned considering his game he sure should recognise a decent midfielder you'd think.
 
Having had Paul Okon as a manager I can say that he is a poor judge of player. His recruitment was atrocious. the man that brought Asdrubal (ass-dribble) to the ALM.
He’s not a very good manager, full-stop; him getting pwned by Mauricio “El Tuco” Alfaro@ the U20 WC twelve years ago is evidence of that💡

If nothing else he proves the old adage that good players don’t automatically become good(much less awesome) coaches.
 
therefore here we are.......
Poppa - the wannabee Classic Azzurri game imposter.
Foxe - well nothing to see here.
Okon - good ex player but square peg doesn't fit a round hole.
Got it ?
 
dam, that put my theory down the tube, wasn't that a general terrible patch at CCM as well though pj prior his arrival ?
Also no $
In any case as mentioned considering his game he sure should recognise a decent midfielder you'd think.
Arnold - redemption manager - severed us well. Similar to Ange at Brisbane. Led the GF victory against the FFA darlings WSW (Poppa) in their inaugural year.
Phil Moss followed and ran down the squad as many went OS. Moss paid over the odds for journeymen believing he was a great manager - he wasn't.
Tony Walmsley - inherited Moss's team that had been run down and while a nice bloke was not the answer in any way.
Paul Okon - Not only a bad manager but also went around claiming he was better than he was and constantly wearing his Marconi jackets at the youth games. Poor form - bad manager. Don't believe the tripe that it was a mutual parting of the ways.
Mike Mulvey - on paper looked ok - it wasn't
Alen Stajcic - another redemption story worked well with Monty as youth manager
Nick Montgomery - Monty and Serge were a great double act. Led us to the GF win at Commbank.
Mark Jackson - Rebuilt the team once and led us to the the GF win at Gosford, as well as the premiership and the ACL Cup. Team decimated again after that win. Building again with youth.
 
Arnold - redemption manager - severed us well. Similar to Ange at Brisbane. Led the GF victory against the FFA darlings WSW (Poppa) in their inaugural year.
Phil Moss followed and ran down the squad as many went OS. Moss paid over the odds for journeymen believing he was a great manager - he wasn't.
Tony Walmsley - inherited Moss's team that had been run down and while a nice bloke was not the answer in any way.
Paul Okon - Not only a bad manager but also went around claiming he was better than he was and constantly wearing his Marconi jackets at the youth games. Poor form - bad manager. Don't believe the tripe that it was a mutual parting of the ways.
Mike Mulvey - on paper looked ok - it wasn't
Alen Stajcic - another redemption story worked well with Monty as youth manager
Nick Montgomery - Monty and Serge were a great double act. Led us to the GF win at Commbank.
Mark Jackson - Rebuilt the team once and led us to the the GF win at Gosford, as well as the premiership and the ACL Cup. Team decimated again after that win. Building again with youth.
what a frigging summary well covered pj.
We better get back onto Roos considering the thread.
 
absolutely - were not sitting back watching and listenning in a socialist conference summit for eg :)
You always need the ying and yang listenning to football commentry - the one who is resereved ala Simon Hill style and then you need to opposite emotional outlook.
Slater/Bozza are classics you take the good with the bad - whereas Foster is a snotty wet blanket pollie type that hurts your ears haha
I kind of like fozzs fan in the commentary box, yelling and screaming. Mind u, I barely remember any of his commentary outside uruguay v oz other than it being excitable
 
Popa tried a lot of new players in those outings. I would have thought most fans would agree that it is important to do this in friendlies?

The qualities Okon Jr has shown so young, augur well for the future.

I think Trewin has had qualified success, displaying an impressive skill set already.

I'm not sure about Elder - yet. Haven't looked at him via replay and recording data - yet.

Despite immense talent, Iran has shown mental fragility and inexperience to read the intent of fellow players at times - against higher calibre opposition in these friendlies.

Italiano, Beach and Toure have done well, again boding well for the future.
I don't mind Poppa looking at different players but how he managed the details was poor imo.

I think its better to bring in new players to a team with structure and experience. The team for the Venezuela game was too inexperienced for e.g.

Okon Jr. didn't impress me. I think he's a good player but senior NT is a stretch atm.

Trewin - I think I'd need to rewatch his game. I thought defensively shaky from first watch. I'll take your word on his distribution, that's encouraging.

I've been frustrated Popovic has handed out quick debuts for some and taken a hard line on others. Take the approach to Segecic, Triantis v Okon, Daggers for e.g.

Not playing Devlin given his form was frustrating and a missed opportunity.
 
you do need emotional outbursts from some of the commentators though, ideally you have a balance between the ones that can inject some passion into their commentary and others that give the analytic side
Disagree.

Bozza, Foster and Slater's outbursts have been silly at times!
 
Djite, Paartalu, Milligan's and Gill in particular should never comment on keepers. They have no idea. I honestly saw Brosque roll his eyes when the others were drooling over Izzo making one os save and a number that I could have made at 65. Most saves ever blah blah. One great save.
Fair comment.

I'm no expert on keeper's shot stopping, despite doing heaps of goalkeeper coach education.

Actually, Bozza was great on analysing keepers.
 
I don't mind Poppa looking at different players but how he managed the details was poor imo.

I think its better to bring in new players to a team with structure and experience. The team for the Venezuela game was too inexperienced for e.g.

Okon Jr. didn't impress me. I think he's a good player but senior NT is a stretch atm.

Trewin - I think I'd need to rewatch his game. I thought defensively shaky from first watch. I'll take your word on his distribution, that's encouraging.

I've been frustrated Popovic has handed out quick debuts for some and taken a hard line on others. Take the approach to Segecic, Triantis v Okon, Daggers for e.g.

Not playing Devlin given his form was frustrating and a missed opportunity.
A lot of good points raised here, Quicky, but Popa just has different opinions re some players. And probably for plausible reasons.

I'm going to be doing a lot of data collation and have started the Colombia game.

I still haven't finished any of Canada, USA, Venezuela and Colombia, having done quite a lot of work on the first three games, but I'll know a lot more about the new players, Trewin, Okon Jr, Elder, when I finish all four.

Although I know a lot more about Toure, Balard, Iran, Metcalfe, Italiano, and even Rowles playing Left WB, than I did 6 weeks ago. There are a lot of good things about all these relatively new players, or experienced players playing a new role.

With Devlin's club form, or Segecic, supposedly both Boyle and Hrustic are doing well in Scotland and the far higher ranked Eredivisie, but honestly, I think they just aren't playing well enough, or, don't have a sufficient skillset for international team football in the current Socceroos gameplan.

I've compiled heaps of data on Hrustic and Boyle, as I have on all experienced Socceroos. ATM they just aren't good enough in the roles they play for the Socceroos. Yet apparently they are killing it at club level.
 
Last edited:
We sure did but no way are the Roos playing like classic Italy load of bollocks.
See the aforementioned response to Alex M.

Popa's style and tactics are similar in some ways, but it is decidedly inferior to classic Italian Catenaccio. Nobody does it as well as Italy.
 
I don't mind Poppa looking at different players but how he managed the details was poor imo.

I think its better to bring in new players to a team with structure and experience. The team for the Venezuela game was too inexperienced for e.g.

Okon Jr. didn't impress me. I think he's a good player but senior NT is a stretch atm.

Trewin - I think I'd need to rewatch his game. I thought defensively shaky from first watch. I'll take your word on his distribution, that's encouraging.

I've been frustrated Popovic has handed out quick debuts for some and taken a hard line on others. Take the approach to Segecic, Triantis v Okon, Daggers for e.g.

Not playing Devlin given his form was frustrating and a missed opportunity.
The quick debuts v hard line is interesting. For Teague, Velupillay, Okon people attributed it to him playing favourites in some way. For Triantis, Segacic, Devlin, Ballard, it is attributed to some type of malice or unfairly making them earn it. The evidence for either of these appears to be non existent.

Then you have the example of Italiano, who came in first camp and was picked immediately despite no past connection (I don't think they crossed paths at Glory). Popa has stated consistently he wants to see a certain standard met in camp and some players take longer to adjust to this. As a fan it's disappointing not to see some of these guys though.
 
Fair comment.

I'm no expert on keeper's shot stopping, despite doing heaps of goalkeeper coach education.

Actually, Bozza was great on analysing keepers.
Bozza was also wrong on occasions.

i.e. for a freekick he wanted the keeper on the line to give maximum time to react. Give yourself six inches. That way if you can get to it you can turn it around the post or over the bar. Otherwise you are just parrying out or into the bar or post to possibly go back in.
 
Back
Top