World Cup 2018 FIFA World Cup-Group C Thread (Australia, France, Peru, Denmark)

[Txiki]

Look I'm a fan of Mooy and I like the way he plays but he was underwhelming this campaign.

He takes every set piece and lands some pretty decent balls but other times he puts in trash. Too hit-and-miss for mine. I suspect his good ratings stem from the fact that he takes every corner and free kick, which 'bumps' up his stats.

Took possession in the middle third an awful lot and rarely made the kind of passes I thought he would. Seemed almost scared to play any through balls when I know that he possesses the skills and vision to execute them. Not to mention he couldn't put any shots on target (the one against Denmark just had to be on target at the very least). It depends on his role though. If he was used as deeper lying mid then fine but his heat maps show he was going forward. I just can't remember many key passes from him.

Then you look at this defensive work in these three games and he was pretty poor. Against France he lets Pogba give-and-go and fails to track him, Pogba scores. Against Denmark he uses his head under little pressure and clears it into the most dangerous area on the pitch, then fails to track Eriksen and he scores.

Was he at fault for both those goals? Probably not entirely. But his defensive work rate in crucial moments seems to be an issue. There was no desperation in those two moments and they were big moments that killed us.

I think he is the least of our problems because he is still one of our best midfielders at the moment. But I was not impressed by him. Perhaps my expectations were too high (and they were for most players).

 

[iluvparis]

In hindsight - we were probably spoiled by 2006 and in reality we are just no that good a football nation. Since the Japan game our World Cup finals record is

Played 12
Won 1 - Drawn 3 - Lost 8
GF 10; GA 25

That's relegation level performance in most leagues

 

[Silent Alarm]

Look I'm a fan of Mooy and I like the way he plays but he was underwhelming this campaign.

He takes every set piece and lands some pretty decent balls but other times he puts in trash. Too hit-and-miss for mine. I suspect his good ratings stem from the fact that he takes every corner and free kick, which 'bumps' up his stats.

Took possession in the middle third an awful lot and rarely made the kind of passes I thought he would. Seemed almost scared to play any through balls when I know that he possesses the skills and vision to execute them. Not to mention he couldn't put any shots on target (the one against Denmark just had to be on target at the very least). It depends on his role though. If he was used as deeper lying mid then fine but his heat maps show he was going forward. I just can't remember many key passes from him.

Then you look at this defensive work in these three games and he was pretty poor. Against France he lets Pogba give-and-go and fails to track him, Pogba scores. Against Denmark he uses his head under little pressure and clears it into the most dangerous area on the pitch, then fails to track Eriksen and he scores.

Was he at fault for both those goals? Probably not entirely. But his defensive work rate in crucial moments seems to be an issue. There was no desperation in those two moments and they were big moments that killed us.

I think he is the least of our problems because he is still one of our best midfielders at the moment. But I was not impressed by him. Perhaps my expectations were too high (and they were for most players).

He looks good but his passes are all sideways and backwards. Timid as.

 

[Collingwoodity]

you're still living in 2015.

asian opposition were carving us up in the middle during qualifying with Ange's visionary 3 CB possession set up. the philosophy didn't suit the personnel.

the guy had a sook and dumped the national team 6 months from a WC. if he had belief in his philosophy and getting anything out of it with this bunch of players, he would've seen it through to the end.

BVM had them for a handful of matches and playing competitively. The players crumbled with turnovers and poor skill mistakes which is what hurt them in all games, and were too slow up front to convert chances.

This post is almost completely irrelevant to the post quoted.

Ange’s philosophy has nothing to do with the current World Cup other than to confirm that the decision to push him out and the appointment of a so called expert coach on a short term basis and was a complete failure.


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[kaiserchief13]

He looks good but his passes are all sideways and backwards. Timid as.

What's he good at? Passing forward? No. Set piece taking? Ok but overrated - a heap were terrible. Winning the ball and keeping possession? Yes but only by passing sideways and backwards. Tracking runs in defense? No. Not a very good player

 

[Roobs321]

Our France and Denmark games were strong. I enjoy the core of this squad going forward, part of me rapt to say goodbye to the oldies in Cahill, Jedinak, Milligan, etc. (despite their fine service, all are past-it).

I watched every game in this group and Peru just weren't going to come away from this tournament without a point. With Australia playing a little more urgently to progress, Peru's superior attacking nous was always going to win out on such terms. Wasn't going to happen for us that way. Realistically, we needed to grab an extra goal in the first two matches for a better group position and different approach to the game. And for fans of the World Cup in general, it's better with France and Denmark progressing, with the latter more capable of a deep run than Australia at present. If you seldom manufacture shots on target during the group stage, and routinely leak goals in the first 10 mins, you don't deserve to progress.

The first two group games filled me with the most confidence since 2006. I felt we had found a new generation nucleus. Same old result against a team who gets to cut their teeth in the CONMEBOL confederation as opposed to the typical style of opponents we tangle with in AFC.

I always approach the World Cup with the Socceroos in the safe comforts of a "second team" for now, prefer to face it all with low expectations and hope for the best, not invest too much zeal into them. I got that performance satisfaction from 2 games and was happy for Peru in the last. That'll do me. On to Uruguay now with undivided attention.

 

[jd2010]

Too many people think we're better than what we are. And despite this, they're still complaining when the reality is it came down to the last group game. Tough ****. We performed well but today we were outclassed and our cutting edge was s**t.

Many expected worse. France and Denmark games were a good fight so I'm not worried. We did the best we could. We're not Germany for crying out loud. When you have a solitary 2nd round showing at the world cup, you can't expect too much.

We weren't good enough but we gave it our all. You can't ask for more than that. We don't have the squad plain and simple.

Well said!

 

[Collingwoodity]

Also it's an indictment on us that Cahills 40 minute cameo was the most dangerous a striker looked for us at this world cup. Until we actually develop some half decent players it's a waste of time us even going to WC

I don’t like the mentality that we should set up defensively to play like s**t and hope for a goal because we don’t have Messi.

It’s unlikely to work over 3 games and has been shown up again this World Cup.

Australia needs a clear philosophy top down and playing this dour s**t at the World Cup under a short term coach on the world’s biggest stage is not going to cut it moving forward.

But a lot will simply bag Ange and then say we have been competitive but we don’t have the players to play otherwise.

We never will when we resort to this dour short term thinking every 4 years or so.


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[jd2010]

So what you are saying is we now have a whole heap of average players, whereas before we had some world class talent but an overall smaller pool of okay players.

I think that makes sense. It also means Arzani needs to get out of playing A League ASAP.

Pretty much. Our talent pool is probably the same size. But now we've got a squad of Culina's & Archie Thompson's instead of Kewell's & Bresciano's

 

[PAFC04]

What an insipid performance by our main man, the coach!!!

Going into a game where a win is a must and he leaves our most promising talent since Harry and Cahill on the bench.

FFS, Cahill should’ve been in the starting line up as captain!!!

You start with your strongest and most talented players and work with that.

It’s all down hill for the Socceroos.

Graham Arnold as our next coach... what were they thinking? How hard would it have been to ask an ex-WC from Brazil, Italy or Argentina player to take the team on for 5 years who are down on their luck or those that are looking for a job. Surely to God, there is someone out there.

We need to import more players to make our leagues stronger, give them Australian citizenship so they can play for Australia. It could be there only chance to compete in the WC, albeit not with their home country of birth.

 

[carnthemlions]

Look I'm a fan of Mooy and I like the way he plays but he was underwhelming this campaign.

He takes every set piece and lands some pretty decent balls but other times he puts in trash. Too hit-and-miss for mine. I suspect his good ratings stem from the fact that he takes every corner and free kick, which 'bumps' up his stats.

Took possession in the middle third an awful lot and rarely made the kind of passes I thought he would. Seemed almost scared to play any through balls when I know that he possesses the skills and vision to execute them. Not to mention he couldn't put any shots on target (the one against Denmark just had to be on target at the very least). It depends on his role though. If he was used as deeper lying mid then fine but his heat maps show he was going forward. I just can't remember many key passes from him.

Then you look at this defensive work in these three games and he was pretty poor. Against France he lets Pogba give-and-go and fails to track him, Pogba scores. Against Denmark he uses his head under little pressure and clears it into the most dangerous area on the pitch, then fails to track Eriksen and he scores.

Was he at fault for both those goals? Probably not entirely. But his defensive work rate in crucial moments seems to be an issue. There was no desperation in those two moments and they were big moments that killed us.

I think he is the least of our problems because he is still one of our best midfielders at the moment. But I was not impressed by him. Perhaps my expectations were too high (and they were for most players).

Based on what I've seen of him at Huddersfield, he's best suited to playing as a number 10 but doesn't have the dribbling ability, pace or agility that you need to play there in most systems. For Australia and Huddersfield he goes into his shell too much when he plays deeper.

He had some good spells here but there was also a lot of conservative sideways passing, and nothing in the way of through balls. In the first half against Denmark he left the more adventurous passing to Jedinak, which I just don't get. Plays like he wants to be Xabi Alonso lite but too often the end result is closer to bargain bin Xabi Alonso.

I think we just have to accept that our best players have plenty of limitations. Leckie was our most consistent attacking threat but for all the positives he's got the touch and finishing ability of Danny Welbeck.

 

[Yidaki]

I would have started cahill and arzani straight away. Why wait until the last minutes to bring them on when you are chasing a win? You can sub them off at half time or so. We had to throw everything at peru and take a risk.

 

[Angry Red Bull]

There are a lot of ignorant comments here I'm afraid...."We lost therefore we are no good" that's just BS! In terms of general play I thought Bert Van Marwijk was spot on in his press conference. We matched France, outplayed each of Denmark and Peru but had a major weakness in finding the net. I can't remember the last time Kruse, Leckie or Juric scored. Indeed their style of play are all structured around build up NOT scoring. Juric is out of his depth at this level. His first touch is poor, slow and unwieldly on the ball. No. Arzani showed what a true strike weapen does- they attack goal at every chance, create doubt in defence minds, take risks, back themselves to get a shot on goal and he's 19 and a lot to learn. So no wonder we exited. Writing was there to see. Can't help to think our lack of striker development is somehow related to the A league marquee player system. Most use o'seas players to fill those roles and often it's a striker. How can 18 year olds get a run. Add the fact there is no sub tier promotion and relegation then exactly where do they learn their craft? Arzani but he is a true exception and rare find. Address that weakness and find a major talent or two and we can win through.

 

[Cruyff14]

Been thinking a lot about what I want to say and how to properly express it since the game yesterday.

Coming into the tournament I had very low expectations of how well we would actually do in Russia. While I am not the most ardent follower of the Socceroos, I knew enough coming in that we weren't going to set the world alight. Australian football has always been about work your absolute socks off, give 110%, because we lack the technical ability like the world's best teams do. But through our hard work, and our physicality, we've been able to grind out results in the past, and show that while we might be among the best, we can give it a fair crack. We don't have the skill to play tiki-taka, or play for goal for goal because right now, we struggle to put the ball in the back of the net.

The squad that van Marwijk possessed was not a good one. When you're fielding players like Mark Milligan and Robbie Kruse - continuously - you know you're not in the best of shape. As good as Mile was, he has played his best football and should be phased out of the squad. Yes, he has done a tremendous job for us in the middle of the park, but his best years are past him. He'll be 34 in August and we cannot be depending on someone of that age to bail us out all the time. Cahill is cooked and I was on the fence about how much or how little game time he should have got. The guy is 38, barely played for 6 months and struggled to play in a lower league in England. It's not exactly a great endorsement. Was he fantastic? Absolutely. Was he our best performer ever for the national team? Without a doubt. But we hold too much sentimentality toward players, and he was one of them. He spent most of this World Cup on the bench, and it was probably a good thing. He doesn't have the legs to run out a game anymore, and I think the impact he would have made is being overestimated, particularly by more casual observers of the game. Sport is brutal and you need to cut the cord before it's too late or you fall further behind and it's harder to crawl out of the hole.

We need to look to the future and looking at cementing our midfield for the next World Cup. Mooy is our creative force, and Rogic is a handy player to have in our ranks given our background. But the old guard need to go. Kruse should never play for Australia again (I thought he was OK last night), but against France and Denmark he was insipid. He was shown to be well out of his depth and it was embarrassing to watch at times. Cahill has played his last game, Milligan is actually garbage, Jedinak is well past the wrong side of 30. I am sure there are others too who I have not mentioned. Though, the future is not entirely bleak. Arzani has the potential to be a shining light, after that though, it's not fantastic. He needs to leave Australia and find himself playing first team football somewhere, anywhere in Europe to develop his potential.Sainsbury was fantastic and really should be the figurehead of the defence, with Ryan. Behich needs to works on his positioning and reading of the game. I do not rate Risdon at all. There are more holes than not in our squad.

As for Craig Foster. He is a disgrace. Was waxing lyrical about us pre-game, and for him to come out post game and absolutely slate the whole team and Bert is disgraceful. For what Bert had to work with, he did OK I thought. Did he make some poor decisions? Probably. Did he have a lot to work with? Not at all. Could all his critics have done better? I doubt it. We simply don't have the players to go head to head with teams. The squad could not finish to save its own life. We scored two goals from penalties. There were some hopeful moments, but frustration or disappointment were our best friends in the final third nine times out of ten.

The FFA also really needs to get its act together. Revamp the youth set up, have a proper look at the A-League, get a youth league running good and proper, have mandatory youth numbers for A-League clubs. Strip the game back to grass roots level and start again, otherwise we are going to see the same over and over again.

People's expectations are far too high and they set themselves up for failure because they want too much, and ultimately, the team cannot deliver it.

 

[David Schwarz]

Been thinking a lot about what I want to say and how to properly express it since the game yesterday.

Coming into the tournament I had very low expectations of how well we would actually do in Russia. While I am not the most ardent follower of the Socceroos, I knew enough coming in that we weren't going to set the world alight. Australian football has always been about work your absolute socks off, give 110%, because we lack the technical ability like the world's best teams do. But through our hard work, and our physicality, we've been able to grind out results in the past, and show that while we might be among the best, we can give it a fair crack. We don't have the skill to play tiki-taka, or play for goal for goal because right now, we struggle to put the ball in the back of the net.

The squad that van Marwijk possessed was not a good one. When you're fielding players like Mark Milligan and Robbie Kruse - continuously - you know you're not in the best of shape. As good as Mile was, he has played his best football and should be phased out of the squad. Yes, he has done a tremendous job for us in the middle of the park, but his best years are past him. He'll be 34 in August and we cannot be depending on someone of that age to bail us out all the time. Cahill is cooked and I was on the fence about how much or how little game time he should have got. The guy is 38, barely played for 6 months and struggled to play in a lower league in England. It's not exactly a great endorsement. Was he fantastic? Absolutely. Was he our best performer ever for the national team? Without a doubt. But we hold too much sentimentality toward players, and he was one of them. He spent most of this World Cup on the bench, and it was probably a good thing. He doesn't have the legs to run out a game anymore, and I think the impact he would have made is being overestimated, particularly by more casual observers of the game. Sport is brutal and you need to cut the cord before it's too late or you fall further behind and it's harder to crawl out of the hole.

We need to look to the future and looking at cementing our midfield for the next World Cup. Mooy is our creative force, and Rogic is a handy player to have in our ranks given our background. But the old guard need to go. Kruse should never play for Australia again (I thought he was OK last night), but against France and Denmark he was insipid. He was shown to be well out of his depth and it was embarrassing to watch at times. Cahill has played his last game, Milligan is actually garbage, Jedinak is well past the wrong side of 30. I am sure there are others too who I have not mentioned. Though, the future is not entirely bleak. Arzani has the potential to be a shining light, after that though, it's not fantastic. He needs to leave Australia and find himself playing first team football somewhere, anywhere in Europe to develop his potential.Sainsbury was fantastic and really should be the figurehead of the defence, with Ryan. Behich needs to works on his positioning and reading of the game. I do not rate Risdon at all. There are more holes than not in our squad.

As for Craig Foster. He is a disgrace. Was waxing lyrical about us pre-game, and for him to come out post game and absolutely slate the whole team and Bert is disgraceful. For what Bert had to work with, he did OK I thought. Did he make some poor decisions? Probably. Did he have a lot to work with? Not at all. Could all his critics have done better? I doubt it. We simply don't have the players to go head to head with teams. The squad could not finish to save its own life. We scored two goals from penalties. There were some hopeful moments, but frustration or disappointment were our best friends in the final third nine times out of ten.

The FFA also really needs to get its act together. Revamp the youth set up, have a proper look at the A-League, get a youth league running good and proper, have mandatory youth numbers for A-League clubs. Strip the game back to grass roots level and start again, otherwise we are going to see the same over and over again.

People's expectations are far too high and they set themselves up for failure because they want too much, and ultimately, the team cannot deliver it.

I didn’t mind Risdon, thought he was serviceable. Behich drove me insane, credit for his endeavour but he has the attention span of a 6 year old suffering from a sugar overdose

The only thing I would question Bert on is why Luongo didn’t get more time. I’d much rather him than Irvine coming on in the situations where the latter was used

All things considered I too thought we did well given what we had. One of the many predictions I made that have all been wrong (how hard is this tournament to guess anything?) was that we’d be fodder, and in that instance we definitely can keep our heads high

A shitload needs to be done though between now and 2022. Right now I can’t see us qualifying unless we get a stupidly easy group through Asia

 

[mcgarnacle]

In hindsight - we were probably spoiled by 2006 and in reality we are just no that good a football nation. Since the Japan game our World Cup finals record is

Played 12
Won 1 - Drawn 3 - Lost 8
GF 10; GA 25

That's relegation level performance in most leagues

2006 was also the only year we played 'easier' Asian opposition where we got the solitary win. We could be drawn with Asian opposition because we qualified from Oceania. The rest of the opponents have been Euro, South American & African (Ghanaian).

We'll never get 2006 draw again because we're separated from Asian co-qualifiers. We also generally get lumped into the same pot as cOnCAcaf, or in the case of 2018, are ranked lowly (pots were based on rankings) so grouped in the same pot as nations we'd have a chance against. If the rankings system is used in 2022, then improving ranking would be helpful. As an example, Iran were in pot 3 and got Morocco in their group. They were just s**t unlucky that the pot 2 team drawn in their group was Spain. Spain would've been a pot 1 team but Russia get automatic A1 as hosts.

 

[Allan Shorty]

Look I'm a fan of Mooy and I like the way he plays but he was underwhelming this campaign.

He takes every set piece and lands some pretty decent balls but other times he puts in trash. Too hit-and-miss for mine. I suspect his good ratings stem from the fact that he takes every corner and free kick, which 'bumps' up his stats.

Took possession in the middle third an awful lot and rarely made the kind of passes I thought he would. Seemed almost scared to play any through balls when I know that he possesses the skills and vision to execute them. Not to mention he couldn't put any shots on target (the one against Denmark just had to be on target at the very least). It depends on his role though. If he was used as deeper lying mid then fine but his heat maps show he was going forward. I just can't remember many key passes from him.

Then you look at this defensive work in these three games and he was pretty poor. Against France he lets Pogba give-and-go and fails to track him, Pogba scores. Against Denmark he uses his head under little pressure and clears it into the most dangerous area on the pitch, then fails to track Eriksen and he scores.

Was he at fault for both those goals? Probably not entirely. But his defensive work rate in crucial moments seems to be an issue. There was no desperation in those two moments and they were big moments that killed us.

I think he is the least of our problems because he is still one of our best midfielders at the moment. But I was not impressed by him. Perhaps my expectations were too high (and they were for most players).

Was bresciano better than mooy? I already profess ignorance so no need to point that out just interested in the comparison.

 

[Allan Shorty]

I didn’t mind Risdon, thought he was serviceable. Behich drove me insane, credit for his endeavour but he has the attention span of a 6 year old suffering from a sugar overdose

The only thing I would question Bert on is why Luongo didn’t get more time. I’d much rather him than Irvine coming on in the situations where the latter was used

All things considered I too thought we did well given what we had. One of the many predictions I made that have all been wrong (how hard is this tournament to guess anything?) was that we’d be fodder, and in that instance we definitely can keep our heads high

A shitload needs to be done though between now and 2022. Right now I can’t see us qualifying unless we get a stupidly easy group through Asia

Yes I wanted more luongo. Any luongo.

 

[David Schwarz]

Was bresciano better than mooy? I already profess ignorance so no need to point that out just interested in the comparison.

Mark tended to fling himself forward a lot more than Mooy is inclined to do and was established in Europe far earlier than what Aaron did, I’m not sure if it’s a fair comparison to make, just yet at least

 

[Jack Gun Cyril Stun]

Been thinking a lot about what I want to say and how to properly express it since the game yesterday.

Coming into the tournament I had very low expectations of how well we would actually do in Russia. While I am not the most ardent follower of the Socceroos, I knew enough coming in that we weren't going to set the world alight. Australian football has always been about work your absolute socks off, give 110%, because we lack the technical ability like the world's best teams do. But through our hard work, and our physicality, we've been able to grind out results in the past, and show that while we might be among the best, we can give it a fair crack. We don't have the skill to play tiki-taka, or play for goal for goal because right now, we struggle to put the ball in the back of the net.

The squad that van Marwijk possessed was not a good one. When you're fielding players like Mark Milligan and Robbie Kruse - continuously - you know you're not in the best of shape. As good as Mile was, he has played his best football and should be phased out of the squad. Yes, he has done a tremendous job for us in the middle of the park, but his best years are past him. He'll be 34 in August and we cannot be depending on someone of that age to bail us out all the time. Cahill is cooked and I was on the fence about how much or how little game time he should have got. The guy is 38, barely played for 6 months and struggled to play in a lower league in England. It's not exactly a great endorsement. Was he fantastic? Absolutely. Was he our best performer ever for the national team? Without a doubt. But we hold too much sentimentality toward players, and he was one of them. He spent most of this World Cup on the bench, and it was probably a good thing. He doesn't have the legs to run out a game anymore, and I think the impact he would have made is being overestimated, particularly by more casual observers of the game. Sport is brutal and you need to cut the cord before it's too late or you fall further behind and it's harder to crawl out of the hole.

We need to look to the future and looking at cementing our midfield for the next World Cup. Mooy is our creative force, and Rogic is a handy player to have in our ranks given our background. But the old guard need to go. Kruse should never play for Australia again (I thought he was OK last night), but against France and Denmark he was insipid. He was shown to be well out of his depth and it was embarrassing to watch at times. Cahill has played his last game, Milligan is actually garbage, Jedinak is well past the wrong side of 30. I am sure there are others too who I have not mentioned. Though, the future is not entirely bleak. Arzani has the potential to be a shining light, after that though, it's not fantastic. He needs to leave Australia and find himself playing first team football somewhere, anywhere in Europe to develop his potential.Sainsbury was fantastic and really should be the figurehead of the defence, with Ryan. Behich needs to works on his positioning and reading of the game. I do not rate Risdon at all. There are more holes than not in our squad.

As for Craig Foster. He is a disgrace. Was waxing lyrical about us pre-game, and for him to come out post game and absolutely slate the whole team and Bert is disgraceful. For what Bert had to work with, he did OK I thought. Did he make some poor decisions? Probably. Did he have a lot to work with? Not at all. Could all his critics have done better? I doubt it. We simply don't have the players to go head to head with teams. The squad could not finish to save its own life. We scored two goals from penalties. There were some hopeful moments, but frustration or disappointment were our best friends in the final third nine times out of ten.

The FFA also really needs to get its act together. Revamp the youth set up, have a proper look at the A-League, get a youth league running good and proper, have mandatory youth numbers for A-League clubs. Strip the game back to grass roots level and start again, otherwise we are going to see the same over and over again.

People's expectations are far too high and they set themselves up for failure because they want too much, and ultimately, the team cannot deliver it.

Had low expectations going in but thought Bert did pretty well with what he had and the time he had. We were solid v France and controlled the ball in last 2 matches, just no one to finish....bit sloppy down back, but a bit stiff too with deflections not helping.

And I wasn’t expecting a lot from Cahill but as I thought he showed in 40 mins last night...he just has an uncanny knack of knowing how to get to dangerous spots, (anyone else in the squad with better sense than him?) but the time for that was in the 2nd half v Denmark or even the 1st half last night. Just 1 touch is all that’s required...sometimes cleverness / experience supersedes fitness / youth esp at the front end.
And for sure if he is our most dangerous (the young jet Arzani aside, could have used more of him) then it says a lot about where the squad was at...but you play with what you’ve got at the time.

How much different would it have been going into last nights game with a win over Denmark....which wasnt far fetched.

And the 2 goals last night, phark one was a double deflection...wouldn’t have minded one for us in our 3 games.

Anyway, we were a chance going into the last game, which most of us would have taken 12 days ago I reckon.

Just not sure what the next few years holds for us...some more like Arzani would help!!

 

[Topkent]

The team has some decent players but there are simply no quality forwards who can score 1 or 2 goals from 1 or 2 chances.

We don't have decent players.

We have 3 good players.

Was bresciano better than mooy? I already profess ignorance so no need to point that out just interested in the comparison.

Yep. Bresc was able to control the midfield against wc opposition and scored some big goals in serie a.

 

[GreyCrow]

Sure I am more passive observer than participant but saying Oz only has 3 players doesnt take into consideration Ronaldo and Messi ( as far as I can see) carry their countries. If either of them go down 90% of the world write them off

 

[Topkent]

Sure I am more passive observer than participant but saying Oz only has 3 players doesnt take into consideration Ronaldo and Messi ( as far as I can see) carry their countries. If either of them go down 90% of the world write them off

Bad example. The 2 carry their team to international finals. Without them both countries still have class players

Guedes Carvalho Silva Neves etc
Di Maria Dybala Rojo etc

Argentina left a striker at home that would be the starting striker for almost every team at the WC

 

[kaiserchief13]

Sure I am more passive observer than participant but saying Oz only has 3 players doesnt take into consideration Ronaldo and Messi ( as far as I can see) carry their countries. If either of them go down 90% of the world write them off

Lets compare players like Di Maria and Dybala to Kruise and Juric....

 

[JimDocker]

Was bresciano better than mooy? I already profess ignorance so no need to point that out just interested in the comparison.

I would rate Bresciano higher at this stage. I have been a big fan of Mooy over his career and rate him highly, despite being underwhelmed and frustrated by his output in this tournament.

Bresciano was a more naturally attacking player and he played in a much better Australian team so his impact was more visible.

I think Mooy still has some improvement within him and expect to see some great football from him over the years.