The Socceroos will be without Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka, Tim Cahill, Lucas Neill, Josip Skoko, Scott McDonald and possibly Craig Moore for this week's clash with Ghana. As a result, Patrick Kisnorbo, Michael Thwaite, Shane Stefanutto, Kasey Wehrmann, Ryan Griffiths and possibly Michael Beauchamp could all play a part in the fixture. England-based Neil Kilkenny, Aaron Downes, Trent McClenahan, James Troisi and possibly James Wesolowski (and/or Nick Ward; conflicting reports) have also been brought into camp in order to bolster training numbers.
If Moore can't go, Beauchamp and Kisnorbo may start in the middle of a back four featuring Chipperfield and Emerton out wide.
Strange days.
I wonder how long it's been since a League Two player (McClenahan) was involved in the national set-up?
Of the lot, I'm most interested in how Wehrmann goes. Australia still lacks a natural deputy for Vince Grella (perhaps Mark Milligan in the long-run). Vinnie is fit and ready to tangle with Michael Essien and friends, and I'm sure Wehrmann would be a big step down in terms of passing and organisation, but I'd still like to see the Lillestrom hitman come on for a few minutes. His presence might also lead to the release of Jason Culina further upfield. I really enjoyed watching Jason hound the Dutch backline for 90 minutes in that build-up match to the World Cup and would love to see him given that sort of dogged front-running role again.
Brett Holman is another guy I hope gets a run, a much longer one. He may be one of the few Socceroos with the pace to stretch any of the Ghanaians. It seems that Australia will need to rely on tight, slick passing from Grella, Bresciano, Culina and Sterjovski if it's too have any chance of breaking the Black Stars down. I rather fancy John Aloisi's chances too. This is a big match. It's going to be physical and require mental toughness. Openings will be scarce. Factors like these seem to sway in favour of Aloisi, who has demonstrated before that he naturally thrives under such pressure.
4 comments:
Thanks for this overview of the predicament James. As usual you've made the necessary information more coherent and accessible than any of the mainstream.
Very excited, and very anxious - 'tis all I have to say.
while mcclenahan is with the squad, he is only part of the junior group getting experience - wouldnt expect any of them (kilkenny, troisi, ward as well) to get on the pitch
one thing i want to know is why milicevic or mckain have been left out - are they that in poor form or is it something else?
I for one am delighted that a number of the youngsters were with the squad for for the ghana game. Having seen Mclenehan play in Londond recently I am quite confident that he will get a chance to move up to a higher league sooner or later. I was at the game at Loftus Rd on Tuesday night (london time) and saw an assured performance, particularly from Moore, Grella and Emerton. But given that quite a few of the current socceroo squad will be retiring before 2010 I feel very strongly that more of the youngsters need to be blooded. I realise that Arnold is trying to make an arguement to keep the top job but shouldn't we be focusing on using youth who are likely to be there in 2010.
Cheers
John
Incidentally, having been a huge fan of Wehrman in his young socceroos and Brisbane Strikers and knowing him from his former club in brisbane I was really excited when he cam on for Grella.
While there was a noticable difference in the coherence of our play out from the back I thought he did reasonably well, certainly weel enough to get another chance there.
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