World Cup Concerns....

[Dr. Wankenstein]

Ok the great thing about this forum is that every person gets to put across an opinion so here I go.

I am a little bit concerned that it's not our squad that will let us down at the WC as I do think its going to be good, the 31 picked are good players and if all fit we will be very competitive!

What I feel is our biggest concern...Pim Verbeek.

Please don't feel this is a witch hunt as if Australia do exceptionally well I will happily eat humble pie! And I do mean Australia making round of 16 as exceptionally well, as our group is not easy by any means.

Verbeek is living off being Hiddink's assistant at WC '02. Sth Korea's '07 Asian Cup and our qualifying for the WC and Asian Cup was just crap and we don't speak of them much!

Sth Korea barely qualified from a group containing Saudi, Indonesia and Bahrain, then beat Japan, lost to Iraq (yes winners but not world beaters) and then beat Iran to finish 3rd. Oh did I mention the wins against Japan and Iran were on penalties. A lottery! Would I take penalty shoot-out wins for the socceroos in WC, of course, but its not very credible!

Australia's qualifiers were very average. You can't solely blame A-league players for our average performances. We all (most anyway) support an A-league club and to continually crap on the leagues standard makes a mockery of going and supporting the same players the following weekend. They are out there on that pitch under the direction of Verbeek. Our performance with EU players was never much better.

Yes we qualified, but we didn't employ him just to qualify. We could have kept Graham Arnold if we just wanted to qualify. He got us to the Asian Cup in '07 (which was crap too, so don't think this is support for Arnold).

We have our faith in a coach with a pretty average performance at major tournaments (and I like the Asian Cup, but its not a major tournament compared to the WC), and a string of average performances with the Socceroos!

I hope that everything I say here is shown to be completely wrong in June when Australia play themselves (play well that is) to a spot in the next round of the WC.

[DOC]

lol and its in the wrong forum as well

[Kayui Kintama]

Beat me to it, Doc

[DOC]

Beat me to it, Doc

i'm amazed at that actually haha

[Golden Greek]

Ok the great thing about this forum is that every person gets to put across an opinion so here I go.

I am a little bit concerned that it's not our squad that will let us down at the WC as I do think its going to be good, the 31 picked are good players and if all fit we will be very competitive!

What I feel is our biggest concern...Pim Verbeek.

Please don't feel this is a witch hunt as if Australia do exceptionally well I will happily eat humble pie! And I do mean Australia making round of 16 as exceptionally well, as our group is not easy by any means.

Verbeek is living off being Hiddink's assistant at WC '02. Sth Korea's '07 Asian Cup and our qualifying for the WC and Asian Cup was just crap and we don't speak of them much!

Sth Korea barely qualified from a group containing Saudi, Indonesia and Bahrain, then beat Japan, lost to Iraq (yes winners but not world beaters) and then beat Iran to finish 3rd. Oh did I mention the wins against Japan and Iran were on penalties. A lottery! Would I take penalty shoot-out wins for the socceroos in WC, of course, but its not very credible!

Australia's qualifiers were very average. You can't solely blame A-league players for our average performances. We all (most anyway) support an A-league club and to continually crap on the leagues standard makes a mockery of going and supporting the same players the following weekend. They are out there on that pitch under the direction of Verbeek. Our performance with EU players was never much better.

Yes we qualified, but we didn't employ him just to qualify. We could have kept Graham Arnold if we just wanted to qualify. He got us to the Asian Cup in '07 (which was crap too, so don't think this is support for Arnold).

We have our faith in a coach with a pretty average performance at major tournaments (and I like the Asian Cup, but its not a major tournament compared to the WC), and a string of average performances with the Socceroos!

I hope that everything I say here is shown to be completely wrong in June when Australia play themselves (play well that is) to a spot in the next round of the WC.

I agree, i don't think Pim is good enough.

But then again people didn't think Otto was good enough and look what Greece did

[paul merson]

Ok the great thing about this forum is that every person gets to put across an opinion so here I go.

I am a little bit concerned that it's not our squad that will let us down at the WC as I do think its going to be good, the 31 picked are good players and if all fit we will be very competitive!

What I feel is our biggest concern...Pim Verbeek.

Please don't feel this is a witch hunt as if Australia do exceptionally well I will happily eat humble pie! And I do mean Australia making round of 16 as exceptionally well, as our group is not easy by any means.

Verbeek is living off being Hiddink's assistant at WC '02. Sth Korea's '07 Asian Cup and our qualifying for the WC and Asian Cup was just crap and we don't speak of them much!

Sth Korea barely qualified from a group containing Saudi, Indonesia and Bahrain, then beat Japan, lost to Iraq (yes winners but not world beaters) and then beat Iran to finish 3rd. Oh did I mention the wins against Japan and Iran were on penalties. A lottery! Would I take penalty shoot-out wins for the socceroos in WC, of course, but its not very credible!

Australia's qualifiers were very average. You can't solely blame A-league players for our average performances. We all (most anyway) support an A-league club and to continually crap on the leagues standard makes a mockery of going and supporting the same players the following weekend. They are out there on that pitch under the direction of Verbeek. Our performance with EU players was never much better.

Yes we qualified, but we didn't employ him just to qualify. We could have kept Graham Arnold if we just wanted to qualify. He got us to the Asian Cup in '07 (which was crap too, so don't think this is support for Arnold).

We have our faith in a coach with a pretty average performance at major tournaments (and I like the Asian Cup, but its not a major tournament compared to the WC), and a string of average performances with the Socceroos!

I hope that everything I say here is shown to be completely wrong in June when Australia play themselves (play well that is) to a spot in the next round of the WC.

I agree, i don't think Pim is good enough.

But then again people didn't think Otto was good enough and look what Greece did

You dont know how right you are GG, if Greece can win a trophy, any thing is achievable.

[Russia2O18]

tbh I doubt Jose Mourinho could get any more out of this group of players

not saying Pim is anything special as a coach, but there's only so much that can be achieved with a combination of aging and unfit players not to mention a support cast of not very good players

Socceroos will struggle at the WC no doubt, but hopefully their scrapping qualities can cause an upset or two to get out of the group. not holding my breath though.

[Bresciano]

tbh I doubt Jose Mourinho could get any more out of this group of players

not saying Pim is anything special as a coach, but there's only so much that can be achieved with a combination of aging and unfit players not to mention a support cast of not very good players

Socceroos will struggle at the WC no doubt, but hopefully their scrapping qualities can cause an upset or two to get out of the group. not holding my breath though.

Are we too critical of these players. Harry Kewell & co always saying we need to appreciate their recent achievements more. Given our population size, our emphasis on brawn rather than skill in the past (thankfully this seems to be changing at elite junior level, emphasis on elite) maybe we have done really well to achieve what we have. Hopefully the Socceroos will surprise us. One things for sure - they will give everything to succeed - have to admire that.

[Russia2O18]

tbh I doubt Jose Mourinho could get any more out of this group of players

not saying Pim is anything special as a coach, but there's only so much that can be achieved with a combination of aging and unfit players not to mention a support cast of not very good players

Socceroos will struggle at the WC no doubt, but hopefully their scrapping qualities can cause an upset or two to get out of the group. not holding my breath though.

Are we too critical of these players. Harry Kewell & co always saying we need to appreciate their recent achievements more. Given our population size, our emphasis on brawn rather than skill in the past (thankfully this seems to be changing at elite junior level, emphasis on elite) maybe we have done really well to achieve what we have. Hopefully the Socceroos will surprise us. One things for sure - they will give everything to succeed - have to admire that.

yes thats the one advantage in our nation's football and sporting culture in general...never say die, scrapping and fighting against the odds

and in this particular World Cup i think we'll be relying on those aspects even moreso than last time out

[handy]

Pim is nothing special but can only work with what quality players he has at his dispossal.
Guus on the other hand was special

[blackout]

Guus on the other hand was special

The most special thing about Guus is that he went for it. Yes, he made the team defensively sound, but without them being negative, which is what we have with Pim.

The 2010 'roos don't appear to be capable of beating quality opposition on a good day, whereas the 2006 roos did.