Asian Cup: Graham Arnold excited by variety Apostolos Giannou brings
Apostolos Giannou is the Socceroos’ Asian Cup Plan C, and Martin Boyle’s replacement is taking it in his stride – even if it’s been a bit of an ordeal to get here.
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Apostolos Giannou is the Socceroos’ Asian Cup Plan C, and Martin Boyle’s replacement is taking it in his stride – even if it’s been a bit of an ordeal to get here.
Initially disappointed not to have been selected, the Cyprus-based striker got “the perfect start to the year” when he woke up on New Year’s Day to a missed call from coach Graham Arnold after Boyle sustained a tournament-ending knee injury against Oman.
Given Australia open their Cup defence tomorrow, the 28-year-old was rushed into camp and touched down in Dubai at 1am Thursday morning.
However things didn’t go quite to plan when the car that was supposed to drive him to the team hotel in neighbouring city Al Ain instead set out in the other direction.
“They took me to a different hotel, they drove me to Abu Dhabi two hours, dropped me off at the wrong hotel, and then I had to drive two hours back here.
“So I arrived at like 6am, had a couple of hours’ sleep then training.”
Giannou, who was born in Greece but pledged his allegiance to Australia in 2016, was selected ahead of the likes of in-form Adelaide United winger Craig Goodwin and overlooked incumbent striker Tomi Juric.
And while he’s not necessarily a like-for-like replacement for a winger, Arnold said he offered the team “something completely different”.
“If we need to play long, if we need to play more direct, if we need a Plan C in the last five minutes of a game,” Arnold said.
“If I need to go maybe to a 4-4-2 and play with two strikers and need to get width, we’ve got Mabil and Kruse and Ikonomidis who can still play high and wide.
“And if in the last 10 minutes of a game, the weakness of the opposition is getting balls in the box, then we can play the wingers high and wide and deliver, it gives us a different gameplan as well.
“He’s fit, he knows how to press, he’s a penalty box-type nine. He gives us something totally different to what we’ve got here.”
Giannou was part of Arnold’s first camp in Turkey in September and scored against Kuwait in the following month’s friendly.
He felt comfortable he was well-versed on the attacking principles of the new national-team era and his role when called upon.
“Everyone’s going to be disappointed (to not be selected initially), but I’m just happy to be here,” Giannou said.
“It’s not easy (for a coach) to make decisions … it’s the perfect start to the year pretty much.”
“I’ll be ready whenever he needs me – Plan A, B or C. I just try to train hard and work hard and take it from there.”
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