Graham Arnold hails Tom Rogic growing consistency for Australia
It’s hard to remember a time that Tom Rogic has strung together two back-to-back games as convincing as his match-breaking contribution against Syria and last Friday’s win over Palestine.
As each Tom Rogic ball floated into space — and the net — Socceroos fans may have wondered where they’d seen such finesse before.
Celtic supporters could have told them, enchanted in similar fashion most weekends by the type of performance their club’s main man has never consistently reproduced in the international arena.
But this Asian Cup might just be the making of Rogic the Socceroo, the mercurial playmaker who lived up to the billing on Tuesday night.
The 26-year-old put his big-game credentials on display with a beautifully weighted assist for Chris Ikonomidis and a stoppage-time stunner of his own to take his goal tally to nine.
It’s difficult to remember a time across 45 caps that Rogic has strung together two back-to-back games as convincing as this and last Friday’s win over Palestine.
Especially so soon after a far-from-inspiring outing against Jordan, when he broke his hand and, as coach Graham Arnold revealed, was still struggling mentally with the club-versus-country tension surrounding his availability.
“Talk about the first game, but he had a lot of stuff going on around the place with Celtic and his hand and that,” Arnold said.
“He’s got such a will and strength to want to play for Australia. He’s very proud and he wants to do that.
“I’ve learnt from him in the past that when you give him freedom and make him smile, anything is possible.
“He’s a wonderful player and a joy to coach … he’s only going to get better.
“We need to work in a way that Tommy is key to what we do with the ball. A lot of times we don’t find him when he should be free.
“When you free him up he can do anything.”
Indeed, the intuitive movement and ball placement allowed for effective front-third flow.
Awer Mabil summed it up best after the match, observing that “I just have to run and he will find me.”
“It’s a pleasure to play with him,” Mabil said. “He’s a big, big player.”
Rogic has always had it in him, but based on recent evidence there were fair questions about Arnold’s declaration he’d be a leading candidate for player of the tournament.
The comments were viewed by some as encouragement. Critics called them unrealistic.
But there might be something in Arnold’s man management of his former Central Coast Mariners pupil, of how to keep a publicity-shy player in the right headspace to lift an attack around him.
“That’s what Tommy gets paid for, isn’t it,” Milligan said.
“That’s what we expect from Tommy, and he’s brought those expectations on himself because he’s a wonderful player.
“He’s a very important part of this team. He’s the type of player that when he’s on he lifts players around him as well. I’m happy Tommy’s playing well.
“He’s got a lot of experience under his belt now. He’s been at a very big club for a long time. They showed how important he is to them when this tournament started and their reaction. That’s how important he is to us as well.”
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