By Vince Rugari
Graham Arnold is an obsessive planner. When he stood in front of a whiteboard however many years ago to begin planning for this Asian Cup, he would have written down the names of four creative midfielders, and it would have made him feel pretty comfortable about what was ahead.
Aaron Mooy is now 33. Tom Rogic is 31. Massimo Luongo is 31. Ajdin Hrustic is 27. They should all be in the primes of their careers, or just past it. They are all different types of players, but they have the sort of qualities needed to overcome the challenges in front of the Socceroos right now in Qatar: the ability to see a passing option that others can’t, or to drag an opposition defender out of position, or that little bit of individual magic needed to get past them.
But Mooy and Rogic are happily retired, Luongo has called time on his international career to focus on his club commitments, and Hrustic is in no-man’s-land. He has been told by his Italian club Hellas Verona he is free to leave, having played just 49 minutes since overcoming injury to represent Australia at the 2022 World Cup – which is really a disaster because he looked like the next big thing there for a while.
None of this would have been part of the plan.
So it’s time for Plan B, then, after the Socceroos’ 2-0 win over India, which showed just how much those four players are missed right now. Arnold can’t change the fact that they’re not in Doha, but his job is to now find other solutions.
The Socceroos might have got the result they were after at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, but there was a dearth of creativity on display. Yes, their opponents made it hard for them by sitting back in numbers, and yes, getting around a parked bus is one of the most difficult things to do in football, yet it remains the biggest question mark over Arnold’s coaching.
Graham Arnold’s Socceroos are off to a winning start at the Asian Cup, but bigger challenges are ahead.Credit: Getty
Last time they were in Qatar, they faced teams who went on the attack, which played into Arnold’s great strength of crafting a slick counter-attacking machine on the pitch and siege mentality off it, one feeding beautifully into the other and vice versa. But when you’re the favourites, the same tricks don’t work – and we already have the 2019 Asian Cup and most of 2022 World Cup qualifying to show for that.
Usually in these circumstances, it’s set pieces where the Socceroos can use their physicality to break the deadlock, but the deliveries by Craig Goodwin and Martin Boyle from 14 corner kicks – most in the first half, none of which caused India a threat – were woeful.
“There’s a lot to improve on. The boys know that,” Arnold said.
“When you get a team together, they play all around the world, they play at different clubs, they have different styles, everything is different, and the hardest thing to do is to gel them together with the ball. Defensively, it’s easier to get them together. But the patience, the timing and runs and movement off the ball and those types of things are not easy to do.
Riley McGree was terrific in the second half.Credit: Getty
“We have our standards. I have high expectations for the players and their performances and those expectations and standards need to be met.
“We’re here to win the trophy. We’re here to win the Asian Cup, and you have to reach for the stars. And you have to have high expectations and put those expectations on the boys and get them to believe in what we can do.”
Luckily, some alternative solutions presented themselves in the second half: substitutes Jordan Bos, Riley McGree and Bruno Fornaroli, who all provided some much-needed energy and impetus, although it should be noted it was Jackson Irvine’s lucky 50th-minute opening goal that first opened the game up and gave them room to operate in.
All three must be in line for greater roles, if not starts, in Thursday’s clash with Syria. McGree, one of Australia’s best performers at the World Cup, is now surely ready to play 90 minutes after his recent injury battles. Bos, meanwhile, simply offers more than Aziz Behich at left-back, while Fornaroli’s ability to play with his back to goal and create space with his movement – like for Bos’ goal – is surely a better match for the assignment in front of them right now than the trusty battering ram Mitch Duke.
Syria played out a 0-0 draw with Uzbekistan in the other opening Group B match. Both those teams will review what India did to the Socceroos and feel confident they can do it even better. Arnold will be hoping his team, too, will grow into the tournament, but hope is not a strategy.
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