Graham Arnold boosted by key Socceroos getting game time

Graham Arnold will be delighted with key Socceroos finally getting some serious football with their club sides.

Socceroo defender Trent Sainsbury applauds supporters after their 2-0 loss to Peru match in the WorldCup. Picture: Toby Zerna

Graham Arnold’s hopes of a successful return to international coaching have improved dramatically with several key players finally getting some serious football with their club sides.

The Socceroos boss would have been delighted to see defenders Trent Sainsbury and Aziz Behich step out for PSV Eindhoven in the Dutch club’s 4-0 win in a cup game against Excelsior yesterday morning (AEST).

Both players saw out the full 90 minutes with Sainsbury getting on the scoresheet via a header on his debut for the club.

Adding to the good news is that striker Tomi Juric also got a taste of some match conditions after coming on as a substitute in Luzern’s 2-1 loss to FC Basel in a Swiss league match.

Juric has been battling hamstring and knee issues and had missed the first eight games of the season. The return of all three comes at a good time for Arnold with the Socceroos set to play Kuwait in a friendly in Kuwait City on October 15, Arnold’s first game in charge of the national team since taking over from Bert van Marwijk in July.

Arnold is expected to name his squad by the middle of next week.

It is a welcome relief for central defender Sainsbury, who has had to bide his time either being on the bench or not in the squad at all in the opening six weeks of the league proper since his move from Swiss club Luzern.

He had not played since Australia’s 2-0 loss to Peru at the World Cup in Moscow on June 26 and had not started in a club match since May, when he captained Luzern before his switch to PSV.

Behich, whose last full game was in the same match, has fared a little better than Sainsbury, getting 11 minutes as a substitute against Den Haag on September 15.

While the left back was a regular with Turkish club Bursaspor, he has struggled to break into contention at PSV — a situation made more difficult for him and Sainsbury by the fact the club has had a sensational start to the season with a perfect record of six wins and a five-point lead over powerhouse Ajax.

Both players were convinced to go to PSV by manager Mark van Bommel, who took over the club after assisting his father-in-law van Marwijk with the Socceroos. Van Marwijk is now PSV’s technical director.

Whether Arnold selects Juric remains to be seen. The fact he has just come back from injury could be an issue, especially given there are only three weeks to the Kuwait game. He may well opt for a safety-first approach with the attacker. Still, with Mathew Leckie and Andrew Nabbout unlikely to be available because of injuries, Arnold will need to shore up his attacking options. Scottish striker Martin Boyle, whose father was born in Sydney, is a very strong chance to be called into the squad if some red tape can be sorted.

Meanwhile, Western Sydney will host the first Sydney derby of the season at Panthers Park on Saturday week when they take on the Sky Blues in a semi-final of the FFA Cup.

The other semi-final the night before will pit the remaining NPL club, Victoria’s Bentleigh Greens, against 2017-18 losing finalists Adelaide United at Melbourne’s Kingston Heath Soccer Complex.