Verbeek applauds Arnold’s ascendancy at Socceroos

Former Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek is “very proud” of Graham Arnold’s ascendancy, even after his Oman succumbed 5-0.

Andrew Nabbout fires home Australia’s first goal in the 10th minute against Oman at Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Stadium in Dubai yesterday. Picture: Getty Images

Former Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek is “very proud” of Graham Arnold’s ascendancy, even after his Oman succumbed 5-0 at the hands of his former assistant.

Verbeek has much to ponder after Oman, undefeated in all of 2018 until now, betrayed themselves as far inferior opponents to a free-scoring Australia yesterday, offering little going forward and even less defensive resistance.

Yet the Dutchman, to whom Arnold was assistant coach in the lead-up to and including the 2010 World Cup, still found time to offer kind words about the performance of his counterpart’s national team.

“Arnie was always a fantastic friend, first of all,” said Verbeek, who spent an hour chatting with Arnold on the sideline before the game. “And second, as a coach he was the ideal man beside me because he knows football very well.

“He was in Europe, he was working already with big coaches, but now, of course, he did very well with Central Coast, winning the league, and he did very well with Sydney. You can see the way they are playing, that’s the way Arnie likes to play football — attacking, hardworking.

“I’m very proud of him. I was proud of him before the game already. I’ve always been proud of him and I really hope he will be successful.”

Verbeek, known during his tenure for unflattering assessments of the A-League, was impressed by an Australian line-up that featured mostly current or former A-League players.

“They brought in some new, fresh legs,” he said. “Some players I have never heard of and they did very well.

“This is different than Middle East football, you can see. This is a few steps higher than we are used to in the Middle East.

“That’s, for us, a very good lesson because we are going to play quite some tough games in the Asian Cup. We have to learn from the mistakes we made.”

Oman are in Group F and pitted against continental powerhouse Japan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

But Verbeek, who’s coached Oman against Middle Eastern teams for two years, had advice for the Socceroos in Group B.

“Syria is a tough team to play against. Physically strong, good team also, good mentality,” he said. “Palestine is playing very well, organised. And Jordan is a good team but they are the same level like us, so maybe they will learn from this game. Maybe it’s better to lose it 5-0 than win it 5-0.”

Arnold yesterday revealed his willingness to experiment by playing skipper Mark Milligan in the midfield. He had previously stated he would primarily use Milligan as a defender, where he started every match at the World Cup under Bert van Marwijk.

And while Sunday’s starting line-up against Oman was clearly experimental, the 33-year-old’s reinstatement in the midfield position he often filled under Ange Postecoglou could offer a hint of the coach’s midfield thinking in Aaron Mooy’s absence.

Milligan had no idea Arnold was considering deploying him in the holding role until the night before the match, and he joined Mustafa Amini and the more advanced Chris Ikonomidis. Milligan and Amini were later substituted for Jackson Irvine and Massimo Luongo.

“Most of the conversations we’ve had have been around centre-back,” Milligan said.

“Obviously with the schedule, it’s a little bit of a juggling act. There’s a lot of games coming up. If we plan on going all the way, which obviously we do, we’ve shown over the last couple of years that you need to use your squad. “If that involves me playing in midfield or at the back it doesn’t bother me. I just enjoy being on the pitch and wherever he puts me I’ll just give whatever I have.”

Milligan was encouraged to see the Socceroos “get into the habit of scoring goals”, as the team switches focus to making a statement in their opening Asian Cup clash against Jordan.

Andrew Nabbout, Ikonomidis, Awer Mabil, Milos Degenek and Irvine all scored in a promising — albeit completely unchallenged — outing in Dubai.

“We’ve already gotten into the habit of scoring goals in training and we wanted to continue that today; we ticked a number of boxes today,” Milligan said.

“We got some valuable minutes into a lot of us. Obviously we’ve still got a bit of work to do.”

The Socceroos now have only six days until they open their 2015 Asian Cup defence in Al Ain against Jordan.