The Asian Game’s coverage of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 is proudly sponsored by SMC.
Graham Arnold speaks a lot about trust; in his players and in his staff. He mentioned ‘trust’ ten times during his 30-minute press conference announcing his 26-man squad for Qatar on Tuesday afternoon.
There was trust in Harry Souttar and Kye Rowles to be ready to play, despite both central defenders returning from lengthy injury layoffs and barely playing in the months leading up to the World Cup. Trust also in the next generation coming through that Arnold has mentored through the Olyroos program and now into the senior team.
And finally there was trust in John Crawley, regarded as one of Australia’s finest goalkeeper coaches. It was Crawley, Arnold mused, that made the shock decision to leave Mitch Langerak out of the final 26-man squad.
“I’m not an expert in goalkeeping,” Arnold explained. “We’ve got a great goalkeeper coach in John Crawley who has a process, and and studies these goalkeepers and understands these goalkeepers enormously, and I’ve got to trust that process with John Crawley.
“We make those decisions, so I trusted John Crawley.”
While there were other big selection decisions, including Arnold axing his own son-in-law in Trent Sainsbury – which will surely make for a slightly awkward family gathering at Christmas – as well as Tom Rogic, both mainstays of the Socceroos outfit for the past decade, it was the decision to leave out Langerak that garnered the most vociferous reaction.
Langerak is, without any question, Australia’s most in-form goalkeeper over the past few seasons. His body of work with Nagoya Grampus is arguably as good as any Australian goalkeeper has produced.
You can easily mount an argument that he should be Australia’s number one goalkeeper, given both his own personal form and Maty Ryan’s struggles for game time at club level. In the past three calendar years Langerak has kept more clean sheets than Ryan has played games.
Having been coaxed out of international retirement, which Langerak told The Asian Game recently, came after ongoing discussions with Arnold and the Socceroos staff, his inclusion in the 26-man squad was considered a fait accompli. After all, why leave out one of your most in form players?
Incredulous would be the best way to describe the reaction to Langerak’s omission from the squad.
Former Socceroos defender Robbie Cornthwaite tweeted: “If Mitch has said he wants to go then this is staggering…Just doesn’t add up for me.”
Tommy Oar, who in his nascent post-playing career has begun a career in media with Optus Sport and is a former teammate of Langerak’s with the national team, was even more damning in his critique.
“The Langerak decision has left a sour taste in my mouth,” Oar told Optus Sport. “During his press conference, Arnie said that he laid out to him when he was coming out of retirement that it was just in case one of the three (goalkeepers) he selected were injured.
“It’s cruel. I don’t think Mitch would have ever come out of retirement if that was really the case. I think he’s misled him which is a huge shame and the only disappointing factor in what is, on the whole, an impressive Socceroos squad.”
Outside of those who were left out, the other major talking point was who Arnold selected – the likes of teenage sensation Garang Kuol, cult-hero Jason Cummings and midfield terrier Cammy Devlin.
The selection of Devlin, over a player like Denis Genreau, is perhaps instructive as to the type of football we can expect of Arnold’s side in Qatar.
While the French-born and based Genreau, who is struggling for game time with recently promoted Toulouse, is a more ball-playing midfielder, Devlin is a terrier. A fighter. A scrapper. He loves doing the hard work in midfield and has won over fans in Scotland in quick time with his consistently dogged performances for Hearts.
That’s not to take away from the quality he possesses, they are simply two very different players. Arnold alluded to that on Tuesday, while also referencing Connor Metcalfe, another player unlucky to miss out.
“Denis and Connor, both of those are ball type players where we need some players, with the other players that we’ve got in the midfield area, that fighters, runners, tacklers, chasers,” he said.
“We may need those type of plays to track players for the opposition, so it’s a different style they bring to the midfield.”
One midfield player who won’t be there is rising AS Roma sensation Cristian Volpato, who Arnold revealed turned down the chance to represent Australia at the World Cup.
The Sydney-born and raised Volpato, who has made waves in Italy over the past 12 months for his performances for Roma and with their junior national teams, is at the centre of an international tug-of-war for his services, with the 18-year-old undecided as to whether to commit his future to Australia or Italy.
Arnold told reporters at Tuesday’s squad announcement that he tried to convince Volpato right up until the eleventh hour.
“I spoke to Christian yesterday (Monday), three times,” Arnold explained.
“Before that I’d spoken him on numerous occasions. I pretty much told him yesterday that he was in 26-man squad. He wanted to go away and think about it, wanted to speak to the people around him that helped guide his career, and he came back last night and declined the offer to come in (and) play for Australia at the World Cup.
“And, you know, that’s his decision at the end of the day.”
For his part, Volpato took to social media to give his side of the story:
“I’ve seen lots of speculation about decisions I have supposedly taken at international level,” he wrote on an Instagram Story.
“The truth is that I am still just at the start of my professional career and I an totally focused on continuing that process at Roma. Making any sort of rushed decision about my international future at this early stage risks being extremely premature.
“There will be plenty of time for me to take the decision that feels right for me, but right now I know my focus needs to be on continuing to work hard each and every day in order to continue improving as a player.
“For now, it’s time to focus on the game against Sassuolo.”
While Volpato’s focus remains on domestic matters in Serie A, for fans in Australia the focus, as we build up to the opening game against France at the Al Janoub Stadium on 22 November, will increasingly zero in on the fitness of the players.
Rowles and Souttar are considered the likely central defensive pairing, although both come in with very little football under their belt having just returned from injury. Can you afford to take both into a game against France? Does that open the door for a player like Thomas Deng, who impressed against New Zealand in a recent friendly and was Arnold’s captain for the Olyroos at the Tokyo Olympics.
Does the selection of Devlin in the squad allow for Aaron Mooy to play further forward given the fitness concerns over Ajdin Hrustic? With further fitness concerns over Martin Boyle, which players does Arnold turn to in those wide positions? Will he have a preferred XI, or will it be horses for courses depending on the opposition?
There are questions aplenty as kick off approaches; Socceroos fans just have to trust that Arnold has the answers.
AUSTRALIA SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Mat Ryan, Danny Vukovic, Andrew Redmayne
Defenders: Nathaniel Atkinson, Aziz Behich, Milos Degenek, Thomas Deng, Fran Karacic, Joel King, Kye Rowles, Harry Souttar, Bailey Wright
Midfielders: Keanu Baccus, Martin Boyle, Cameron Devlin, Craig Goodwin, Ajdin Hrustic, Jackson Irvine, Garang Kuol, Mathew Leckie, Awer Mabil, Riley McGree, Aaron Mooy
Strikers: Jason Cummins, Mitch Duke, Jamie Maclaren
PHOTO: Facebook/Socceroos
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