Never again suggest the Socceroos boss is risk adverse – after the Andrew Redmayne bombshell, Australia’s mission to Qatar is full of wild cards, writes Tom Smithies.
Human beings are generally expected to become more conservative as they age, but Graham Arnold seems hellbent on heading the other way.
“I’ve taken risks before, and I’ll take them again,” the Socceroos boss said defiantly as he unveiled his squad for the World Cup in Qatar, and he wasn’t wrong. With “Arnie” in this sort of mood, it’s a good thing that casinos are illegal in Doha.
On the back of one enormous gamble that ultimately sent Australia to the FIFA Men’s World Cup, when Andrew Redmayne was brought on as a specialist goalkeeper for a penalty shoot-out, Arnold has littered his squad for the tournament with smaller hostages to fortune.
There were difficult decisions made, and it’s doubtful many coaches in international football know the torment of excluding their own son-in-law from a World Cup. But it points up even more the risks that Arnold is taking in including the potentially brittle Harry Souttar and, to a lesser degree, Kye Rowles, but still has no place for the experience of Trent Sainsbury. The brutal truth is that the latter’s form over a long period hasn’t warranted inclusion.
Souttar’s absolutely did, until he collapsed to the turf with a ruptured ACL almost exactly a year ago. The timing was only fortuitous in that it gave Souttar a realistic hope of still making the World Cup with his adopted country and gave Arnold hope too. Uncovering Souttar’s links to Australia and persuading him to join the cause has been one of his most significant acts as national coach, such had been Souttar’s presence in defence until his injury.
He is set to play for Stoke City this weekend after starting midweek, as will Rowles six weeks after breaking his foot for Hearts, and the collective drawing in of breath from Arnold and his coaching staff will be audible; the best-laid plans across the whole squad could yet be shredded if any of the 26 get injured before they assemble in Doha.
That’s why there is so much at stake for Arnold, for he has still opted to include those who have suffered recent injuries (and, as he pointed out, this is a headache for just about every coach at the World Cup, thanks to the ridiculous timing of it mid-season). Martin Boyle, Ajdin Hrustic and Nathaniel Atkinson are all barely recovered from soft-tissue injuries that you suspect may still require pain management, and Milos Degenek hasn’t played for weeks since the MLS season finished.
But there is also the sense of dice-throwing from a football sense; most notably the inclusion of an 18-year-old who has exploded into our conscious but not even started a professional game. Garang Kuol just has “it”, a gift for the unexpected that excites even grizzled old coaches.
Similarly Jason Cummings, whose persona and wise-crackery belies a very good footballer – good enough to dislodge Adam Taggart from the World Cup squad when he was viewed as a certainty until recently. Cummings surely won’t start against France, but Tunisian scouts might be well advised to start poring over recent Mariners games.
There would have been another left-field pick had Cristian Volpato accepted Arnold’s entreaties to declare for the Socceroos; instead, he seems set on Italy, where (to put it kindly) the competition for a midfield spot is likely to be rather intense. As Arnold said, that’s his choice.
It would have been tempting for Arnold to include Tom Rogic as a pinch-hitter off the bench, and few would have seriously objected, given his creative ability; but at a World Cup of heat and intensity, Rogic’s chronic lack of minutes since last season would have been a luxury, even for a coach who has known the player and worked with him for over a decade.
The most jarring note is the omission of Mitch Langerak – not so much in the fact, because he would in all likelihood have sat on the bench as No.2, even if his form in Japan might have pushed Mat Ryan to even greater heights.
But it was the one part of the media conference where Arnold looked uncomfortable, discussing why he called Langerak out of international retirement in September but didn’t give him a minute on the pitch and now has effectively returned him to the ranks of the retired.
Arnold’s justification was that Langerak was brought in to the last camp in case of injury to one of the three keepers selected for the World Cup, but it’s hard to argue that his form at club level couldn’t have been reference enough in that scenario. Langerak, a popular figure in the game, has more cause than any other absentee to feel hurt by the process.
