2010 Football World Cup Qualification

[Des]

Cahill is a superstar...

What happens though when he isn't firing? Come world cup time we need more contributors.

[rcon]

Question for you football people.

Is our game plan under Pim likely to take us as far as last world cup? The impression I get from listening to commentators this time around, as opposed to last time(I've not actually watched much this time at all), is that we're more dour, defensive and maybe a little lacking in flair. Great for qualifying, not so good for progressing through the later stages.

[bennymacca]

why is dour not good for later stages?

surely its easier to get a 1-0 win against a big team than winning 3-2 in a shootout?

[rcon]

I've no idea (about tactics in football at all), I'm only collating all the bits I hear from post game reports and the like, and coming to a conclusion based on that.

It might be that is fantastic way of going about it, but do we have fire power to score against the better teams? Sure, we can keep them to low scores, but can we out do that at the other end?

[Chelsea4thewin]

Cahill is a superstar...

What happens though when he isn't firing? Come world cup time we need more contributors.

umm KEWELL

emerton is also vital for any world cup success, quality player who has missed the epl season with injury

[Des]

Kewell wont be playing WC.

You heard it here first.

I love taking the wrong side of a 50/50 flip

[BigPete33]

We're playing the exact same formation as we did last World Cup!

It's not unfair to say there is a lack of attacking flair, but one could have a look at how different the side is each time we play. Can anyone remember the last time we fielded what would at least look like our strongest starting 11?

The 4-2-3-1 formation we currently use relies a bit on the lone striker (the 1) being very good at holding the ball up for the onrushing midfielders (Cahill, Kewell etc) so what this means is a large share of the goals are coming from the attacking midfield and obviously less of them are coming from the striker.

This is where Viduka was actually very good, if only he wasn't a lazy sack of potatos. Ability wise, he could hold the ball up and simply twinkle his toes and it would either be at the feet of an onrushing midfielder or he'd have gotten off a clear shot at goal. Not many strikers seem to be able to play that role - this is why there's the debate about the formation because a lot of people want to see Kennedy and McDonald up front together, myself included.

The downside of that is we would lose a player from the midfield as we would more likely be playing a 4-4-2 formation and this in turn limits our ability to win the ball in the middle and then feed those 2 strikers - in essence it could be self defeating.

Another option would be to have only 3 at the back in order to keep 5 in midfield and it pretty much depends who is available and playing well for those back 3 positions.

Rhys Williams looked pretty good at right back and could well be an answer there.
Scott Chipperfield is a shoe-in for left back.
Lucas Neil would be the central defender.
I completely dislike Jade North as a player and I hope he never gets another game, so that's an easy removal of one central defender.
Craig Moore can clearly still play though and when paired with Lucas Neil a back 4 still does look very solid!

It will depend a lot on what formation the opposition at the time like to play. Rule number one by an absolute mile though is 'always play to your strengths' which would closely be followed by 'exploit the oppositions weaknesses'. This is where choosing which formation to play and who gets to play in which position can be a bit of an art form.

Hard work being Pim is what I think!

At the moment we DO lack depth, but at the same time there's a year to go and it's fairly clear players we know very little about are getting a run in the side andthat can only be very very good for increasing the depth we have.

[bennymacca]

what happened to brett emerton? will he be ready for the WC?

[BigPete33]

Currently injured, yes he will be fine.

He's looking at having a full pre-season for Blackburn so all is looking well.

[Chelsea4thewin]

i really like Pim as a coach and dont have a clue why the media have been attacking him

we qualified for the world up undefeated and only conceeding one goal

even if it was ugly at times, the result is the only important thing