Bert van Marwijk's first Socceroos squad points to famed pragmatism

Evolution, not revolution, that’s the message from the first Socceroos squad announced by Bert van Marwijk. Twenty-two of the 23 Australians that engineered the crucial playoff victory over Honduras remain part of the 29-man national set-up despite the change of coach.

Ryan McGowan is the only man not to survive the regime change ahead of two friendly internationals in Europe later this month, first in Oslo against Norway, and then in London against Colombia. However, exclusion at this stage is not the end of the road for any players with World Cup ambitions, with Van Marwijk noting “the door remains ajar for all players not picked for the March window”.

It is a squad that validates Ange Postecoglou’s judgement with his well-credentialed successor seeing no reason to make significant modifications despite monitoring over 100 candidates around the world. It also points to Van Marwijk’s famed pragmatism. With just 100 days to go before the World Cup kicks off it was always going to be prudent to call on players familiar with the international scene. It remains to be seen how Van Marwijk differs tactically from Postecoglou but the similarity of personnel provides a measure of control that can be used to compare performance.

Of the players retained, Tim Cahill’s lack of action this season has to be of concern but no doubt Van Marwijk was made aware of the record goalscorer’s talismanic qualities. James Troisi has far fewer runs on the board and considering his underwhelming season for Melbourne Victory and the competition for attacking places it’s perhaps surprising to see him selected ahead of both Brandon Borrello and Daniel Arzani.



Source: theguardian

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