Old and young must go
Postecoglou weighs in on Cup squad selection
FORMER Socceroos boss Ange Postecoglou says it is a no-brainer for his successor Bert van Marwijk to take Daniel Arzani and Tim Cahill to the World Cup.
The youngest and oldest members of the Socceroos squad are in Turkey in a pretournament camp that doubles as the final selection process for Russia.
Three squad members will be cut, with some speculating the current and former Melbourne City players could be in the gun.
Arzani, 19, is yet to be capped and is untested outside of the A-League. Cahill, 38, has tallied barely an hour of match minutes at club level since walking out on City in December.
But in a squad lacking in goal threat, Postecoglou said both must be a part of the Australians squad to take on France, Denmark and Peru.
“You take them both,” he told SEN. “There shouldn’t be a debate about Arzani . . . we have very few players like Daniel Arzani.
“With what he’s shown and the potential that he has, whether he kicks on from here or not is up to the kid himself.
“To not give him that experience, that exposure, for Australian football when we have so few like him, it’s an opportunity missed.”
Postecoglou managed the national team to the World Cup, navigating a marathon 22-match qualification process, but then resigned, citing the pressures of the job.
Now Japan-based, he said back then Cahill “was definitely going to go”.
“Since then there has been eight months and he hasn’t played a lot. Knowing Tim . . . he still would be in very good condition.
“There still isn’t a lot of goalscoring threats. Tomi Juric hasn’t played a lot, so you have to take (Cahill).
“Timmy is always the one who I had (as a) kind of ‘break the glass if needed’ and I don’t think that’s changed.”
Postecoglou retains a stake in Australia’s fortunes in Russia, with defender Milos Degenek in his squad at his JLeague club Yokohama F. Marinos. The club is 13th in league, which has paused for the World Cup.
“We’ve had a pretty intense period, we’ve had 15 games in about seven weeks,” he said.
“Things are going OK here. Results haven’t been spectacular, but I’m slowly making inroad in terms of the way I want the team to play.”
As for his Cup plans, Postecoglou said they involved beer.
“I’ll plonk myself up at a bar somewhere, hopefully on an island in Greece, and cheer the boys on and then get back to work here and make a success here at Yokohama,” he said.