Craig Foster has began Arnold slaughter

[olympiakos]

from sun herald, i cant wait to hear what he has to say about arnold on world game today, he comes across as a know it all but he makes many good points



Craig Foster
July 15, 2007

THE past week has hurt everyone involved in the game deeply, more so because of the pride we all felt last year when our national team played so effectively against the world's best.

The performances against Oman and Iraq have underlined a number of issues which Australian football must finally address.

It sometimes takes a disaster to force a change in thinking, and the shambles of our Asian Cup campaign makes it clear that a revolution is needed in our football systems and culture.

It is time for the game to live up to the hope we all had when Frank Lowy came to power, for Football Federation Australia chief executive Ben Buckley to pull every state and territory into line, and for a national plan to be pushed through to take us forward.

And we can start with the key coaching roles going to the best candidates.

There was a lot of support for Frank Farina and then Graham Arnold to fill the senior coaching role, but both have paid the price for disrespecting the game and wanting too much too soon.

Every successful coach in international football, with very rare exceptions, is highly educated and experienced. There are no short cuts.

FFA chairman Lowy was correct a year ago when he said, to his knowledge, there was no Australian coach capable of taking the Socceroos post-Guus Hiddink.

Arnold was placed in a situation where he had to match wits with better coaches and react to conditions he had not experienced. He should have been seasoned by many years of involvement with the junior and youth ranks - and only then stepped up to the top job.

Nor do I accept the excuse-making that has all of a sudden pervaded our game, especially the attempts to blame the players, conditions or preparation.

Farina blamed the players. Arnold did likewise in a sad piece of television after the 3-1 loss to Iraq on Friday night in which he lost any shred of dignity and even placed his ongoing role as an assistant in question.

Hiddink just coached. The point is that the team did not function because they were not coached to, and when this happens good players become very poor. All of these players played poorly under Farina, beautifully under Hiddink, and now poorly again, and Arnold thinks the players are to blame?

Mark Schwarzer, Lucas Neill, Patrick Kisnorbo and Luke Wilkshire will bear the brunt as Arnold's supporters look to apportion blame elsewhere - but wrongly so. To a man, they would have performed far better in a well-organised team.

Great coaches are player builders, inexperienced coaches are player killers.

The players were not blameless for some of their conduct, such as Neill's disgraceful questioning of the Omanis' "professionalism" after they had been professional enough to give us a football lesson.

Hiddink clearly showed that our players are extremely coachable and that, when well coached and led, they will make us proud.

Arnold's job is to coach the team to play in and to the conditions, not to complain about them. A suitable style of football maximising technique and intelligence will win every time over commitment and effort.

Australia did not play badly because of the heat, we played badly because we played unintelligently, and this made the heat a major factor.

The Italians have a saying: "The ball doesn't sweat." The point is that Australia just needed to play football at a pace to match the environment, and this required a coach to teach the players how.

[Anonymous]

But I have that within which passeth show;
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

[Fred Goldstone]

I thjink that the FFA have let Arnold down actually.

They have not supported him with the resources they gave to Hiddinck and their attitude towards his position has undermined his authority with the players.

The FFA do not respect him so why should the players?

The total lack of research on the Asian teams and the conditions by the FFA's "experts" is disgraceful.

It is their duty to provide the coach with the tools he needs to do the job.
It is not his job to devise medical strategies, he should be provided with all this long before the event so he can plan an acclimatisation program properly.

[MilanManiac]

"...maximising technique and intelligence will win every time over commitment and effort. "

[ozzie owl]

In the second half by Australia reminded me so much of England against Portugal in Euro 2004, when they also scored early.

They defended deep and were unable to retain possession for long periods, the difference was that Thailand were unable to take their opportunitiea. Unlike England we were able to score a goal against the run of play which sunk Thailand and enabled us to score two more.

The first half was a huge improvement on the first two games, however still too many high balls hurled for my liking.

We will have to lift our game even higher to beat Japan, who look to be slowly getting better and better.

Australia still needs to be able to vary the tempo and retain possession if we are to beat them.

Here are my ratingd:

Schwarzer: 7
Emerton: 7
Milligan: 8
Beauchamp 7
Wiltshire 7
Carney 7
Grella 5
Culina 6
Bresciano 7
Aloisi 5
Viduka 8

Subs:

Cahill 7
Kewell 5
Holman 4