Semis the target but cut Arnold some slack, says Ognenovski

Former Socceroos hard-man Sasa Ognenovski believes anything less than a semi-finals spot at the AFC Asian Cup would be an underachievement for Graham Arnold’s Socceroos, despite the loss of key man Aaron Mooy.

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Source: Socceroos

The defending champions face Oman on Sunday night in their final warm-up, with Ognenovski decreeing their can be no excuses for failure.

“Losing Aaron Mooy (to a medial ligament injury) is a massive blow because he’s arguably our best player,” said the 2010 Asian player of the year and 2011 Asian Cup finalist with Australia.

“Does his loss give us an excuse? I don’t think so. We’re still the defending champions.

“We still have a decent squad and most of the players were in and around the team when we won the trophy in 2015.

“Anything less than a semi would be a bit of a letdown.

“We’ve got good cover in midfield, although not of Mooy’s quality.

“It’s in the final third with our attacking options where we are a bit thin.”

Ognenovski views Korea Republic, Iran and Japan - who came within a whisker of knocking out Belgium in the round of 16 at the World Cup - as the powerhouse nations heading into the UAE, where Australia kick-off their campaign against Jordan six days after their Oman tune-up.

“We’ve got a bit of ground to make up on these teams,” added Ognenovski.

“The Koreans, for example, were missing over half their normal starting lineup in the 1-1 draw against us in Brisbane (last month) and still looked very good.

“They’ll have their big star Son Heung-Min available again and will have taken huge confidence from beating defending World Cup holders Germany in Russia.

“You can’t underestimate that. While Australia were admirable and hard to beat in Russia - we were lacking that one good win against top opposition.

“Those sorts of results can snap the mentality a little bit, and we couldn’t get that win for our younger players to build on.

“That’s where we need to catch up a bit. Iran, I thought were sensational at the World Cup (where they beat Morocco and drew with Portugal).

“They were compact, hard to beat and delivered attractive football,especially on the counter.”

Lack of proven goalscorer - even though Australia have bagged eight in Arnold’s three games against Kuwait, Korea and Lebanon - is potentially the Achilles heel, according to Ognenovski.

“That’s what’s hurt us for a long time now,” he said. “It’s been a while since we had a top goalscorer in any league, possibly since Josh Kennedy in Japan.

“It’s something we’re lacking. Another issue for Arnie, at this point, is that I don’t know yet whether he knows his best eleven.

“He’ll still picking his best team come the Oman game. He’s going to have see who’s hot in training and coach on the run a bit.

“I know as a club coach at Sydney FC (where Ognenovski spent a season under Arnold’s tutelage) he always knew his best eleven.

“He hasn’t had much time and has a small window to get things right.”

With that in mind, Ognenovski offers a caveat to making any snap judgements on Arnold’s second coming to the top job.

“With the quality of the squad he needs to be there or thereabouts,” he added.

“If he doesn’t win it are we going to criticize him? I don’t think so. There might be those that do, especially if they bow out early. But I can’t see that happening.

“He’s just come in, freshened up the squad and brought in some relative unknowns.

“He’s trying to do something here. Remember Ange Postecoglou (at Brazil 2014) got to experiment all he liked at a World Cup after taking charge and didn’t win a game.

“He wasn’t criticized at all, in fact he was lauded. So it would be harsh to judge Arnold too early.”


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4 min read
Published 30 December 2018 12:12pm
By Dave Lewis

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