Be the Boss! Pick your team...

Not that I've got a solution, but Mulligan sticks out as the glaring weakness in that 11 imo. 

Not that I've got a solution, but Mulligan, Locheaad, boyens, Bertos and Keat sticks out as the glaring weakness in that squad  imo. 

i am not with playing the 343 against weaker opposition .i.e. ONC but you can see how perhaps a 343 might have worked for us better in the games against japan and korea u23. when u are defending all day down the flanks it makes it easier if you have 3 center backs to cover you. as our 343 is essentiallly a 523 on defense. or you find a midfield that can retain the ball.

1, Elliott hasn't retired.

2, McGlinchey disappointing in the middle of the park for the U23s in 2  games this week... and he's our next best option after the ancient Vicelich and Elliott.

And is it just me or is McGlinchey consistently poor for NZ teams? He always seems so impressive for CCM then when he pulls on the white (or black) shirt he just fades into mediocrity

Anyway, to join in with this game this would be my team:

                           Moss

Boxall          Reid           Nelsen        Smith

                                Vicelich

                       Keat

Rojas                                        Kosta

                         Smeltz             

                          Wood

Explanation: Fullback and central midfield are our 2 weaknesses. I picked Smith and Boxall as fullbacks as I think they are good enough to assist in attacks when we have the ball and then when we are defending they would pull in narrow and let opposition go wide if they want. I'd back a narrow back 4 of Boxall, Nelsen, Reid, and Smith to deal with any crosses, especially with Moss behind them and Vicelich in front. Vicelich is our best DM, especially if Elliott isn't going to play so for now that spot is his. I'd put Keat in there with him so he can develop into the role when Vicelich retires. Keat seems more like the sort of player who can fulfill that role than McGlinchey IMHO. McG also misses out because as I said above, I think he's been unimpressive for the AWs. Rojas and Kosta are obvious choices on the wings, but as neither of them are really good at tracking back and defending they were also part of the reason to drop the 3 at the back. Wouldn't want them as wingbacks. Wood would be the target man with Smeltz. Smeltz seemed to do alright playing slightly deeper at times at the WC and Wood should be able to create space and chances for Smeltz.

In a few years hopefully the likes of Howieson and Payne can push for a place, and some decent natural fullbacks might magically appear from somewhere.

Doesn`t have a midfield to play with !

I could see Boxall, Reid or Smith even playing in that defensive midfield role. Seem to have decent distributiona nd ball playing abilities.

Elliott's been nursing an injury, so isn't fully fit, but I understand still plans to be available for selection once he gets over his injury. With the way the midfield's been going, who knows, he might get called up.

As for McGlinchey, I agree he's been underwhelming for the All Whites, but what we have to understand is that A-league and international football are two levels that aren't that close. To be fair to McGlinchey, he's certainly not the only All White from the A-league (or, indeed, from other leagues) to struggle to make the step up to the international level. And this particularly true for our midfield players - it's fashionable now to say that we're missing Brown in the middle of the park, but the reality is, we're not. Brown was one player who really struggled at international level to make anysort of impact.

I think one player we're really missing (and who made us look a bit better in 2010) is exactly Elliott - he's one player in the midfield we've had over the last few years who was relatively comfortable to sit deep, receive the ball, and either release us on the counter with a good long pass, or live on it for long enough to help us move forward as a team. I think it was hoped that McGlinchey would fill this role, but he hasn't shown to be up to it so far.

Ha.  I just read that on the RSS and thought, wow what a well-reasoned post.

Then I noticed ti was you and I felt dirty.

This made me lol - you have no idea how right you are there!

If everyone agrees that the problem is midfield, surely the answer is to clog it up, eliminate all optiosn of other teams to get control through the middle. This means that you concede the wide play, but with tall/ strong centre backs it really isn't a problem.
I'm not sure if this is a positive/ long term solution, but if New Zealand wants to win it needs to pay to strengths, which unfortunately with a relatively week midfield will either be very quick counter wide play to a central striker (aka rojas, kosta, wood) or muscling up the midfield.
 

personally i would play

                                     Paston

       Reid         -    a younger   Nelsen       -        Smith

                 a younger  Vicelcih      -       a  younger Elliot
                                 Mclinchey   -        Mulligan

  Rojas                                                                   Barbarouses        

                                       Wood

That's giving up way, way too much space on the flanks, unless your two defensive midfielders are effectively playing as part of the backline.

I'd be tempted to play Hogg at RB -I know he's a left sided player but swapping sides isn't always difficult - plus I'd prefer it to playing a CB there. Smith playing a deep DM (Like Ivan at WC) dropping in to the middle of the back line when we're getting swamped. [4-1-3-2]

Moss
Hogg Reid Nelsen Lochead
Smith
Barborouses Wee-Mac Rojas
Wood Smeltz

Bench: Paston, Sigmund, Vicelich, Keat, Howieson, Bertos, Brockie, Killen

When playing stronger nations swap out Wood for Killen so it becomes more a 4-1-4-1

Have you seen Hogg in the two U23 games in the last week?

mystical

Not sure how this works, but pretty sure you need to pick actual players.  Not mysical ones.

Mully was class last season for ACFC - I know it's a different standard but I think given a decent shot at playing as a deep lying midfielder he'd do the job for the AW's and the Phoenix (Phoenix probably don't need him with Muscat there). Surprised Ricki didn't take him to the islands given we had no Brown, Elliot or Keat and Ivan was being played at the back. He's had experience in those conditions and played many of the players we faced.

In hindsight, based on your comments about Mulligan's experience in those conditions and against island opposition and the fact that he was probably the best player the last time he played against the oceania teams; he should have been in the squad. I remember being surprised in his performance in those games. 

It's just the fact the he ended up being a bench player in the lower leagues of england, before he eventually came to the phoenix and again became a bench player. It is just hard to take him seriously as one of our best options as an All white midfield player.

Perhaps his performances depend on the tactics and style of the football we are playing. I suspect it is the same case for McG, he prefers to play a passing game and a quick one. Put him in a team using the long ball tactic, what do you expect. Brown liked those tactics because he would just run around kicking and pushing everyone in the midfield, whether the ball was there or not. There were plenty of games where I wasnt even sure T brown was on the field...until he came up with a yellow card.

If you look at our team now we should be ready to switch to the shorter passing game. Players like Rojas, McG, kosta, wood, Smith have more tendency to knock it around try the odd one two that has been unheard of in nz football in the past. it would be a tough transition and would in the short term probably mean a concession in results, but it has to be the way forward.

Finally someone has posted a decent analysis of some of our midfield/attacking problems. Everyone has been bagging Weemac and saying Kosta is not going great and Rojas doesn't get involved. Yet no one has questioned the tactics and especially the coaching. Why is it that guys like Kosta and weemac look much better players outside the NZ scene

We finally have some skillful ball players on the NZ and they are expected to play in a manner foreign to them.

The Olywhites look like a team coached by a couple of old school centre backs....and thats exactly what the situation is. I have watched the Olywhites through their qualification tournament in Taupo and now the first two warm up games. Emblen doesn't have a clue about utilising the skills of these youngsters. Probably the top completed pass stat from the Japanese game was Gleeson to Smeltz. In the Taupo tournament hoof ball was the main tactic and we are seeing the same stuff in these warmup games.

NZ  football is in transition...we have a number of good young players coming through who are capable of playing a different style. Its a shame some of our coaches have not made the adjustment.

Moving forward we should either ditch these kids and pick Brown, Fallon Killen clones and park the bus and attack through longballs or find a coach who can implement tactics better suited to Kosta and co. 

IMO a guy like Tribulitex should be coaching the Olywhites.

You do wonder how the AW's will go as you shift from the tactics and players that got us to the last WC to the new breed. Any discussion about the AW team of the future will also need to consider the coach and his tactical approach.

That`s not the McGeorge I watch regularly

I see him more as a destructive midfielder who likes to tackle, not a creative midfielder who can hold the ball and cut open defences.

McGlinchey rather than McGeorge I suspect?

Tribulitex?  Out thought by Calcott and a team of kiwi youngsters on at least 3 occassions this season.  He's got the biggest budget and a team full of imports and ex-All Whites and couldn't get them past Team Wellington, and their style a lot of the time was to launch it from Ivan at the back wide to Hogg on the left wing.

Have you watched City lately or just assumed because he's an imported coach he must be better?

Concede and agree

In a team playing a short-passing game, or even a quick counterattacking game, a quality DM not only wins back the ball but also can drop deeper with the CBs so the FBs can overlap down the wings and provide more passing options for the rest of the midfield, and draw the opposition wider to create space. A DM also acts as the pivot when the ball is being played out of defense, taking the ball off the defenders and distributing it forward to the playmakers. He holds up attacks to allow others to track back if the team gets caught in possession. Finally if you do lose the ball playing it out from the back he provides an extra line of defense to help cover if defenders have moved into postions to receive passers rather than cover the opposing attackers.

At the WC we had Vicelich playing as a more tackling/disrupting DM and Elliott as a distributor sitting deep and it worked brilliantly. Without either of those 2 guys that part of the field looks weak for the AWs now so long balls are actually the smartest option. You can't play it out from the back when all your midfielders are small attacking-minded players. For this reason I think it was a mistake to take Smeltz to the Olympics, Vicelich should have gone instead. Anyway though, if we don't have a decent natural DM we need to either play the park-and-hoof, or develop someone into that role. If we are gonna play guys there who aren't always playing there week in week out for their clubs then we should definitely put 2 of them in there so they can cover each others potential errors/weaknesses.

All this talk of Mulligan confuses me too -he's not bad but would people really start him ahead of Keat? Keat looked quality against Jamaica I thought and although he's not starting the fact that he's on the roster at LA Galaxy with the likes of Beckham, Donavan, and Robbie Keane surely indicates that he has more to offer than Mulligan. Furthermore, everyone agrees that Nelsen, Reid and Smith are our best CBs but people talk of playing Smith in DM. That might work fine for now but Nelsen can't have much left in him (in fact I think in the Japan game especially recently he looked off the pace vs a young, quick, technical side, and he's not going to get any faster from here on in...) so when he goes would rather have one of your 2 best CBs playing out of position in DM, or in his preferred role? IMHO Smith isn't a long term option for the spot. Maybe Boxall could play in there as a tackling/disrupting DM alongside Keat as the distributor, or maybe someone like Howieson will be able to do it. We also need a RB though and I still think Boxall could be a candidate for that role. Either way, saying that we aren't playing the right tactics to suit the likes of Rojas, McGlinchey, and Kosta misses the point that to play like that you need another sort of player we don't really have! 

I want to see the AWs play a more attractive game and I think that in modern international football playing an atavistic flat 4-4-2 really limits your options, while to play with 3 at the back you need quality wingbacks, which we also don't have. That leaves any sort of formation which has at least one DM: 4-1-4-1, 4-2-3-1, 4-1-3-2 etc - so if we want to change our playing style we need to find at least one good defensive midfielder, preferably two.

Now this is a pretty good analysis of NZ's problems.

Umm! Emblen is an import too! Born and bred and played in the good 'ol UK. 

Tribulitex was just an example of someone who might have a tactical approach that might suit the new batch of small, quicker, ballplaying youngsters. If you think that Calcott is better coach then thats fine by me!

Emblen looks out of his depth IMO. Does not appear to have a clue how to utilise Kosta and co and has made some major selection errors...especially in midfield. There are probably some better options sitting back in NZ(Lyndsay for one)

Lochead for DM! He only has to improve on his 10% passing accuracy, tackling, speed and vision. Problem solved...next.

Wasn't Mulligan not too bad against China last year? Is a striker playing in the 2nd Chinese league really a better midfielder than him?

Its a shame someone like Michael Fitzgerald doesn't play a defensive midfield role for his club...he seemed reasonably handy in his small appearances in the all whites squad. we got enough ahead of him at the back though. did he play right back for nz back in 2011? obviously ricki didnt rate him enough. or was it just because he doesnt fit in rickis formation of 3 at the back.