Australian for Football - Foster, give me strength

 

 

There are more coaching methods and influences on the game than Britain, and I think Australia and NZ are finally starting to wake up to that fact (Aussie probably hasn't realised yet that there are more influences than the Dutch).  The game in NZ is run by ex-lower league players and coaches and unfortuntely that hasn't really helped the development of juniors or the technical coaching that is required to compete at the highest level.  I think we still have a pretty blinkered view of the footballing world hence why every young kiwi goes off for "trials" in Britain only, ends up playing non-league football and thinks they've cracked it.

 

I do dislike the fact that he feels that he can criticise anyone because he is in the media.  It's very easy to be critical, much harder to come up with solutions.

 

Les Murray is the one who gets me.  Seriously, who is that guy?  Have you read his "pronouncements from on high" that doubles as his column on the SBS site?

 

The main problem is that his criticisms can be way too personal, extreme and even illogical. For example, he constantly extols the virtue of the Dutch game, yet declares he prefers Phillipe Troussier as national coach instead of the Dutchman Verbeek. Ever since, he has been dogging Verbeek with criticism at every turn. Foster's contempt for Graham Arnold is extraordinary - he literally foams at the mouth. His attacks on Arnold during Oz's disastrous Asian Cup were destructive and divisive, quoting certain anonymous sources "within the team" to perpetuate his personal view that Arnold had no control or clue as to what he was doing. I thought that was a disgrace.

 

Also I think that, considering he has been set up as SBS's 'tactical expert', his reading of the game is sometimes totally out of whack, but then that goes for most of the so-called experts on SBS. They really are some of the most amazing halfwits (listening to Branko Culina's codswallop it's no wonder Sydney sent him packing). And David Basheer is the worst commentator in the history of football.

 

Unfortunately, although Foster is undoubtedly passionate he now seems to think he's a Big Man in Australian football, when actually he's simply becoming a big pain in the arse. But I still watch him cos it's football and it free to air.

 

 

However, I did think that his points about there being more coaching schools other than the English is fair one, and also important.