In an ideal world, we wouldn't have started Grieve, Just, McCowatt, Pijnaker & Woud today. We have better players (Rojas, Singh, Bell/Lewis, Smith, Crocombe/Sail). That's almost half the team. This was a very understrength lineup.
I would also add the likes of De Jong, Champness, Waine & Mata to a list of players who have played more for the All Whites in recent times than they should have if we had all our best players at our disposal. None of these 9 players have done much for the All Whites (except for McCowatt who while not generally impressive/effective has scored against a couple of decent European teams. If he is to be played he should be played as a forward and not a midfielder). I'd like to see a big uptick in any of these player's club form/environment before they get played again.
I'd really love to see Bazeley play a side where at least 8 of the lineup undoubtedly belong in our best XI, but the problem is that even if we had the vast majority of our best players available, he'd probably still make some shocking selection decisions, like Pijnaker and Woud today. To be fair to Woud he hasn't played lots recently like Pijnaker and he did OK today but he should have done better for the first goal and we all know his shaky history. Crocombe is in amazing form in England, played very well vs Qatar and if we really cared about this game then Crocombe simply has to start.
At least there's another window in a few weeks we can look forward to, maybe it'll all come together this time...