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Aussie Analysis: Is Pim Verbeek's Call-Up Of Alex Brosque A Public Relations Exercise?
Goal.com's Chris Paraskevas wonders whether Alex Brosque is being used as a public relations tool by the Socceroos boss.
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Nov 13, 2009 4:54:13 AM
"We all know what the advantages and disadvantages are of taking A-League players, and I speak of international experience, the pressure of the situation.
"I don't know yet whether we have enough players who can play to top form in that sort of pressure. If you play Italian Serie A, English Premiership or the Bundesliga, we know they can handle that pressure." – Pim Verbeek, less than a month into his tenure as Soceroos boss, December 2007.
"If you train for three weeks with Nuremberg or with Karlsruhe, I have to be very honest, I still think that's better than playing A-League games.
"I am not here to please players, I'm not here to please anybody, I'm here to win the game. That's the responsibility I have to the Australian fans and Australian football." – Pim Verbeek on the eve of his first competitive match in charge of the Socceroos, a 3-0 victory over Qatar in World Cup Qualifying, January 2008.
"I have to be very careful about what I say because if I say anything about the A-League people start telling me I abuse players and the A-League.
"They [Daniel Allsopp and Archie Thompson] were hopeless in Indonesia. I am just being honest. They were absolutely hopeless.” – Pim Verbeek, after fielding an entirely A-League based team for a scoreless draw in Indonesia, the opening game of Asian Cup Qualification in February 2009.
“If you play as open as some games I've seen here, you do it against a European or South American team, you would get slaughtered.
“If you see the game we played against Indonesia, it was also a 0-0 game, but if you see the game you can easily see that the players are used to playing more open.
“They try to be more defensively-organised than they normally do, so they tried that and they did well but still if you compare it's not good enough.” – Pim Verbeek, doubting Jason Culina’s decision to leave Europe for the A-League, February 2009.
"Maybe it was a little bit rude, I agree. But I'm not speaking with 17- and 18-year-old players who I have to be a little bit careful with.
“I am speaking with fully professional players who have been champions already here.” – Pim Verbeek, ahead of the second Asian Cup Qualifier with an A-League based squad, against Kuwait in March 2009.
"Jason has played better in his life than the last six weeks. I have spoken to him about it. He knows it also.” – Pim Verbeek, on Jason Culina’s poor A-League form in the lead-up to an Asian Cup Qualifier against Oman, November 2009.
Alex Brosque is called up as a replacement for J-League-based striker Josh Kennedy for Australia’s Asian Cup Qualifier against Oman – November 2009.
It is amazing how much more striking Verbeek’s most recent of squad selections looks when considered in the context of all of his misgivings about the A-League.
For some it is the ultimate testament to the improvements made by the league in terms of quality of football and personnel – such a selection would have been unthinkable not too long ago.
Indeed, Australia’s qualification campaign for Qatar 2011 has been put in jeopardy by the forced use of A-League players.
So why the sudden change of heart from Verbeek, who once famously described the competition's most lethal strike pairing as “hopeless”?
Has the A-League improved that much since Australia’s disastrous loss against Kuwait in Canberra that Verbeek has the confidence in relying upon its players?
Certainly not.
Whilst the arrival of Jason Culina, Robbie Fowler and Mile Sterjovski – along with a number of other reputable and high quality footballers – has risen the profile of the league slightly, the style of football largely remains the same.
Space is still on offer thanks to largely unsophisticated defensive set-ups, while tactics are largely predictable and lack the subtlety that so often decides high-tempo clashes overseas is absent.
Nor has the popularity of the league risen enough to rival the pressure that exists in its European counterparts, the sort of pressure that Verbeek believes equips his Europe-based stars for crunch qualifiers such as the one in Muscat on the weekend.
The question then, remains: why Brosque?
Many will point to the fact that compared so some Australia’s ailing overseas stars, Brosque has been in career-best form.
It’s a fact that can’t be ignored given the general struggle of Socceroos in front of goal for both club and country over the past few months, while Brosque has been in irrepressible form for Sydney FC this season.
Yet, the quality of the competition in which he competes is a factor that can’t be ignored, no matter how well he is playing; the winger simply won’t be afforded the room or leniency on the international stage that he is back home.
Perhaps the most bizarre part of the call-up is that it was in preference to bringing over Scott McDonald, who only this weekend scored a sharp double off the bench for Celtic.
The diminutive striker remains his club’s sharpest shooter and whilst an enigma for Australia, surely represents Verbeek’s best potential solution in solving a problematic strike force that has not fired consistently at any stage during the former Korea boss’ reign.
It appears as though the 53 year-old sees Brosque as a more potent goal-scoring option than McDonald.
Yet the striker – who has not always filled that role during his A-League career – has scored only 19 times in 74 appearances for Sydney and twice for the Sky Blues in 13 rounds this season.
McDonald might be yet to score for the Socceroos in 15 appearances but the breaking of his drought appears to be a case of when rather than if – not to mention the fact that he has started and finished just one of his nation’s nine last World Cup Qualifiers, having come off the bench in two of the others and been replaced around the hour mark of another three.
Verbeek’s decision then to call up Brosque appears to have less substance when one goes beyond a mere glance at the winger's domestic form.
Clearly there was a more sensible alternative but Verbeek, ever the pragmatist and conservative, chose to ignore despite an impending crunch qualifiers.
It is a move that is totally out of character.
The truth is likely that this is more a decision to humour certain members of the resident football media and fan-base who have been displeased with what they perceived to be harmful comments about a fledgling domestic competition.
Brosque will likely not come off the bench for the clash in Muscat, unless the Socceroos establish a healthy lead at some point in the match – which they probably won’t, based on their performance against the same team in Melbourne.
Nor does he fit the description of Verbeek’s idea of a striker; that being a physically equipped individual capable of playing the target man in an ultra-conservative 4-2-3-1 formation.
His selection seems more an exercise in public relations than anything else, notwithstanding Brosque’s outstanding form.
The question remains as to whether the Dutchman will afford similar luxuries when selecting his final squad to travel to South Africa in six months.
Chris Paraskevas, Goal.com
Get all the Australian football coverage you need on the Goal.com Australia homepage!
"I don't know yet whether we have enough players who can play to top form in that sort of pressure. If you play Italian Serie A, English Premiership or the Bundesliga, we know they can handle that pressure." – Pim Verbeek, less than a month into his tenure as Soceroos boss, December 2007.
"If you train for three weeks with Nuremberg or with Karlsruhe, I have to be very honest, I still think that's better than playing A-League games.
"I am not here to please players, I'm not here to please anybody, I'm here to win the game. That's the responsibility I have to the Australian fans and Australian football." – Pim Verbeek on the eve of his first competitive match in charge of the Socceroos, a 3-0 victory over Qatar in World Cup Qualifying, January 2008.
"I have to be very careful about what I say because if I say anything about the A-League people start telling me I abuse players and the A-League.
"They [Daniel Allsopp and Archie Thompson] were hopeless in Indonesia. I am just being honest. They were absolutely hopeless.” – Pim Verbeek, after fielding an entirely A-League based team for a scoreless draw in Indonesia, the opening game of Asian Cup Qualification in February 2009.
“If you play as open as some games I've seen here, you do it against a European or South American team, you would get slaughtered.
“If you see the game we played against Indonesia, it was also a 0-0 game, but if you see the game you can easily see that the players are used to playing more open.
“They try to be more defensively-organised than they normally do, so they tried that and they did well but still if you compare it's not good enough.” – Pim Verbeek, doubting Jason Culina’s decision to leave Europe for the A-League, February 2009.
"Maybe it was a little bit rude, I agree. But I'm not speaking with 17- and 18-year-old players who I have to be a little bit careful with.
“I am speaking with fully professional players who have been champions already here.” – Pim Verbeek, ahead of the second Asian Cup Qualifier with an A-League based squad, against Kuwait in March 2009.
"Jason has played better in his life than the last six weeks. I have spoken to him about it. He knows it also.” – Pim Verbeek, on Jason Culina’s poor A-League form in the lead-up to an Asian Cup Qualifier against Oman, November 2009.
Alex Brosque is called up as a replacement for J-League-based striker Josh Kennedy for Australia’s Asian Cup Qualifier against Oman – November 2009.
It is amazing how much more striking Verbeek’s most recent of squad selections looks when considered in the context of all of his misgivings about the A-League.
For some it is the ultimate testament to the improvements made by the league in terms of quality of football and personnel – such a selection would have been unthinkable not too long ago.
Indeed, Australia’s qualification campaign for Qatar 2011 has been put in jeopardy by the forced use of A-League players.
So why the sudden change of heart from Verbeek, who once famously described the competition's most lethal strike pairing as “hopeless”?
Has the A-League improved that much since Australia’s disastrous loss against Kuwait in Canberra that Verbeek has the confidence in relying upon its players?
Certainly not.
Whilst the arrival of Jason Culina, Robbie Fowler and Mile Sterjovski – along with a number of other reputable and high quality footballers – has risen the profile of the league slightly, the style of football largely remains the same.
Space is still on offer thanks to largely unsophisticated defensive set-ups, while tactics are largely predictable and lack the subtlety that so often decides high-tempo clashes overseas is absent.
Nor has the popularity of the league risen enough to rival the pressure that exists in its European counterparts, the sort of pressure that Verbeek believes equips his Europe-based stars for crunch qualifiers such as the one in Muscat on the weekend.
The question then, remains: why Brosque?
Many will point to the fact that compared so some Australia’s ailing overseas stars, Brosque has been in career-best form.
It’s a fact that can’t be ignored given the general struggle of Socceroos in front of goal for both club and country over the past few months, while Brosque has been in irrepressible form for Sydney FC this season.
Yet, the quality of the competition in which he competes is a factor that can’t be ignored, no matter how well he is playing; the winger simply won’t be afforded the room or leniency on the international stage that he is back home.
Perhaps the most bizarre part of the call-up is that it was in preference to bringing over Scott McDonald, who only this weekend scored a sharp double off the bench for Celtic.
The diminutive striker remains his club’s sharpest shooter and whilst an enigma for Australia, surely represents Verbeek’s best potential solution in solving a problematic strike force that has not fired consistently at any stage during the former Korea boss’ reign.
It appears as though the 53 year-old sees Brosque as a more potent goal-scoring option than McDonald.
Yet the striker – who has not always filled that role during his A-League career – has scored only 19 times in 74 appearances for Sydney and twice for the Sky Blues in 13 rounds this season.
McDonald might be yet to score for the Socceroos in 15 appearances but the breaking of his drought appears to be a case of when rather than if – not to mention the fact that he has started and finished just one of his nation’s nine last World Cup Qualifiers, having come off the bench in two of the others and been replaced around the hour mark of another three.
Verbeek’s decision then to call up Brosque appears to have less substance when one goes beyond a mere glance at the winger's domestic form.
Clearly there was a more sensible alternative but Verbeek, ever the pragmatist and conservative, chose to ignore despite an impending crunch qualifiers.
It is a move that is totally out of character.
The truth is likely that this is more a decision to humour certain members of the resident football media and fan-base who have been displeased with what they perceived to be harmful comments about a fledgling domestic competition.
Brosque will likely not come off the bench for the clash in Muscat, unless the Socceroos establish a healthy lead at some point in the match – which they probably won’t, based on their performance against the same team in Melbourne.
Nor does he fit the description of Verbeek’s idea of a striker; that being a physically equipped individual capable of playing the target man in an ultra-conservative 4-2-3-1 formation.
His selection seems more an exercise in public relations than anything else, notwithstanding Brosque’s outstanding form.
The question remains as to whether the Dutchman will afford similar luxuries when selecting his final squad to travel to South Africa in six months.
Chris Paraskevas, Goal.com
Get all the Australian football coverage you need on the Goal.com Australia homepage!
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