Don't generalise. Our best tonight (Leckie) started in the A-L and the solid Spiranovic plays in it now.
Agreed. It wasn't so long ago that Leckie was in the A-League, and it's not like he was such a dominant force that he looked out of place in it. Danish will say that he did, but I doubt Danish watches much A-League.
What game did you watch???
He didn't ;-)
started in the A league, yes. As in way too good for it and plays elsewhere now. The people who belong in the A League, like Milligan, are complete plodders.
It's no coincidence that the socceroos slide over the last few years is directly compatible with an increase in the amount of A league players featuring in the squad. I know the media likes to push this as a good thing but all it really means is that we are not producing as many class players anymore.
Honestly I think the A League is bad for the socceroos. Too many talented kids happy to aim for a career in Oz first and stunting their development instead of heading O/S as early as possible
What a stupid argument. It's the A-League's fault that, overall, there are less Australians playing abroad in top flight leagues than there were in 2006?
The A-League's standard in the past few years has bested anything the previous model meted out. You've been spoiled by a golden generation where our entire squad could be European top flight based, and you're overlooking the damage that the death of the NSL and the need for a replacement did to development. There were 2-3 years there where Australian based players were playing well below standard just to get game time, and that gulf takes time to close.
If you followed the A-League closely at all (or its predecessor) you'd know that it's rare for players to choose to stay in the A-League any longer than is absolutely necessary. Almost universally, they take the very first offer for European or Asian club football they get and they piss off. I'd struggle to think of a young player that chose to stay in Australia to play his club football, in fact.
Ange chose a side with a lot of A-League players because he knows them, and that knowledge converted into a game plan that very nearly secured us a point this morning against opposition we weren't given a snowball's chance in hell against.
More than that, he was
forced to choose A-League players because our elder statesmen are either retiring or struggling in fringe leagues, and our next generation - these A-League guys you rubbish - have not yet made that leap abroad.
Of the A-League guys represented last night, Ivan Franjic set up our only goal; Matthew Spiranovic is a fairly recent return who has played European football and acquitted himself well; Mark Milligan has played in Asia and was far from our worst; and James Troisi is shit but has also fairly recently returned from a lengthy spell in Turkey.
Hardly a 'bunch of nuffies dragging us down'.
And for the record, Leckie was far from 'too good for the A-League'. He was one of many promising young talents who came through and looked good at club level. He wasn't tearing opposition lineup's apart.
Of course he's better for his time abroad in a higher standard league, but we wouldn't have the Leckie's, Oar's, Rogic's, Halloran's, Vidosic's, and Ryan's if it weren't for the A-League putting them out there for the world to see and helping them get their start in professional football.