Socceroos icon says Popovic ‘messing with things too much’ in GK switch

Source : ABC NEWS

Socceroos great Mark Schwarzer has questioned coach Tony Popovic’s tactics in the loss to Egypt, saying he was “messing with things too much” ahead of the penalty shootout.

Popovic’s tactics were roundly criticised after Australia’s World Cup exit, namely the decision to replace starting goalkeeper Patrick Beach in favour of Mat Ryan ahead of the shootout, with Ryan failing to save any of Egypt’s spot kicks.

While the tactic has previously borne fruit for Australia, Schwarzer said he has never been a fan of it.

“Whenever a coach makes that decision to bring in a goalkeeper in the last couple of minutes of the game to replace the playing goalkeeper, you’re kind of making a statement,” he told ABC Sport Daily.

“I, in general, don’t like the idea of it. It is all about rhythm and confidence. I just feel you’re messing with things too much.

“Bringing players on to take a penalty, I get that, but I don’t get the goalkeeper thing. As a goalkeeper, you can’t just go in there.

“Even if this was successful, I personally don’t ever like it. It just puts a massive spotlight on him [Ryan]. I just feel like you’re literally magnifying the situation; you’re putting someone under so much more pressure.

“I feel for all of them in that situation. I just don’t feel like it’s the right situation to put people in.”

Popovic’s starting line-up was also a source of controversy, as he once again opted to start Nestory Irankunda out of position, before hooking both Irankunda and Cristian Volpato with the scores level in the second half.

The decision meant that Irankunda, Volpato and Mohamed Touré, Australia’s three most dangerous attackers, did not log a single minute together as a trio throughout the tournament.

Schwarzer conceded that Popovic took a “cautious approach” to his line-up choices, and urged Australia to be more attack-minded in future tournaments.

“They had a genuine opportunity to do more, but didn’t really go for it,” he said.

“We do have the technical quality, we’re just not utilising it. We’re developing it and the players are getting better and better all the time.

“We’ve got to allow for them to play to their strengths. We’ve got to be a more adventurous, front-footed team, and times we weren’t.

“I feel like we’ve got, for the first time in some time, a really pro-active team, and an ability to be more pro-active, but we’re not utilising it at the moment.”

Central to that attacking philosophy is the triumvirate of Irankunda, Touré and Volpato, according to Schwarzer.

“You look at France, Argentina and Spain, they’ve got some technically gifted players … and defensively they’re difficult to break down,” he said.

“You can’t tell me you can’t have really technical players, attack-minded players, and still not be really difficult to break down.

“We’ve just got to make that step over to the next level. We’ve just got to be a bit more adventurous, a bit more confident to say, ‘Right, we’re going to go for this a little more’.

“You can’t tell me Cristian Volpato wouldn’t have been even better with Mo Toure up front and Nestory Irankunda on the left.

“I look at that and I feel like that is a genuine threat and teams are going to actually be worried about it.”

While Australia still qualified for the knockout stages of the expanded World Cup, Schwarzer labelled it a missed opportunity.

“I come away disappointed because I felt like even more than 2006 this was a genuine opportunity to beat a team to get to the next round,” he said.

“It was an amazing opportunity [to win two knockout games]. It felt like we didn’t believe in our own strengths enough to go at them.

“I was disappointed at times with the lack of setting [the team] up in a way that plays to our strengths and allows us to go out and express ourselves.”