Jason Culina hints at Socceroos unrest

[Red-4-Life]

Former Australia international Jason Culina has revealed players within the Socceroos set-up are unhappy with the way the team has been prepared for its recent matches, including the high profile international against Brazil. Speaking exclusively to World News Australia, Culina claimed to have heard about unrest among the playing group, as coach Holger Osieck comes under increasing pressure to keep his job.“From a pretty close source, players have suggested that over the last couple of games in particular, preparation hasn’t been great,” Culina said. “That’s not something you want to take into a World Cup year.“Preparation is key. It has to be spot on, and when I look back at our last two campaigns, that being 2006 and 2010, preparation was pretty much spot on.“I know players aren’t totally satisfied - not 100 per cent satisfied - and I don’t think it would be true that coaches are satisfied with the way things are going.“There are a few things floating around. Some positive but mostly negative.”Oseick’s tactics and team selections have come under intense scrutiny since the Socceroos lost 6-0 to Brazil in September. In an exclusive interview with The World Game this week, the German defended his selection policies and spoke of the difficulty of juggling the need for results with pressure to regenerate an aging squad.Culina, whose football career blossomed under the tutelage of ex-Australia coach Guus Hiddink in 2006, both at club and international level, acknowledged the enormity of the task faced by Osieck and said any decision to change coach won’t be taken lightly.“It’s a difficult situation because they just made it to the World Cup, just qualified, and to change the coach now is a big risk and a big call,” he said.“Holger himself has been in the job for a couple of years now and got a decent result at the Asian Cup. Although they struggled through the World Cup Qualifying campaign, they’ve qualified for the World Cup so you can’t say that he hasn’t done his job."But there are some concerns there with the latest performances, number one being the big result against Brazil, which I don’t think anyone was satisfied with. They literally got nothing from that game.“It is a difficult situation for a coach because a coach needs to get results. The only reason this has come about is because the results haven’t been there.“Would I give the young guys a chance? I personally would, but I probably would have done it sooner rather than later."

Source: TWG

[adelaidebloke]

strring pot

[ozzie owl]

Olga's gone now anyway.