Holland and Uzbekistan: Squad Selection

The Pim has named the 27-man squad for the friendly against Holland and the World Cup Qualifier in Uzbekistan. All the big names are essentially there, though just how many of them will play against Holland naturally remains to be seen. I’d expect him to treat it largely as a warmup match and to give most of the primary players about half a game.

The squad is as follows:

Goalkeepers:

Mark Schwarzer, Brad Jones, Ante Covic, Michael Petkovic

Defenders:

Michael Beauchamp, Scott Chipperfield, Chris Coyne, Mark Milligan, Lucas Neill, Jade North, Matthew Spiranovic, Shane Stefanutto, Luke Wilkshire

Midfielders:

Mark Bresciano, David Carney, Jason Culina, Brett Emerton, Richard Garcia, Vinny Vincenzo Grella, Mile Sterjovski, Carl Valeri, Harry Kewell, Jacob Burns

Strikers:

Bruce Djite, Brett Holman, Joshua Kennedy, Scott Mcdonald

It looks like a fairly promising squad, with a few (relatively) new faces, some of whom I’d like to see get a run out, others that I’m less sure of (not to name any names, like Brett Holman). Troisi misses out, but he is clubless, so perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised. Carle misses out; we know not how or why.

What sort of squads would people like to see used? I’ve always been a fan of the 4-3-3, so I’d be hoping for something like this:

- – - – - – - – - Schwarzer – - – - – - – - – - -
Wilkshire – Neill – Spiranovic – Chipperfield
- – - – - – - – - -Grella – - – - – - – - – - – - –
- – - – - -Bresciano – Sterjovski- – - – - – - -
- – - Emerton – - McDonald – - Kewell – - -

Although Emerton’s ability as a wing forward could be dubious; you could also play him as a full back instead of Wilkshire and put Sterjovski on the right, bringing Culina into the midfield.

Another interesting possibility would be the 3-5-2, which would allow us to unload bring out all of our firepower at once:

- – - – - – - – - Schwarzer – - – - – - – - – - -
- – - – - Spiranovic – Neill – Coyne – - – - –
- – - – - – - – - -Grella – - – - – - – - – - – - –
Emerton – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – Kewell
- – - – - Culina – - – - – Bresciano – - – - – -
- – - – - – McDonald – Kennedy- – - – - – - -

And yes, you read that right: I would like to see Spiranovic starting for Australia. I thought he was sensational at the Olympics. I also like Kewell on the left better than in the middle. Word is, incidentally, that McDonald probably won’t play against the Netherlands but may be available for the Uzbekistan game.

Obviously, with a squad like this we have a lot of options. Anyone have a particular team they’d like to see? Players they really want to see in either game?