All Whites v Uzbekistan | Tuesday 9 Sept 2am | SKY Sport 3

You could also argue that with so few games being played is it even worth playing until absolutely necessary? There's only so much gelling you can do playing 1/3 the games of other countries.

Thats a different conversation isn't it?

NZF have obviously decided there is worth in playing these games. 

Tommy Smith probably thinks otherwise.

I feel those two sentences contradict each other.

These games are all important. Hudson will have very limited chances to evaluate the players before the next qualifiers. With these games he can see them in training, how they combine with other eligible players and how they can follow his instructions and gameplan. Likewise it is a chance for the players to understand what he expects and develop combinations with the other players. It is a chance for the team to experiment, test the theories and come up against teams of a similar standard we are likely to get in the final qualifying stage.

Hudson made the point that he wanted to be exceptionally organised which is an interesting statement as I got the impression Ricki tried to keep things fairly simple. It makes time with the players even more important.

I just read it as Siggy is the ultimate commitment guy. Always gives everything.

They could well be great mates for all we know....

Took his spot in the world cup too. It'd annoy you if someone came in, played the world cup in your place, then showed no commitment to the team apart from that. 

I don't know anything, just putting myself in his shoes, especially given he is a commitment guy, as rjmiller says. 

Oh ok. That does make sense.

Everybody here knows something that nobody else knows, you know that. 

I get what you're saying, yeah it would be deflating, but thats the environment these guys are used to. Its easy to sit here on the outside and say 'fuk tommy' or 'hes let the team down' etc... but none of us are at their level. None of us know what their friendships are like. For all we know Siggy etc may be in touch with Tommy right now getting him to change his mind. From every interview ive ever read or watched of Siggy, he just doesnt strike me as the kind of guy who would show any kind of resentment to anyone in this situation. He'll be happy with the game time he gets for sure, but he knows he'll eventually lose out to Tommy at some stage, if nothing else just based on their age gap.

 Not from me.

Remember the winner in extra time vs I think new Caledonia . sabbatical it is . sort of

plus reira will be an AW by world cup start

Does anyone have a clue what Tim Payne is up to, does he have something beyond the NZFC on the cards.

I'm all for youth, but it is concerning when we pick players who are youth players ahead of playing professionals like Keat and Henderson.

I must admit the non-choice of Keat (whom is probably a comparable player to Payne in the roles they play) is odd in light of Payne having no club and his last outing was not exactly choice. But then Hudson would know this having seen the hours of DVD footage. Henderson is a bit more attacking from what I have seen and we have a truck load of players there already. Injury has really curtailed his international career.

Slightly coming at the other side from this one.

If there is one guy who has the right to be seriously pissed off/disillusioned/uninterested because of the way the end of the Herbert era happened it has to be Smith. He shows up in Honiara, made captain of what seemed to be an incredibly disfunctional ship and then had to face the public in the wake of Mexico while everything else was crumbling around him. Sure, he was part of a group of players that went through all that but he was the captain. Asked to do an impossible job.

If off the back of that he says x,y,z needs to happen and he doesn't believe it has, then I can understand his decision. None of us have seen the report post Mexico or read the players verdicts into what went on so we can't know what was said by who and what guarantees were made.

Yes, it's not a good look if he swans back for the big games and it sets a really bad precedent but if there is one guy I could probably understand it coming from, it's him.

rojas must be pissed. Nz football have wiped his only international goal from the records

I can see where you are coming from. 

Smith really got a lot of shit as captain after the Honiara/Mexico debacle......and lots of it was undeserved. He tried to do the business on the field.

What bugs me is the "I'll take 12 months off on sabatical"  Thats bullshit and its insulting to the AW jersey and to the fans. He's saying I will take 12 months off and then come back. He should have just retired from international football. He then could have changed his mind in 12 to 18 months and come out of retirement. It would be then up to the coach to decide if he wanted him or not.

The way he has done it makes it look like he is so important that he can take a wee 12 month holiday and then waltz straight back into the team.

As for the Aw squad. Its fairly predictable but will no doubt change when Hudson takes over fully. Big big concerns in midfield....Payne is not playing, There is no real holding defensive mid in there. Not sure where Keat is at at the moment. I could imagine that if Doyle makes a good fist of playing at A-League level he will be fast tracked into LB eventually. That would free Tuiloma to move into holding mid. He is young and raw but he has plenty of time to bed into that slot before the qualifiers start.

Watching Billy-T playing holding mid for Marseille in the Champions League under 19 series against Arsenal, Naples and Dortman last season convinced me he has the skills to have a long career there for the AW's

What type of holding mid is he? A screener or a ball player (ala James)? I think this is a crucial detail because we do not need a ball player, more a disrupter (again Riera is the perfect example)

I think Smith's comments before the Japan game that he was planning on taking time off are illustrative.  This is a general disillusionment at the set-up, and he has ignored the pretty major changes that have been made since the Mexico game.  If he doesn't want to play under this set-up I'd be surprised if we see him again.  If he still has a problem with the set-up post changes I strongly believe he should be big enough to come out and say that is the issue, rather than hide behind unspecified points about wanting to play in the premier league.

On the match itself, what I'd realy like to see is some development of our ability to hold possession.  In recent games we've tried to pass the ball, which is great, but it's been quite unfocussed and aimless when in the opposition half.  With our young players we should be able to keep the ball better so that's something I'm very keen to see.

My understanding is that OM see him as a defensive player....he has played at the CB for the U19's as well. Certainly in the U19 CL games I saw he was very very robust as a defender(playing DM). He is a big unit and certainly had no problems smashing players.(he was cautioned several times in the Arsenal game). As a bonus I was impressed by his distribution....passes well with either feet.

I'll bet by the time the Oceania qualifiers kick off Hudson will have him as a DM. 

...just imagine the day we announce a squad of 22/3 without anyone playing for "Unattached FC".  

Payne's picked up the batton now. I would not have picked him.

Payne ahead of Keat is probably the only talking point and it's a bit muted at that.

2018 Smith being twice as good as 2010 Smith is a massive assumption, and not one that's been backed up by anything that I've seen tbh. Yes he's a good player, but compare his progression in the last 4/5 years to Reid's. Winston has gone forward in leaps and bounds while Smith has stayed at prettymuch the same level.

"Pretty much the same level" is still better than 95% of the squad

Yeah that's not what I was getting at, I was addressing the argument that Smith will be twice as good in 2018 as he was in 2010. I don't think that's a fair assumption.

Yeah i know. Its a valid argument to be fair, id expect Tommy to be better by then than he is now, as you would with any player of his age at that level. He might only be 1.78x better though, probably not quite 2x

Look out for a boot giveaway comp based on this coming soon.

I'm going to say that if Siggie had played we would have done better against Mexico...

Plus being the captain for the results in the Solomons...

tommy-winston partnership hasn't really worked, so this may be a blessing in disguise.

He was very poor in the Mexico first leg.  Storm Roux got the blame generally but if you looked closely he was partially at fault for all 5 goals.

The squad was entirely selected by Neil Emblen with no input from Hudson - it seems Emblen is not that big a fan of Mr Eager.

I think that Dan Keat should have been selected ahead of Tim Payne - a regular in the Swedish First Div. vs. a kid without a club. Both play in the same sort of position. My only real gripe about the squad.