Player development.

How can we create something like happened in our Golden Generation? What was it? Was it that there were more ethnic clubs that were in the NSL?

Back then we could identify players. We’d say, ‘Look at that kid called Mark Viduka! Look at him, he’s 15, he’s scoring goals like a 20 year-old. I reckon this kid go far in our team. So we could sell him overseas or we could put him straight into the Melbourne Knights first team.’

Back then they grabbed guys like that and they said, ‘You know what? We are going to roll the dice on these guys.’

It feels like there is a different way up for the players coming through now.

It’s interesting that Daniel Arzani hasn’t gone through the same way as all the other players and he’s got something different. 

I don’t know whether it’s true that he grew up playing on the streets but there is a kid that looks to me that he wants to score a goal.

That’s why it’s beautiful to see Arzani play because he is unfettered. All he wants to do is run, score and assist. He just wants to go forward. I reckon that is the big take away about all this.

Where is our next striker coming from? I want to see where the kids are that all they want to do is put the ball into the back of the net.

I don’t mean guys who want to put the ball in the back of the net from over 15 metres.

I’m old enough to remember Italian World Cup striker Paolo Rossi – he could only put the ball in the back of the net from about six yards. But all he wanted to do was score a goal, score a goal.

The way we are playing in Australia feels like our basics are becoming pretty good. We know how to knock the ball around and stuff like that.

But I just want someone to grab a kid who is hungry but has a whole lot of faults and say, ‘I’m going to Iive with all you faults, your technique problems, even the psychological problems that you’ve got – but what I want to see is that desire in you that you want to score a goal all the time.'

That’s going to win us a World Cup. We can’t sit around and play solidly and be disciplined when you’ve got no-one up front who’s going to score a goal.

That’s where I think our next big challenge is.

As told to Con Stamocostas