You can read this with the video's embedded here

A disappointing international window has come to a close with a 0-3 loss against Colombia. It was a shame to give up 3 soft goals to a largely toothless Colombia team that were unable to turn their possession into good chances, especially for a Socceroos side who have focused so much effort on effective defence. Unfortunately, it was two losses from two, but we fans shouldn’t be too downhearted it was clear that there was going to be some experimentation in this window, and as any scientist will tell you, experiments hardly ever work.

It wasn’t until the 61st minute that Colombia created a chance that I thought they should have scored. I’m thinking here of Suárez finding some room in our penalty area, but then air swinging at the poorly hit cross. For what it’s worth the only chances classed as “big chances” by sofascore were the goals.

The low block and defensive overload used by the Socceroos was successful for large parts of the game. But we should also note that Colombia didn’t seem to have a plan to disorganise the Socceroos, rarely even involving goalkeeper Vargas to try and draw us up the field. The second goal did come from them drawing us forward in this way, but the long ball from Vargas should have been delt with by Degenek, and whilst I was a goalkeeper myself and I hate to blame keepers, Izzo will not be happy with how he’s misread the flight of the straight long ball and allowed Borré to tap the ball away from him.

Here’s an example from later in the game, but before the goals, where the Socceroos defended well, but our task was made easier by a lack of quality from Colombia. There’s a bit to see at the first pause in the video. Our defensive shape here is 1-5-4-1, as it was for a lot of the game. We can see here that both Burgess and Degenek and on Borré, taking him out of the play. The only players between our back 5 and 4 mids are their wingers, both of whom are being tracked by our wing backs. The yellow circle indicates where Colombia have created a 3v2 overload. Their player on the ball though can’t make a square pass, as that would be intercepted, and if he passes forward it’s going into contest. What he does next is dribble into the space between our lines. Because of how we’re set up, and the immediate reaction of the midfield four to drop, he has to play a backward pass. Colombia keep possession here, but watch Balard’s immediate reaction to press the receiver. This forces Colombia into horizontal movement.

Despite being happy to use some horizontal movement, Colombia don’t seem to have a good plan for getting us out of this shape. At the next pause we’re still set up with the back 5, and midfield 4. Again Burgess and Degenek are in a 2v1, but unlike the first pause Colombia now have two extra players between our lines. I wouldn’t necessarily expect a big switch back to their player on the right, but rather than using Puerta who has made a good line breaking run, Mojica plays a cross to where we have the 2v1 advantage. Effectively just passing the ball to Degenek. There’s more bad decision making from Colombia in the last bit of the clip, but I want to focus on our Socceroos so let’s move on.

      video 1 here

       With a result like this it’s easy to focus on the errors that lead to the goals, but errors will happen, and it’s better that they happen now. What was more stressful was the parts of the game plan that didn’t seem to be working. If we want to stick with the low possession approach (and I do think it’s our best option, even though we will occasionally get thrashed like this) we need to be absolutely clinical and ruthless in possession. Unfortunately, we were let down by both poor technique and decision making.

Here’s an example from the second half. Watch the movement Elder is making here, he’s set to attack the space ahead of him, and there’s a moment of confusion between the Colombia players as to who will take him. But instead of the ball being played out in front of him, we recycle it back through the defence. When the ball does come out to him later, the Colombia defender, Arías, is no longer caught between him and Toure (who has moved more central) and so is able to close him down and we lose possession. If we are to stick to a low possession style here is one opportunity where we could have tried to be more ruthless by getting the ball out ahead of the wingbacks earlier.

       video 2 here

       Here’s a similar moment from early in the game. The score graphic isn’t in a great place for the clip, sorry, but that’s Miller there hiding behind it. Mojica, the Colombian left back, has picked up Metcalfe and their mid isn’t dropping. This is the sort of opportunity the formation is designed to create for our wingbacks to get forward in space. Despite how keen Miller is for the ball it’s not played out ahead of him. This isn’t from a general unwillingness to play a risky ball in the air because a few seconds later we’ll put it in the air toward Rowles who doesn't have the same space ahead of him. Again, some faster more ruthless decision making would benefit us here.

       video 3 here

       Finally, I really would like to see us avoid playing this sort of wasteful pass forward to Toure, he has a stopper in front of him and a marker behind him, you couldn’t even call this a 50-50. I let this run a bit before the moment I wanted to pick out just to not end on a complete negative. A few times in the first half we did look more comfortable playing around Colombia’s press which was good to see. Although this wasn’t necessarily the best example of this, both O’Neill and Irvine get stuck facing backwards here, we still to well to keep finding space, we just need better decision making when moving into progression.

       video 4 here

       It’s a long wait before we get to see our Socceroos play again. Here’s hoping for some improved work in possession in March.