Former Manchester United and Australian goalkeeper Mark Bosnich isn’t thrilled with Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou’s selection decisions, claiming Western Sydney keeper Ante Covic deserves to be in the team.
Covic’s Asian Champions League Player of the Tournament honour wasn’t enough to propel the veteran keeper into the Socceroos squad to face Japan in Osaka next week.
Bosnich lamented Postecoglou’s decision to take youthful regulars Mat Ryan and Mitch Langerak, based in Belgium and Germany respectively, ahead of the 39-year-old Covic, calling the veteran Australia’s “best” option in goal.
“The reason I was screaming the house down with Ante is that number one: he’s been outstanding and, number two: Ange said he was going to pick players on form and he hasn’t done that with Ante,” the Fox Sports football analyst said.
“I know he’s said he has to think about the qualifiers for the Russia World Cup and I understand that. We all need to keep an eye on the future but the most important thing is now. The Asian Cup is the most important thing.
“I’ll ask Ange when I see him and I’m sure he’ll have his reasons but I was very shocked that Ante wasn’t called into the squad.”
The Osaka represents Australia’s last hit-out before the team’s January 9 Asian Cup debut against Kuwait in Melbourne.
Australia’s winless World Cup campaign has been followed by a number of less than convincing recent results, including last month’s scoreless draw with the United Arab Emirates and a 1-0 defeat to Qatar.
“With two months to go, you have to say we’re not in the greatest of shapes,” he said.
“But that’s just going off what we’ve seen in the last friendly games, and that’s all we can go off.
“Since the World Cup, there hasn’t been much to show.
“We’ve got one more game against Japan and I’d be very interested to see what Ange does and how he plays.
“We’d much rather they be performing really well right now than just hoping ‘I think they’ll be alright on the day’.
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