Socceroos boss Graham Arnold insists he had to trust goalkeeper coach John Crawley’s “process” and leave Mitchell Langerak out of his final 26-man squad.
Langerak, who backflipped on his international retirement stance ahead of the recent New Zealand friendlies but did not see any game time, missed out on the World Cup squad, with Danny Vukovic taking his place.
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Vukovic joins Mat Ryan and Andrew Redmayne as the Socceroos’ goalkeeping contingent in Qatar.
Crawley has worked with all three at various stages of their careers and knows them inside out.
It’s why Arnold was prepared to back whatever Crawley felt would be the best solution for the Socceroos.
“I’m not an expert in goalkeeping,” Arnold said.
“We’ve got a great goalkeeper coach in John Crawley who has a process and studies these goalkeepers and understands these goalkeepers enormously.
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“I’ve got to trust that process with John Crawley and we make those decisions.
“I trusted John Crawley when we played against Peru with that substitution and I’ve got to trust again those type of decisions.”
Arnold also explained that the decision to bring Langerak back into the Socceroos fold for the New Zealand double-header was to assess if he’d be a suitable replacement should Ryan, Vukovic or Redmayne drop out for any reason.
And the Socceroos boss also wanted one eye on the future in the goalkeeping department, despite not selecting any of the up-and-coming Aussie glovemen.
“Mitch is a fantastic guy, a fantastic goalkeeper,” Arnold said.
“It (Langerak’s selection) was all around, again, bringing him back was around what happens if something happened to one of the other goalkeepers.
“Because at the end of the day, there is a lack of depth of goalkeepers. You look at the age of those three goalkeepers you just talked about in Andrew Redmayne, Danny Vukovic and Mitch Langerak.
“We need more young goalkeepers going through.”
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News of Langerak’s impending omission broke early on Tuesday morning and former Socceroo Tommy Oar led the strong reaction against it, branding it “an absolute wind up”.
“It’s an absolute wind up,” Oar said on Twitter.
“Takes jobs for the boys to a whole new level. He’s been one of our best performing players consistently for the last five years and is one of the best blokes you’ll meet, respected by everyone.”
Fellow ex-Socceroo Rob Cornthwaite took a similar stance to Oar, insisting it “just doesn’t add up”.
“If Mitch has said he wants to go then this is staggering,” Cornthwaite said.
“Mat Ryan No. 1 and then two No. 3 keepers?
“Maybe Arnie is trying to give Ryan confidence by saying you’re under no pressure for your place? So don’t stress?
“Just doesn’t add up for me.”
It’s an especially harsh call on Langerak given he was Nagoya Grampus’ player of the year and kept 13 clean sheets – the second-most in the J1 League – for the team in the 2022 season.
He announced his retirement from international football in May 2021, opting to remain with his family during the Covid pandemic.
The 34-year-old has made eight appearances for the Socceroos, but had not made an appearance between the sticks for the national side since 2017.
