Maturing Socceroos show promise in England friendly, but questions still remain

In the end, Australia's 1-0 defeat against England on Friday evening won't be remembered as fondly as the famous meeting between the two sides 20 years ago, when the Socceroos stormed to an upset 3-1 win at Upton Park.

Meeting a Jack Grealish shot-cum-cross and ensuring it found the back of Mat Ryan's net, it was Ollie Watkins' that provided the game's only goal in this contemporary meeting; something of a bitter blow for the visitors given the strike came after they failed to clear their lines from a free kick, set pieces nominally one of the areas that they would have zeroed in on as a strength.

Of course, even if Australia had been able to find a way to snatch an unlikely result, one wonders if, in a modern context, it would have hit the same as 20 years ago.

Whereas that 2003 win came at a time when Australia's men hadn't featured in a World Cup since 1974 and it was still toiling away in the Oceania Football Confederation, Friday's clash arrived just under a year on from the Socceroos reaching the round of 16 in Qatar and ahead of a busy few months that will see it commence Asian qualifying for 2026 and compete in the Asian Cup in Qatar.

Would a win over an experimental England side really have hit the same as Mat Leckie's run and goal against Denmark at the Al Janoub? Or James Troisi's 105th-minute winner in the 2015 Asian Cup final? Probably not -- a sign of Australia's maturation as a footballing nation.

Of course, a win would have still been preferable. And it was a now familiar gameplan from Graham Arnold's side as they took the field at Wembley looking for one.

Against what was an experimental (or second-string, if one isn't feeling charitable) England side -- Gareth Southgate taking stock of his options in a rare friendly before a European qualifier against Italy on Tuesday -- the Socceroos maintained a strict shape, defended as a unit, and looking to break on the counter and make hay from set pieces.

The disjointed nature of Southgate's lineup certainly helped this. As Trent Alexander-Arnold inverted into the midfield in possession and debutant Levi Colwill shifted into a back three, they looked disjointed and lacking in any kind of positivity in possession for vast swatches of their extensive time on the ball. It was a performance that belied that, even if they're not the first choice for England, this was a lineup whose value on the open market is probably more than the GDP of several smaller nations.

Further, the English were denied the ability to settle and find their way by constant harassment and haranguing with dogged intensity from an opponent that was physical, determined, and maintaining their defensive shape - Keanu Baccus looked to relish his first-half shoving match with Colwill.

It was what one would expect from an Arnold side against this calibre of opponent, and it was delivered with as close to full strength as the Socceroos' boss would likely envision - with the exception of the continued experimentation with Kye Rowles at left-back next to Harry Souttar and Cameron Burgess.

The intent of this move was obvious. In possession, Rowles, like Colwill up the other end, would tuck inside and allow right-back Ryan Strain to get further up the pitch. Given this it was done with Jordan Bos and Aziz Behich both on the bench, however, it was a gamble, and the limitations of it in a defensive sense were obvious every time Jarrod Bowen, often in combination with Conor Gallagher, skipped past Rowles with casual ease: most notably on an eighth-minute foray that resulted in a cutback that James Maddison really should have met and put the hosts ahead from.

With World Cup qualifiers against Bangladesh/The Maldives and Palestine coming next month, followed by India, Syria, and Uzbekistan awaiting in the group stages of the Asian Cup next year, if Arnold reverts back to playing an actual left-back in that position looms as a key question.

Maddison, who for his part did his best to try to spark some kind of positivity across the first half, would again prove wayward in the 24th minute when he had time and space at the top of the box to tee up an effort before promptly blasting it high and wide. And the Spurs man was hardly alone in creating and spurring chances across the opening 45 minutes at Wembley. But mostly, it was the Australians creating them in transition, outshooting their foes in the first half despite having nearly 70% of possession.

Fikayo Tomori deflected a Baccus effort before Sam Johnstone completed a diving save in the 12th. Martin Boyle drove inside and found Mitch Duke for a first-time volleyed effort in the 22nd that rifled wide. Rowles, free from the attention of Bowen as he came forward to contest a corner, skied an effort in the 28th.

Most teasingly of all, Strain, getting up the pitch on the overlap, saw an effort cleared off the line by Lewis Dunk just on the stroke of halftime after Boyle had wriggled free from the close attention of the English defence and squared it - a riposte to the Australian chance in the 29th minute when Watkins got in behind on the counter-attack and rounded Ryan, only for his tamely hit effort to roll into the post and be cleared away.

But the counter, as one would have expected both based upon the resumes of the two sides, was the domain of the Australians. England handily dominated possession and knocked the ball around but when it came time actually to do something with it, any sense of danger or mortal peril on the Australian goal was, at best, fleeting. With figures such as Jordan Henderson and Gallagher relied upon to pull apart an embedded and disciplined Australian defence instead of Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden, and Declan Rice, the hosts were turgid in possession, lacking intent and positivity.

Henderson, whose role in the England setup is already subject to questions after his move to Saudi Arabia, was serenaded with boos when he was substituted.