Goal-scoring wingers and the larger problem overshadowing the Socceroos
Is it a crisis when there are more goal-scoring attacking midfielders in the A-League Men, than there are actual strikers?
With the introduction of scholarship contracts in around 2018 or 2019, A-League Men (ALM from now on because writing the entire name is just so long) clubs have embraced that challenge by giving more opportunities to promising youngsters all across the country. According to the CIES Football Observatory, the average age of ALM clubs’ playing squad from the 2024/25 season is on the lower spectrum of the scale (average fielded squad age of 26.2), with more and more playing time being given to younger players (15.1% of the league’s total playing minutes from the current season were/are completed by U20 players).
So, uh…what do all of this mean to the current topic that we will be talking about? While on the grand scheme of things, giving young players more first-team playing time is always a good initiative as it can help their development significantly, that distribution of playing time needs to be drilled down further.
While watching the ALM this past three seasons, I noticed a significant number of young players who came through are/were mostly defenders, defensive/central midfielders, and attacking midfielders. The young players who have left the league after getting first-team minutes were also mostly defenders, midfielders, and wingers. Meanwhile, the only noticeable strikers who have graduated from the A-League to secure a move elsewhere (that I can remember) are Brisbane Roar’s Thomas Waddingham and Macarthur’s Ariath Piol. That raises a question, where are all of the young Aussie strikers, and how does this affect the future of the Socceroos?
So, this article will be my own attempt to answer my question, even though most people might not care about it. Let’s get into it!
The hypothesis: Not enough strikers!
There is a saying goes “buying strikers cost more than developing strikers”. As I have elaborated in the second part of the 2025 January Transfers edition below:
…because a striker tends to be judged on their goal-scoring ability and their market value also reflects that. If a striker scores more goals for a club, that club will have the leverage to demand a large sum of money for that striker.
And the younger a striker is, that evaluation will also goes up. That is why the striker market is always so profitable for clubs who know how to develop good strikers like what Sturm Graz and Frankfurt have done in the past few years.
With the ALM slowly converting itself into a development league and a foundation for young players to showcase their ability, it is a great opportunity for clubs to develop their own strikers. However, that is the ideal scenario, but the real-world is not as ideal as one might thought. Like most Asian leagues, ALM clubs also have a reliance on foreign strikers to score goals and create chances. This has been rooted into most leagues for many years, which is why there were not as many Asian strikers who thrived in Europe as Asian defenders or midfielders.
It is also a problem for the national teams as well, especially when they enter the big stage like the World Cup. There is a strong reliance on using wingers or attacking midfielders to score goals, which is not that sustainable when your main goal-scoring outlet and difference maker is supposed to be a striker. That is literally their responsibility and that is why they are on the field.
Asian physicality can be a blaming factor for their inability to produce good strikers, which is true for countries like Japan, South Korea, etc. But I do not think that is a good reason for Australia, especially when Australia is so multicultural and does not have that much of the Asian genes. There have been Aussie strikers finding success in Europe or elsewhere, with some of the prominent names include Mark Viduka or Tim Cahill. What might be true, though, is due to the diversity of sports in Australia, most kids with good physicality might choose to play cricket, rugby in the NRL or Australian-rules football (or AFL, to be short) at a young age.
Because of this, and there are a few more reasons for the shortage, many clubs have to turn to foreign strikers for goals. In the traditional recruitment world, a striker can easily standout if they have a good clip compilation that shows the amount of goals that they have scored throughout their career. Higher-ups at clubs can look at those clips and think “oooh, we might have found a good striker here!”, but the problem with this way of thinking is they do not consider why a striker was able to score that many goals. This leads to early termination of contract if a striker do not meet expectation, a huge loss of money, and, in some cases, legal battles. I am very, very familiar with this having seen how Vietnamese clubs operated like this for many years. It is just a terrible way of recruiting players, especially when the hit rate of this way of operating is 1 good striker for every 10-15 poor strikers who get terminated early. It happens less in the ALM, but it still creates a lack of consistency and stability among the playing squad.
So, the question that I am trying to answer here is not “how can Asian clubs recruit strikers more effectively” (though that is definitely a good topic to dive deep into, especially with the mountain of historical data for this), but rather “whether clubs have developed their own strikers from their local talents pool” using data from the A-League Men and their young talents boom in recent seasons.
But that has some problems of itself as well, which leads me to the hypothesis after driving around for so long and not hitting the main point. Taking a glance over the young Aussie players who have graduated from the league in the past few seasons to secure a move elsewhere and you will not find that many strikers on the list, but rather the list is dominated by defenders and midfielders. The two noticeable names that I can recall are Brisbane Roar’s Thomas Waddingham and Macarthur’s Ariath Piol, and they both just left the league this January. So, where are all of the young Aussie strikers?
The good: More goal-scoring wingers!
Let’s get to the good thing first. It is not like there are no Aussie strikers who are playing in the league, and in fact there are quite a few, but you do not see them scoring too many goals. The ALM’s current top scorers list as of January 31st is dominated by either wingers or wingers-turned-strikers like Sydney’s Joe Lolley (8 goals) and Adrian Segecic (5 goals), Wellington Phoenix’s Kosta Barbarouses (7 goals), Western Sydney Wanderers’ Nicolas Milanovic (6 goals) and Brandon Borrello (5 goals), ex-Macarthur’s Jed Drew (6 goals).
It is definitely possible to develop a system that does not rely on an actual #10 up top, and Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic is a good example of that with the trio of Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda, and Jota, where the former two are wingers-turned-strikers. Rather than having a traditional #9 who has good physicality to lead the line, a team can utilise the pace of wingers-turned-strikers to make runs in behind and drag players out of their positions to create space. They can also take on the opposition’s defenders by themselves thanks to their dribbling ability and pace, which also creates space for their teammates by dragging defenders out of their position.
Having good goal-scoring wingers in the team also gives the team more flexibility up top as they do not have to rely on the striker up top to score goals. This can be particularly helpful when coming up against teams who play with a man-to-man marking system or a low block, which can lead to the striker up front being isolated and taken out of the game. The goal-scoring wingers here can become the difference-makers and help with opening the game up to allow the team to play in the way that they want.
The minutes played distribution for U23 Aussie players (born in 2002 or after) in the 2024/25 ALM season as of January 31st reflects that very well, with attacking midfielders receiving the second-most total minutes played throughout the season (10567 total minutes). And this is the total accumulated minutes played from 35 U23 attacking midfielders who have played at least a minute, which is the highest number of players played compared to other position groups.
This highlights the willingness of ALM managers in giving young attacking midfielders the chance to showcase their ability. They have a reason to do that as well because there have been a lot of attacking midfielders and wingers who have stood out over the past couple of seasons, either through their goal-scoring or chance creating abilities. Lots of names have risen to fame like Adelaide United’s Nestory Irankunda, Macarthur’s Jed Drew, or Melby Victory’s Nishan Velupillay.
It has been a similar story this season with many young attacking midfielders stepping into the spotlight, headlining by Newcastle Jets’ duo Eli Adams and Clayton Taylor. Sydney’s returnee Adrian Segecic has also been scoring goals for fun alongside his partner-in-crime Jaiden Kucharski. Then there is Western United’s Abel Walatee, who has thrived in the third-youngest squad in the league (according to the CIES Football Observatory). And those are just the standout goal-scoring wingers who have played quite regularly this season.
Some honourable mentions who have not made it onto this list due to playing less regularly include now-Central Coast Mariners winger Abdelelah Faisal, Brisbane Roar’s Jacob Brazete, Perth Glory’s Jaylan Pearman, and Auckland FC’s duo Liam Gillion and Logan Rogerson who are both New Zealanders and I really enjoyed watching them, but missed out due to their nationality. Long story short, it is probably the best time for young attacking midfielders and wingers to play in the ALM with plenty of opportunities being given out by almost every clubs.
The bad?: Where are the strikers?
After adding U23 strikers to the efficiency plot above, I realised “okay, I might be wrong about my observations and hypothesis”. Even though some of the attacking midfielders still stand out, most U23 Aussie strikers who have played in 5 or more 90s are all performing exceptionally well when it comes to goal-scoring. Leading the chart are Adelaide United’s duo Archie Goodwin and Luka Jovanovic, with Western United’s Noah Botic follows swiftly behind. Credits should also be given to Melbourne City for slowly developing the duo Benjamin Mazzeo and Medin Memeti by giving them plenty of minutes this season.
I guess my question of “where are the Aussie strikers” come from the fact that there have not been too many new faces leading the line for the Socceroos in the past few years, or at least since the last World Cup cycle ended in 2022. The national team’s main striker trio, Mitch Duke, Jamie Maclaren, and Adam Taggart, are heading into their mid-30s and they have been with the team for ages. While Duke is still pretty much in contention, Maclaren has ruled himself out with a move to the Indian Super League, and Taggart’s ability is slowly decreasing while still carrying Perth Glory on his back.
The Socceroos have tested and introduced new players into the team as well, but it is hard to see anyone achieving the longevity of Duke, Maclaren, and Taggart besides Kusini Yengi. Bruno Fornaroli is way beyond his peak years, while Cummings’ situation is similar to Maclaren after his move to Mohun Bagan. Apostolos Stamatelopoulos had a couple of good seasons with the Newcastle Jets, but he has slowed down since joining Motherwell in Scotland, and John Iredale has not found a team where he can stay for a long time and perform consistently after leaving Aalborg in Denmark to join Seoul E-Land in the K-League this January window.
With Tony Popovic’s preference of playing a two-man striker up front, the lack of strikers definitely does not help and does not play into that preference very well. Being a bit pragmatist and changing the formation to suit what is available to you might work, but it seems like Popovic is not that type of manager. As a result, players like Nishan Velupillay, Riley McGree, or Brandon Borrello have been used up front as make-shift strikers in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
For a counter-attacking style that Popovic is currently using for the Socceroos, those players might work thanks to their pace and ability to carry the ball forward. But, as mentioned above, when the team goes up against teams who prioritise defensive solidity like Indonesia and Bahrain, the match just become very boring and frustrating to watch because of the inefficiency in creating and converting chances. According to Opta via Fotmob, the Socceroos are third among the still-active Asian Qualifiers team for touches in opposition box (309) and are second for big chances created (43), yet they are also second for the number of big chances missed (23). These stats are normal for a dominant side like Australia, but the way that they are playing just do not reflect that position, especially when they have only scored 6 goals after 6 matches.
Having a strong defence helps, of course, but the current way of playing is not that sustainable and will definitely be made ineffective when going up against some of the stronger teams in the World Cup. Clearly, the Socceroos do have the players to build a strong defence and creative players to create chances. They just need to find people who can convert those chances into goals. For the current cycle, it will have to be Mitch Duke and any wingers who get called up to the national team.
Wrapping up
I set out on a journey to find an answer to the lingering question of “where are the Aussie strikers”, and I think I have found an answer to that question. The next generation of Aussie strikers are developing very well in the ALM thanks to the commitment to playing and giving youngsters an opportunity. Players like Noah Botic, Archie Goodwin, Luka Jovanovic, or Ben Wilson are all very promising and it is great to see them getting game time week in, week out for ALM clubs.
But, similar to Thomas Waddingham, it is hard to say whether they are the current solution for the Socceroos’ strikers shortage. Waddingham has left Brisbane Roar to join Portsmouth while still being very young, which will help his development drastically with game time in England. Botic, Goodwin, Jovanovic, and Wilson are all performing at a very high level and will no doubt attract interest from Europe very soon. These players are the future of the Socceroos frontline and their development will be followed very closely.
Western United’s manager and Socceroos legend John Aloisi said this recently and I do agree with his point of view (I am paraphrasing his words):
The ALM is not competitive enough and not physical enough to push the development of these players even further. You need to have good mentality and physicality to be able to play the full 90 minutes week in, week out in Europe.
The ALM can be a good development ground that will prepare these young players with tactical knowledge and discipline, but playing in Europe and England is a whole different beast because the physicality and competitiveness of those leagues are miles ahead of the ALM. The good thing is that more and more clubs are looking at Australia as a good players market to scout and explore further, and there have been a plethora of players leaving the league to move to Europe. The talent factory that is the A-League Men does not seem like it will be stopping anytime soon, so there will be more and more promising talents being exported to Europe.
The future looks very bright, but for now, the suffering continues as the Socceroos patiently waiting for the next generation to develop and solve the problems that they currently have. Hopefully the solutions will come quick enough and at least before the 2026 World Cup to give Australia another chance to fall in love with the beautiful game like they did back in 2022 and 2023.