Macarthur FC coach Dwight Yorke says Daniel Arzani would be the perfect Socceroos impact player but has urged the mercurial winger to lift his consistency.
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Arzani is among those battling for a spot in Australia's 26-man World Cup squad, to be named on Tuesday.
In 2018, the then-teen sensation enjoyed a meteoric rise to Australia's World Cup squad and was signed by Manchester City, but tore his ACL on loan at Celtic.
After unsuccessful loan stints in Europe, Arzani has settled and found form at Macarthur.
Yorke was uncertain whether it would be enough to earn Arzani - competing with Garang Kuol and Marco Tilio - a ticket to Qatar for a second World Cup berth.
"It's not my call. I've worked with Arzani over the last four months and I've got to know him individually as well as seeing his talent week-in, week-out," Yorke told reporters after the Bulls' loss to Wellington.
"He's an X-factor, there's a lot of hype around him and quite rightly so, he's the youngest Australian player to go to a World Cup.
"But also, he's not played football in 18 months. What we have provided him here at Macarthur is a platform to really get his love back for the sport and playing on a week-to-week basis.
"Maybe sometimes you want so much, so quickly in such a short space of time.
"But if I were Graham Arnold, which I'm clearly not, I think if you're looking for someone to come off the bench and affect the game, I think Arzani's one of the best players, if not the best player in the league, for sure."
Arzani recorded a lovely assist for Lachie Rose in Sunday's 4-1 loss to Wellington, his second of the A-League Men season.
He also has one goal to his name in five games and leads the league in successful dribbles.
"There was some good bits in there. But it's all well and good you doing it in spurts, the top players do it all the time and consistently throughout the league," Yorke said.
"We know he's got that, he's got that in the locker, we've seen it week-in, week-out.
"But you have to bring more to the table when you have that talent and that's my job, to try and bring that along as much as possible
"But certainly there was some good bits in there that we liked, the assist for the goal, and he can cause you problems when he's on fire. But we need to see a little bit more of that."
Australian Associated Press
