Bazeley is adamant he is still in contention.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith a World Cup squad, not everyone plays. Some players contribute in other ways,\u201d Bazeley said. \u201cWith Tommy, we look at what he adds even if he doesn\u2019t play. He\u2019s very good in the environment and helps others perform.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019ll definitely be selected. Every player still needs to be able to perform if needed. But he does bring leadership and experience, which can be valuable.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, selection is about whether you can help win games for New Zealand, but when building a squad there are different needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the question of the best starting eleven. In particular, there\u2019s a decision to be made in goal, with Max Crocombe and Alex Paulsen in a head-to-head battle for the gloves. Bazeley is yet to make up his mind.<\/p>\n
Alex Paulsen was in goal for the All Whites’ 4-1 win over Chile. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s difficult. They\u2019re both very good but slightly different. Max has had an amazing season in the Championship with Millwall but recently lost his place. That\u2019s tough because he had a great run. Alex is back playing in Poland and performing well,\u201d Bazeley said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now we don\u2019t have to make a decision. They\u2019ve both had good moments for the All Whites and good club form, so we\u2019ll put that aside for now. We feel they are competing for the number one position.\u201d<\/p>\n
New Zealand\u2019s recent home matches against Finland (0-2)<\/a> and Chile (4-1)<\/a> were played with several key players absent through injury.<\/p>\n As well as Wood, Libby Cacace, Michael Boxall, Sarpreet Singh and Matt Garbett were missing, and will all be in the World Cup squad, fitness permitting.<\/p>\n Bazeley is looking on the right side of their recent unavailability.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019ve got now is really good depth. For example, we saw Ben Old play at left back and he performed very well. That gives us another option there. Does he put pressure on others? We\u2019ll see. But when everyone is fit we know how strong some of those players are,\u201d Bazeley said. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve managed to play without some key players and still perform at a high level at times. What we have now is good flexibility. Players can play multiple positions. That allows us to pick based on form and confidence without the team dipping, which is a great place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n As the All Whites dispersed to the four corners of the globe and returned to their clubs in Europe, Africa, the United States and Australasia after the recent international window, those on the fringes of selection received clear messaging from Bazeley about their World Cup aspirations.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all know the players who weren\u2019t here because they were unavailable,\u201d Bazeley said. \u201cI\u2019ll stay in touch with everybody and we\u2019re still about four or five weeks away from making those decisions.<\/p>\n \u201cAll you can do is put yourself in a position where you make us have a tough conversation in a couple of months, and some of them have done that.<\/p>\n \u201cGo back to your clubs, stay fit, and perform. We\u2019ll be watching.\u201d<\/p>\n Possible 26-man All Whites World Cup squad:<\/p>\n Goalkeepers: Max Crocombe, Alex Paulsen, Kees Sims.<\/p>\n Defenders: Tyler Bindon, Michael Boxall, Libby Cacace, Francis De Vries, Callan Elliot, Tim Payne, Nando Pijnaker, Tommy Smith, Finn Surman.<\/p>\n Midfielders: Lachlan Bayliss, Joe Bell, Matt Garbett, Ben Old, Alex Rufer, Sarpreet Singh, Marko Stamenic, Ryan Thomas.<\/p>\n Forwards: Kosta Barbarouses, Eli Just, Callum McCowatt, Jesse Randall, Ben Waine, Chris Wood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe\u2019re conscious of that, so we make sure the process is thorough, honest, and clear. Some players won\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3017,5263,9344,110260,8834,1320,10542,79800,16639,111,139,69,1118,56638,213,1557,191487,810,25592,5264,377],"class_list":{"0":"post-364178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ahead","9":"tag-all","10":"tag-announcement","11":"tag-bazeley","12":"tag-big","13":"tag-coach","14":"tag-cup","15":"tag-darren","16":"tag-decisions","17":"tag-new-zealand","18":"tag-newzealand","19":"tag-nz","20":"tag-of","21":"tag-seats","22":"tag-sports","23":"tag-squad","24":"tag-twentysix","25":"tag-up","26":"tag-weighs","27":"tag-whites","28":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}