Speaking to the assembled media at the Sydney FC In Business Luncheon on Thursday, a relaxed Postecoglou answered questions about:
:: Germany v Socceroos;
:: The 2018 FIFA World Cup;
:: Alex Gersbach;
:: His progress as a coach; and more.
On squad selections for the international against Germany.
“There are a couple of A-League players obviously on my radar and maybe a couple from overseas as well. I’ll just wait and see how this weekend goes first and then we’ll make our selections. Some of the form in the A-League has been pretty good and gives me something to think about.”
On whether or not he has his core group looking ahead to Russia 2018.
“I hope I’ve never got my core. I think part of the reason we were successful is that people aren’t comfortable. Every time we announce the squad hopefully the whole group’s on edge and that’s the way we want to create the environment.
“You know, the fact that we’ve had success has been great but that doesn’t guarantee anyone will be there for the next four years. What will guarantee it is if they continue to play well and continue to improve and we continue to progress as a team.”
On Mark Bresciano retiring and the opportunity for Terry Antonis to step in.
“Not just for him specifically, there’s others outside the squad who have an opportunity with obviously Bresc retiring. Even within the squad, we need players to step up now in a leadership role as well because Bresc was a pretty big influence on this group of players, not just on the field. Within the group there needs to be somebody who will step up and fill those shoes. I guess outside the group it does create an opportunity for somebody in that area of the park.”
On what it will mean to the group of players who get the opportunity to take on the world champion, Germany on the back of what they’ve achieved.
“We accepted this game back in the middle of last year when things weren’t going well because we always want to measure ourselves against the best and that’s what we’ll do. There’s not point trying to dodge playing teams that are going to be too strong for us. We did that in the lead up playing away from home against strong nations and this is a great test for us.
“We’re looking forward to the game and we’re all excited about it. We’ll go there, we’ll take the game to them and see where we measure up. I think that’s served us really well in previous friendlies and we’ll do that with this game?
On what he aims to get out of the March internationals.
“Just continual progression and improvement. We had a really good, consistent Asian Cup. It wasn’t one or two good performances, I thought our performances all the way through were pretty consistent, now it’s about taking it to another level. Whilst we won the final, I still thought we weren’t the dominant team and we want to be a dominant team moving forward.
“There’s still some improvement we need to do and that’ll be our challenge and there’s no greater measure than playing the world champions in their own backyard.”
On where he thinks those areas of improvement need to be.
“I think just our general play, I think probably in the semi-final and the final, we didn’t dominate the games as much as we’d like from a possession point of view but also in terms of where the game was played. We want to really be a team that takes games to opponents.
“For us to that we’re going to need improvement all across the board, particularly in our possession play and the way we move the ball through our different lines against really good opposition. I think that’ll be the next sort of test for us.”
On whether or not there’ll be more internatiioals before the World Cup qualifiers.
“No that’ll be it and then the World Cup qualification process starts in June so the draw will be done in the middle of April and we’re into a cycle then. Whilst it’s a little bit of a different format, it still gives us 12 months or at least eight months of real continuous World Cup football which is exactly what this group of players needs now.”
On whether or not it’s too soon for someone like Alex Gersbach.
“No it’s not too soon for anyone. Alex is doing really well, he plays in an area of the park where I’ve already said we don’t have a lot of depth.
“We’ve also got the Olympic program kicking off in this cycle as well with the Olyroos and I guess with their qualification process over the next 12 months, it really means we can run two international programs side by side and expose a whole heap of players to what international football is all about.
“The likes of Alex, I am sure if they continue their form, they’ll get exposed at some level.”
On having a hands-on involvement with the development team.
“I said at the outset that a part of my brief was not just the senior team but all the underage national teams. We have a similar philosophy and play the same way so that we can fast track players through our national teams. If we want to create better depth and keep progressing, the best way to do that is for all our national teams to be playing a similar way.”
On whether or not he’s happy with the progression and the results at the junior level.
“I am not going to have a look at what’s happened in the past. From my perspective, I am setting some pretty high benchmarks in how I want us to be. The number one thing is, I think we showed through the Asian Cup that if our senior team can play proactive football, possession-based football, aggressive football and win a competition, there’s no excuse for our younger teams not doing that. That’ll be our aim and I think all the coaches embrace that.
How he has assessed his own progress as a coach.
“I am going ok, I can’t complain, I am still in the job! But you know what, things change in six months.
“But look, I love what I am doing, I love coaching and it’s worked out well for me so far but I’ve never made too many plans too far ahead. Let’s just get through this next period.
“I am really keen on qualifying for this next World Cup, that’s obviously a huge ambition but I am also keen on going to the next one and really getting amongst them and maybe causing some surprises there.”
