Luongo calls for patience under van Marwijk

Massimo Luongo says the Socceroos are going to make mistakes as they adjust to Bert van Marwijk’s footballing philosophy and believes the performance, not the result, is the most important thing against Colombia.

Massimo Luongo Ange Postecoglou Socceroos Bert van Marwijk

Socceroos midfielder Massimo Luongo Source: Getty Images

Australia face La Tricolor in London on Wednesday morning (AEDT) at Craven Cottage after a 4-1 loss against Norway.

The Socceroos struggled to adapt to a new formation and style of football in Oslo with limited preparation time under van Marwijk.

But Luongo feels it is wrong to expect overnight success with a new head coach, and denies the national team is feeling additional pressure ahead of the Colombia game.
“We’re still in that transition stage, we’re still figuring things out,” Luongo told The World Game.

“If you haven’t played you might play, he might go with the team he wants to play the first game in Russia at the World Cup. But it’s difficult to judge. 

“When Ange came in we didn’t win for how long? It was two in 12, or two in 14? So we’re just building at the moment.

“It is hard for people from the outside looking in… people getting up in the early hours of the morning watching a not so impressive performance. But with a little bit of patience we can figure out and we’ll get there in the end.

“We’ve had three full days to work on a completely new regime. It might work out because it might take the pressure off us a little bit. 

“We have to get it right, we have to get it right because he’s not putting pressure on us. The manager knows it’s going to take time and I don’t think there’s pressure on us for this game. 

“Again it’s a friendly and again we’re trying things out. Boys need to impress, if anything there’s pressure on us to keep our position than getting an amazing result.”

The South American nation warmed up for their Australia clash with an impressive come-from-behind 3-2 win over France in Paris.
But Luongo, who came off the bench in the second half against Norway, is adamant that it is the bigger picture that is the priority – the FIFA World Cup in June – not getting victories in the friendlies leading up to Russia.

The QPR midfielder says results in modern-day international football are very unpredictable.

“Sometimes I am looking at the international scores, and I think, wow, they beat them?” he said.

“That's why the Asian Cup is the best example. We got spanked a couple of times before that and then we won it and played well.

“I just think its building steps and getting things right. Yes we are going to make mistakes, but that's just part of it.”


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3 min read
Published 26 March 2018 9:51am
By John Davidson

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