Assistant coach Tony Vidmar has urged the Australian national team to be “courageous” in attack and “relentless” in defence against Vietnam on Thursday night.
The Socceroos meet the Vietnamese side in a crunch 2022 World Cup qualifier at AAMI Park in Melbourne following three fixtures without a win.
They require victory to stay within reach of group leaders Saudi Arabia and second-placed Japan who are currently five points and one point ahead respectively.
Vidmar outlined how the Socceroos can bounce back to winning ways against a travelling Vietnam who are expected to focus on defence.
“What the messages have been have been quite consistent for the players,” he said on SEN SA Breakfast.
“We all know the situation that we need to win these upcoming games and we’re up against a Vietnamese team who will sit deep, who will look to defend with basically the whole team and look to counterattack us.
“We’ve got to make sure that we’re courageous, we’re brave in going forward and attacking. Then defensively we’ve just got to be ruthless and relentless in stopping them on the counterattacks and try to hit them back on their own counterattacks.
“The players have been really good, they’re in excellent spirits. We all know the situations and they just can’t wait to get out there.”
Having scored just two goals in their last three outings, Vidmar has called for the Socceroos to be more efficient in attack given Vietnam’s likely defensive formation.
“Being that little bit calmer in and around the box and not rushing things,” he said.
“Putting balls in as much as we can and not just for the sake of it, but realising that they’re quite reactive in the way they defend.
“And shooting from distance, we need to make sure we start doing that.”
The side will be without left-back Aziz Behich who is stranded in Turkey after a blizzard prevented his flight taking off from Istanbul airport.
Despite the setback, Vidmar believes there are enough options to cover in Sydney FC’s Joel King or Adelaide United’s Craig Goodwin.
“That’s a situation which is out of our control,” he said of Behich.
“There’s a number of options that we have. We’ve brought in Joel King because we felt that he’s had a fantastic last couple of seasons and is a young and upcoming player who potentially could play in that role.
“Also ‘Goody’, he’s played in that position as a left-back, so there’s a number of options that we can look at.
“The one thing about Goody is that he’s in that flexible position where he can play at left-back. I think he probably prefers more to play higher up as a winger. He has fantastic delivery with his left foot, and especially with set pieces, that ability to take players on and put dangerous crosses in. He’s been looking pretty good in training the last few days.
“His form of the last three or four games has been of the Craig Goodwin level and there’s definitely more in his game to go on with.”
Vidmar will be on the touchline with fellow assistant Rene Meulensteen to oversee the Socceroos in Melbourne with head coach Graham Arnold sidelined by COVID.
Kick-off is at 8pm AEDT and you can hear all the action live with Julian Marcus and Clint Bolton on SEN Fanatic.
Following the Vietnam game, Australia has three remaining fixtures in World Cup qualifying for Qatar 2022, taking on Oman (away), Japan (home) and Saudi Arabia (away).