Former Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou believes Australia’s national men’s team has “stalled” since he left the helm five years ago.
Postecoglou led them from 2013 to 2017, during which time the Socceroos won an Asian Cup and competed at the 2014 World Cup.
They went to the 2018 World Cup under Bert van Marwijk, who was then replaced by Graham Arnold as coach.
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But now with Qatar only a few months away, Australia is in danger of missing the World Cup for the first time since 2002.
A 2-2 draw against Oman this week leaves the Socceroos in a dire position as they desperately try to avoid a two-decade low.
Postecoglou has moved on, now managing Celtic in Scotland, with whom he scored a stirring 3-0 victory over old rivals the Rangers on Thursday morning (AEDT).
But he still has a “vested interest” in the Socceroos, and is concerned by what he’s seeing back in Australia.
“We’ve qualified for the last few World Cups and you want them to do it again. It’s not an easy path, we know that,” he told SEN radio this morning.
“I think from my perspective, the signs have been there for a while that the rest of Asia is improving and we’ve kind of stalled in our development.
“The four years I had in charge were fantastic for me, we won an Asian Cup, we qualified for a World Cup, and I think we need to maintain those kind of standards.
“We should be disappointed if we don’t go to a World Cup, it’s not about saying, ‘well, let’s just miss one so we can learn’… we’ve done enough learning, our expectation should be to qualify for World Cups all the time.”
The Socceroos next take on Japan on March 24, and then Saudi Arabia on March 29.
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