‘My instincts were right’: Postecoglou speaks out on Socceroos’ Cup exit
Former Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou has added his voice to the ongoing World Cup post-mortem, urging the nation as a whole to shed its "comfortable position" as an eternal footballing underdog if genuine progress is to ever be made.
In a revealing column, Postecoglou also opened up on his controversial decision to quit his role with the side just eight months out from the finals in Russia.
Australia received plaudits for being competitive against European heavyweights France and Denmark in a campaign that ultimately earned just a single point and saw the side finish bottom of their group.
Postecoglou insists such an assessment validates his view that his efforts to transform the Socceroos into a self-assured unit committed to attacking football were not valued, or fully understood, by his employers and many commentators.
And, consequently, that he was right to leave when he did.
"I came to the realisation that in fact, rather than me riding on a tidal wave of change, I was in essence on a personal crusade," Postecoglou writes for Players Voice.
"That did not sit well with me.
"I was in the privileged position of leading my country and while I believed it was time to change the way we are perceived at home and abroad, the voices of discontent and the feeling of isolation told me I had probably got it wrong.
"What has happened and transpired since I left the position shows me my instincts were right."
Critics, however, even those with general sympathy for Postecolgou's views, will argue that his abandoning of the project so close to the World Cup served only to undermine the campaign, putting plans in to disarray.
Australia endured an exhausting qualification process, including two rounds of nerve-racking play-offs, flirting with failure against a Syrian side unable to play matches at home in its war-torn country.
"The final assessment was that we struggled through qualification," Postecoglou writes.
"And in the process I lost the mandate for change.
"Through 22 games of the most arduous World Cup campaign ever, my blueprint had seemingly failed in the eyes of many."
Bert van Marwijk was brought in as a short-term replacement and plotted a pragmatic path, legitimately so in many people's eyes when the Dutchman had no vested interest in long-term planning and only a short time to make an impact on how the team functioned.
A principled man and passionate advocate for the game in Australia, Postecoglou endured a sometimes fractious relationship with the football media, and was often visibly annoyed by outside criticism of his methods.
Though for the most part his reign commanded broad support for his talking up of Australian football and Australian footballers.
His players also bought in to his ideas.
And as such it was a surprise when he decided to forgo the opportunity to put his plans in to practice on the very stage on which, by his own explanation, they were designed to prosper.
Australia lost to France and Peru and drew with Denmark in the 2018 finals under van Marwijk.
The Dutch coach had previously taken the Netherlands to a World Cup final in 2010, and he appeared to have forged a strong, if ultimately unsuccessful, identity in the short time he had with the players.
Yet it was in a style that Postecoglou believes was merely a reversion to the "brave battlers" identity that has served Australia in the past, but should now be viewed as outdated.
"Competitiveness and stability … are not positives from this World Cup," he writes. "We have always done this."
With four straight qualifications for World Cups, the now Yokohama F. Marinos coach believes the time has long passed for the shedding of any inferiority complex.
Ambitions should be grander than creditable defeat against more fancied opponents.
"The problem with always being the underdog," he writes, "is that it is a sign you haven't improved".
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