Maclaren opens up on woes in Germany

FRINGE Socceroo Jamie Maclaren is hopeful a “clean slate” in comfortable surrounds can help put him back in contention for a ticket to Russia after a nightmare stint in Germany.

The former A-League goal machine has joined Scottish outfit Hibernian on loan for the rest of the season, having struggled for playing minutes in Germany in a battling Darmstadt side that currently sits inside the second-division drop zone.

It is a move with the World Cup firmly in mind.

Maclaren was handed his international debut by Ange Postecoglou but hasn’t played for the Socceroos since the 2-1 qualifying win over Thailand last September.

He now has less than six months in Scotland to prove to Postecoglou’s successor – whoever that ends up being – that he deserves to be in Australia’s 23-man squad.

“I needed to do it, for what’s ahead in terms of the Socceroos but also myself,” Maclaren said. “I know I can play and score goals and to be sitting on the bench and not being able to contribute to a team that was losing was pretty hard to take.”

Maclaren said he was told by then-Darmstadt coach Torsten Frings when he first signed from Brisbane Roar that he would get an opportunity to play in a two-striker system. But when the season began, Darmstadt only played one man up front.

Maclaren made his frustrations clear but the defeats quickly piled up and Frings was sacked in December and replaced by Dirk Schuster.

An A-League club showed strong interest in a loan deal but Schuster was initially reluctant to let the 24-year-old leave until Hibernian came into the picture.