Bert poised to err on side of caution
BERT van Marwijk last week surprised everyone, including his own players, by making a major change. This time he might surprise them by doing the opposite.
After five days of weighing up a change of personnel to seek the three points Australia needs so badly against Denmark tonight, van Marwijk is believed to be thinking about fielding the same XI that started against France.
Just as with France, the decision will be left to the last moment, the players told only on the day of the game.
It means Massimo Luongo and Tomi Juric, the most likely changes to the team that lost narrowly to France, will have to wait until the 11th hour to know if they will get a chance to attack the Danes from the start.
Aware that against the talents of Christian Eriksen, Australia cannot afford to be too gung-ho, van Marwijk continues to weigh up the merits of Luongo and captain Mile Jedinak, just as he did before opting for Jedinak’s solidity against France.
There is also an awareness that a single point against Denmark would keep Australia alive, albeit needing a win against Peru in the last game and also a defeat for the Danes against France. Defeat, though, would leave the Socceroos eliminated, unless France loses to Peru later in the day.
Even then the reprieve would be far-fetched, as Australia would need to beat Peru by potentially several goals and hope that Denmark inflicted defeat on France.
The only way to avoid its fate being in the hands of other teams is to win in Samara, and take that positivity into the Peru game.
The system that so nearly earned a point with France will broadly be the same, whoever is selected.
“You have to choose a way of playing and then try to make it better every day,” van Marwijk said. “Then you make the difference in details.
“That can be (for instance) another player in the same position with other qualities. But (it won’t change) the way we played and worked on for all of four weeks now.”