Socceroo captain Mile Jedinak has emphasised the importance of being able to play full games without lapses of lost concentration.
Australia have done reasonably well in their 2018 World Cup Qualifying campaign so far, however, the Socceroos want to be prepared when they start playing stronger oppositions in the next stage and in the World Cup itself.
They take on Jordan at Allianz stadium on Tuesday night who beat the Aussies 2-0 in their last encounter, Jedinak is determined to make sure the camp get a good performance as well as a stirring win.
“From a playing point of view, more-so it’s been instilled in us we don’t stop until the last minute, first to last we talk about little things, where we are within the group, making sure we’re switched on and focused all the way through,” the skipper said.
“It can be a cruel games sometimes when you dominate matches and switch off for that one second, you can get sucker punched.
“The boss and staff have instilled the mentality where we don’t care if it’s minute one or minute 91, we want the maximum effort and concentration levels.
“We have our ups and downs, there’s no doubt about it. What does that mean for someone who is coming on? The minimum of what’s expected is they put in.”
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It is still unclear whether Jedinak will start the game against the Jordanians, after the Crystal Palace man was taken off due to soreness in their 7-0 win against Tajikistan in Adelaide last Thursday.
Regardless of whether he plays or not, the 31-year-old has full confidence in the squad, elaborating on the depth they have achieved.
“It was great to see on Thursday night, some of the guys that came on, it was literally seamless and they took it to another level getting the goal, which is great,” he said.
“What it does is it offers competition between spots and the boss can sleep well at night knowing he’s got a squad so hungry and determined to do really well.
“Knowing when they do get an opportunity, they want it to be theirs. It’s fantastic for the squad, it was really evident on Thursday, but it’s been evident now for a little while.”
Jedinak also spoke of how proud he is as a leader to see young players develop, coach Ange Postecoglou selected a number of uncapped players such as Jason Geria, Alex Gersbach and Apo Giannou.
Giannou made his debut against the Tajiks last week and it was instant impact from the Guangzho R&F man and Jedinak was happy with how the youth have settled in.
“It’s great to see, we’re here to better individuals and perform for our national team, my role and the rest of the team’s role is to make players adapt as quickly as possible,” he said.
“We make the environment and make the transition as seamless as possible, I think people who are new to it like Apo, Jason and Alex and they’ve seen pretty much straight away what we’re about.
“Full credit to him and the other boys, they just got on with the job and that’s what we want. It’s not done yet, we’ve got tomorrow night.
“So far up until this point, what everyone’s been asked to do, they’ve performed. If you’re going to impress people, that’s the right step for sure.”
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