Australia's Monday training pic special

The Socceroos need a healthy win against Thailand in Melbourne on Tuesday night to give themselves the best chance of automatic qualification.

Saudi Arabia are ahead of Australia only on goal difference, with a two-goal advantage, heading into their final fixture at home to the already qualified Japan.

Speculation has been rife about the ideal scoreline for the Socceroos, who won’t know if they’ve qualified for Russia at full-time.

Instead, they’ll need to wait almost eight hours for the Saudi Arabia-Japan game to finish.

Despite that, Postecoglou said he wouldn’t be instructing the team to win a particular scoreline.

“I just don’t think football works that way,” Postecoglou said. 

“As I said I believe if we put in a strong performance tomorrow and play the kind of football we’re capable of, then I’ve got no doubt we’ll give ourselves a good chance of winning the game and winning the game well.

“Our home form has been good. We’ve consistently scored goals at home.

“Those kind of things suggest if we get it right on the night we’re going to be hard to stop, irrespective of the opposition.

“We copped a couple but we put three past Saudi and we scored a couple against the UAE.

“Whenever we’ve needed to at home, we’ve scored goals. I think that’s more important than an actual target.

“The players aren’t silly, I don’t think you’ll find them doing a lap of honour if we score the first goal.

“I think they’ll be getting it back to the halfway line as quickly as possible.”

Tim Cahill and Ange Postecoglou at Monday's press conference

Postecoglou said the situation wouldn’t affect his approach to the line-up he selects, nor the formation.

When asked if he’d be more attacking, he said: “I reckon a few people’s hearts have stopped with that statement, because apparently I’m too attacking as it is.

“We set up to play every game to take it to the opposition and try and score goals.

“It’s a game of football, it’s not a game of basketball. You never get high scorelines.

“Our intent is always the same. I don’t have to change anything in the team set-up or the way we approach the game.”

Ange Postecoglou addresses his players on Monday

Postecoglou also brushed off criticism of him in light of the 2-0 defeat to Japan in Saitama on Thursday, led by Fox Sports commentator and ex-Socceroo Mark Bosnich.

Bosnich questioned if Postecoglou remained the right man to be Australia coach and criticized his demeanour.

“I’m not everyone’s cup of tea,” Postecoglou said.

“I get that. It’s fair enough that people put the national team coach under scrutiny.

“It doesn’t surprise me that Bozza doesn’t think I’m the right person for the job. He’s got every right to say that.

“The one that miffs me a bit is the demeanour.

“I’m sorry I’m not the likeable, huggable guy that you guys want.

“From my perspective, I do this job because it’s a great honour to lead your country and I took it with the intent to hopefully change mindsets and the landscape.

“Tomorrow night we get the opportunity to get to another World Cup, which gives you another opportunity to do some of those things."

Australia's Monday training pic special