With Australia playing the Confederations Cup in June and Group B of Asian qualifying for Russia 2018 concluding in 2017, the next 12 months will be make or break for the Socceroos' World Cup ambitions.

After leading Group B, Australia dropped to third place after three draws in succession but Postecoglou said the hard part was over, adding hometown advantage would be a major boost in the remaining group games.

“We were probably disappointing in our last game against Thailand,” he said speaking to FIFA.com. “We just didn’t perform to our own levels. We knew the first half of qualifying was going to be tough for us, with three extremely difficult road trips, in conditions that, unless you play in them, people just don’t understand just how challenging they can be.

“We went to the Middle East and played UAE and Saudi (Arabia), and Thailand. To come through that unbeaten and also with a win on the road, I think we are in pretty good shape. We have three home games this year and we also have Iraq on neutral territory, so we really only have one away game. The beauty of it is that it is in our hands.”

In June’s Confederations Cup Australia take on Germany, Cameroon and Chile and Postecoglou said the Socceroos will be picking up from where they left off in Brazil 2014.

“We are trying to play a certain brand of football, which we have done for the past three years,” he said. “It was in its infancy at the last World Cup. Even though we had a really tough group with Chile, Holland and Spain, we took the game to the opposition, particularly against Chile and Holland, and were probably a bit unlucky not to get something out of those two games.

“We will come to the Confederations Cup, and we certainly won’t take any backward steps. We will try and play the same sort of football that we have being playing for the past three years, and measure ourselves against the very best – that is the whole idea of it. That should make for some exciting games, which I’m sure we will contribute to.”

Postecoglou said he would not be backing down from the attacking style of football he wants the Socceroos to play.

 “The core of my beliefs is in the way we want to play our football,” he said. “When I was appointed three years ago, that was part of the mission - that we want to play a certain brand. It suits the Australian character a little bit better to be a pro-active team.

“We are an exciting side. Certainly we are very mobile, we are an attacking team and an aggressive team. With the players we have at the moment, that really suits their mentality. We put a lot of belief into them at a very young age and when you do that, and you have success along the way like we did at the Asian Cup, it means they won’t be daunted by anything they face in the next 12 to 24 months.”