Last week when asked about the performance of strike pair Danny Allsopp and Archie Thompson in the recent match against Indonesia, Verbeek described them as 'absolutely hopeless'.

The Dutchman's bluntness drew a mixture of shock and amusement at the time, and Thompson, the A-League's most prolific scorer and two-time championship winner, has made joking references several times to his hopelessness.

But ahead of tonight's Asian Cup qualifier against Kuwait, Verbeek said he had every right to offer appraisals on his players when asked to.

He said: "It was true." He then went on to say he had spoken to Thompson about the comments. "Of course. That's my job. I did it already last week.

"Of course he can take it. It's not personal. I'm speaking about a professional football player who is playing for the Socceroos and has to show himself. I was very pleased with most of the selections except those two (Allsopp and Thompson).

"Maybe it was a little bit rude, I agree. But I'm not speaking with 17- and 18-year-old players who I have to be a little bit careful with. I am speaking with fully professional players who have been champion already here.

"So it's not that I just say those things. I have enough motivations and reasons to say things like that, because of you watch the game, you'll see I'm right."

It was an oddly terse Verbeek who greeted a small media conference in Canberra. After muttering at the start of the press conference 'maybe I'll behave myself today' he then took exception to a question about the motivations behind his recent comments on the standard of the A-League.

"They have to show, everyone has to show themselves. This is professional football. It's not criticising or challenging to say every player has to show. I think I've been reasonable about the A-League. I've never said anything wrong. You have a shortage of memory because you can't even remember what I said.

"That's a problem, because people start repeating quotes out of context. What I said about Danny and about Archie, I also said they were fantastic in the A-League, but I have not read it," he said.

Verbeek then refused to offer comment on the standard of the A-League Grand Final.

"I think that's not my job to say anything about that. My job is to prepare my team for the Kuwait game and you can ask me questions about that," he said.