Australia defender Alessandro Circati has called for the Socceroos to be brave in attack in their World Cup qualifier against Indonesia on Tuesday to get their campaign back on track after a shocking defeat to Bahrain.
The 1-0 loss to the 80th-ranked Gulf nation on the Gold Coast last Thursday triggered familiar complaints in Australian media about the Socceroos' inability to break down stubborn defences from lower-ranked teams.
Australia, ranked 24th in the world, can ill afford another slip-up in Jakarta if they hope to qualify directly for the 2026 finals in North America.
Italy-based Circati said there was no point dwelling on the Bahrain setback but hoped his teammates would not play for safety against the Indonesians.
"I’d like to think in this game we can be a bit more creative, a bit more brave offensively," he told reporters.
"We do have creative players, so we're able to do that.
"We've just got to flick the switch to give them the confidence to take that half-risk, take that risk, to take a player on, take two players on, to possibly get an opportunity on goal.
"Then when we play against the big teams, Japan and Saudi, we’ll go out there to beat them."
Indonesia held Saudi Arabia to a surprise 1-1 draw in their opening match of the third phase of Asian qualifying in Jeddah and may hope for better against Australia in front of a sell-out crowd at the 78 000-capacity Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.
Australia beat Indonesia 4-0 in a last-16 knockout clash at the Asian Cup in Qatar in January.
Following Bahrain, Circati said the Socceroos might expect the Indonesians to also play back and look to sneak goals on the break.
"They've got some quick players that try to hit us on the counter-attack and be dangerous, going forward, catching us maybe not ready," said the 20-year-old.
"But we'll make sure that doesn't happen tomorrow night.
"We've got to try finding spaces, try to drag them out and move them maybe into areas where they're not comfortable."