I hate sounding like a broken record – truly. There would be few bigger Socceroos fans than me and I just want them to do well.

“But they beat Indonesia four nil and have made the Quarter Finals,” I hear you say. “How’s that not doing well?”

It is doing well, in a way – not least as Indonesia were surprisingly good. They swarmed about us every time we had the ball and constantly stole possession. They also looked very dangerous themselves for most of the first half and big chunks of the second. We rarely had control.

That’s not how I want us to play. I want us to have control and dictate terms but that never happened until the third goal went in. Until then we were in peril – from the team ranked 146 in the world!

“Aah, but the base is rising,’ I hear you say. ‘The whole of Asia has massively improved. Those numbers don’t mean what they used to mean.”

The fact is – we didn’t play well. We were under the kosh from the very start and scored a lucky goal in the 12th minute (from Irvine’s deflected cross) to settle our nerves.

They weren’t settled for long. The Indonesian press was unrelenting and while they never quite made any simple chances they made plenty of half chances. That’s okay – we dealt with that (more or less). What had me shouting at the television was our inability to hold possession.

Every time we won the ball (too often via a goal kick) we were unable to string passes together. The Centre Backs may have a played a few balls back and forth but the instant we entered their half we were swamped and hassled into error and the Indonesians came roaring back with the ball.

Even the likes of Riley McGree and Jordy Bos, with good technical skills, were harried into error. Aziz Behich made one or two decent runs. The rest could hardly string two touches together (the second touch was usually a tackle). We didn’t go forward with any sort of shape and plan, and the Indonesians were effective at closing off all passing lanes.

Fortunately, our defensive shape and tackling was good (it had to be). Souttar and Rowles are a fortress but Behich and Gethin Jones are less convincing. Nat Atkinson gave us a lot more when he came on for the injured Jones (although, to be fair, Jones’ cross for Boyle’s goal was a cracker.)

Baccus and Irvine tackled everything in the middle and left nothing out there but their use of the ball was non-existent. Irvine, in particular, rarely finds his man with a pass these days. And yet he can be effective. Is Jackson Irvine the embodiment of Aussie DNA? Works himself into the ground – can sometimes be effective in the box – but his touch lets him down and he can’t pass to save his life.

That’s not how I want us play either. I want the Aussie DNA to mean something more than just guts and hard work. I want us to play with technique – to have an obvious system in which every player knows his part and executes it well.

The Indonesians had a system and clearly knew their roles. They were surprisingly physical also. On their current rate of improvement they are going to be a big team in Asia over the next few years. If we had played with just half of their intensity and applied any sort of coherent plan we would have been out of sight by halftime.

Were we complacent? I've no doubt Arnie would have hammered the players with the need to respect Indonesia and match their intensity but I was concerned watching them in the warm-up. Players going through possession drills were standing about chatting, using a few flicks and tricks, with little competitive spirit and no bite in the tackle. That's always a worry ahead of games you're expected to win.

Nevertheless, we did win – by a decent margin – but to what extent does that make the problem worse? Coach and players will probably feel vindicated in their selections and system and will continue to use those in the tougher match(es) ahead.

Given our performance against Indonesia, does anyone have confidence in our ability to beat Saudi or South Korea?

We’ll have to improve a hell of a lot but that’s where I do have just a little bit of hope. The Socceroos tend to play much better against quality opposition. Our results at the last World Cup and in high level friendlies since then have been very good. We will be up for the tougher matches.

So, just maybe, our real tournament is about to commence.

Adrian's books can be purchased at any good bookstore or through ebook alchemy. His first sci-fi novel (Asparagus Grass) was published by Hague Publishing in July 2023. The ebook can be purchased here and the paperback can be ordered here or at your local store.