Matildas coach Tom Sermanni wants more ball sent Mary Fowler’s way against Germany

In the continued absence of Sam Kerr, the spotlight is on Mary Fowler every time she steps out for the Matildas.

Matildas interim-coach Tom Sermanni says getting Mary Fowler more of the ball is key to maximising her superstar output and that will be the goal in Tuesday morning’s showdown with Olympic bronze medallists Germany.

Lingering doubts over just when captain Sam Kerr will return, with Sermanni conceding even he doesn’t know when she will be back from her ACL injury suffered in January, has ensured the focus on Fowler increases.

Not only as expectations grow for the 21-year-old, who looms as one of the Matildas’ key players for a decade, but focus from opposition teams who zero in on shutting her down.

Switzerland’s defenders did just that in Saturday morning’s 1-1 draw and the likelihood of Germany’s disciplined stoppers doing the same could make things hard for Fowler, who has been in increasingly good form for club side Manchester City.

Sermanni, however, floated the prospect of the Matildas being able to get into more space in the second of two European friendlies, and with more delivery to Fowler, it’s up to her to take care of the rest.

“That’s one of the things that we’re looking at doing is getting in a position where she’s going to hurt the opposition a little bit more and obviously trying to get her in a position where she gets more of the ball,” Sermanni said ahead of the clash.

Mary Fowler is marked by Germany's midfielder Jule Brand during the Paris Olympics. Picture: Christophe Simon / AFP

“In fairness to Switzerland, they had, it looked like a deliberate plan to actually shut us down in our right-hand side, with Ellie (Carpenter) and with Mary and I think it made it difficult for her to get into the game.

“But with the type of game it’s going to be against Germany, I think that’s an opportunity for her to get into more space, to be able to get on the ball more and hopefully to create more for us.”

Given the tight checking Fowler now gets, Sermanni was asked whether there’s a reluctance from teammates to pass her the ball when surrounded.

“It’s probably a combination of both, a combination of perhaps players looking and thinking it’s too tight and a combination of Mary, although being in the space, regardless of whether that space is tight or if it’s big, to actually want to look like you want to get on the ball,” he said.

“It’s a good point and in essence should be an easily fixable point in the sense that even players having a chat with each other and just saying ‘give me the ball, I can handle it’.

“It’s possibly a combination of that. If you look at the Switzerland game in isolation, they made things really difficult for us to play down the right-hand side, so we did not get a lot of play in those areas to start with.”

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The match in Germany is the last for retiring superstar striker Alexandra Popp and Sermanni said it would be a good test of the Matildas’ capacity to handle a “tough environment”.

“And interestingly, when you look at the Matildas certainly over the last couple of years, they’re probably just in an environment where the fans have been on their side,” Sermanni said.

“So it’s actually going to be a different kind of experience and this is the kind of thing that we need to cope with.

“One of the important things we’ll need to discuss leading into the game is how we manage to shut out that noise and not get caught up in the emotion of the game, get caught up in the emotion of the crowd, get caught up in the noise – and really just focus on football.”

Originally published as Matildas coach Tom Sermanni wants more ball sent Mary Fowler’s way against Germany