Mexico v Australia friendly: Graham Arnold names Cameron Burgess to start against Mexico

A new centre back will start for the Socceroos against Mexico and coach Graham Arnold says there’ll be a different look about his side in the upcoming friendly.

Graham Arnold. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP)

Socceroos debutant Cameron Burgess will start against Mexico and coach Graham Arnold says a number of familiar faces will try out different roles in a bid to ensure he has tested every possibility before next year’s Asian Cup.

Speaking before the friendly clash against the world No. 12 side Arnold revealed a few of the changes he planned on testing out, without revealing his whole game plan to his Mexican rivals.

Arnold said 27-year-old Burgess, who played for the Olyroos but is yet to register a senior appearance, would start at centre back alongside World Cup hero Harry Souttar.

Burgess grew up in Perth and has finally made his way into the English Championship with Ipswich after several seasons in the lower leagues.

“I was very impressed with him when I went across to the UK to watch Ipswich against QPR,” Arnold said.

Cameron Burgess will make his Socceroos debut against Mexico. Picture: Getty Images

“He is making his debut at 27, so he is mature but he has had these types of experiences at a club level, the most important thing is he connects with the rest of the team and the rest of the players.

“With Harry (Souttar) sitting next to him we probably have got the two tallest centre backs in Asia by far, because Cameron is 1.98m tall, both of them are very mobile.

“It’s an exciting time.”

Missing from the squad will be Mathew Leckie who sustained a knock to his knee during an incident at training.

While not revealing the nature of the injury Arnold said Leckie was likely to be out for at least six weeks – meaning he will miss Melbourne City’s AFC Champions League match with Ventforet Kofu on September 20 and possibly their first A-League game mid October.

“I would say today that he won’t be ready for (the October FIFA window),” Arnold said.

“The most important thing is he looks after himself. I’m very apologetic to Melbourne City, it was a complete accident, it was never intentional, it is just one of those things that happened … it’s unfortunate but that’s football.”

Mathew Leckie will be on the sidelines for several weeks. Picture: Getty Images

Arnold said he planned to use all of the six substitutions allowed by FIFA during international friendly clashes during the game.

“This fixture gives me an opportunity to test players, we are playing the No. 12 nation in the world,” Arnold said.

“You’ll see some different players in different roles tomorrow, it’s all about the players.”

It isn’t just about players showing off their skills with a ball either – Arnold said the match, which is being played at AT& T stadium in Texas, in front of an expected 50,000 Mexican fans, would be a mental challenge as well.

“It’s an incredible stadium, we trained there today and you can see the excitement on all the boys’ when we walked in,” Arnold said.

Socceroos coach Graham Arnold plans to test a few new faces in the clash against Mexico. (Photo by WANG Zhao / AFP)

“It’s going to be a great test mentally for the boys because obviously the crowd and you know the noise because it’s got a roof over won’t go out so it will be quite loud as well.

“It’s a great opportunity for me to test some players but at the end of the day, my expectations don’t change, it’s about improvement, and going out there and doing the nation proud.”

Arnold isn’t expecting it to be an easy game.

“But we’ve got our way of playing and we’ll go out there and get in their faces,” he said.

“Their strength is their technique and they like time on the ball – as I said to the boys today – we don’t give them any time on the ball, we take those strengths away.”

The Socceroos will play Mexico at AT & T Stadium at midday on Sunday (AEST).

Originally published as Mexico v Australia friendly: Graham Arnold names Cameron Burgess to start against Mexico