World Cup qualifiers: Tim Cahill given a rest amid busy schedule

Ange Postecoglou has admitted he could have rested a number of players, and not just Tim Cahill.

Jamie Maclaren celebrates a goal against Perth with Brandon Borello. Picture: Darren England.

Ange Postecoglou has admitted he could have rested several players, and not just Tim Cahill, as a hectic schedule at both club and internat­ional level starts to bite into Australia’s World Cup campaign.

The Socceroos’ final cup qualifier of the year — against Thailand in Bangkok on November 15 — will signal the halfway stage in the quest to qualify for Russia 2018 but they won’t have talisman Cahill in the 23-man squad, Postecoglou revealed yesterday.

Instead, Cahill will stay home to concentrate on playing for his new club Melbourne City in the A-League, allowing him some respite from what has been a hectic start to the season.

“Look, it is not just Tim ... this is our heavier sort of international period these past three months,” Postecoglou said.

“You have to look at the amount of travel and the loads on players, and Tim is not the only one. There are quite a few who we reckon are right on the threshold and I’ve had talks with a number of managers, particularly overseas, about this coming camp.

“We kind of look at things from a holistic approach of making sure players are in the best possible condition.”

Postecoglou acknowledged the need to look after Cahill, who never complains about his workload and is always first to put up his hand at club and international level. Australia have a heavy schedule next season, which includes their final five qualifiers plus the Confederations Cup.

“With Timmy, he missed the last (A-League) game and has had a bit of an interrupted pre-season,” the coach said. “We took him along to the last camp and he got through most of the work.

“For us, it is more important he has a strong A-League season. Next year is a massive year for us with the back half of the qualifiers and the Confederations Cup.

“We decided it was best to leave him at his club and let them manage him for the time being and bring in someone like Jamie Mac­laren.”

Maclaren finds himself in the squad for the first time in this campaign, and it is well deserved, according to Postecoglou.

“Jamie has been on the radar for some time and I think he’s done quite well this season,” he said. “He looked pretty good on the weekend (against Perth Glory).”

Postecoglou has made four changes to the squad used in the past two matches, against Saudi Arabia and Japan, both of which ended in draws.

Nathan Burns, Josh Risdon, Maclaren and Milos Degenek come in for Cahill, Apo Giannou, Chris Ikonomidis and Ryan McGown.

The last four plus Luke Brattan, Tommy Oar, Aziz Behich and Jason Geria were also cut from the original 30-man squad Postecoglou named several weeks ago.

Unlike past campaigns, Postecoglou is rejoicing in the fact he will have 10 days to work with the team in camp ahead of a game against a Thai side that has lost all four of its group matches and is sitting bottom of the table.

“It is a bit of a luxury and something we’re not used to,” he said. “It’s always frustrating that we can usually only get them into camp a few days before a game and get maybe one full session to work with them.

“The players have been great in that regard and you kind of get on a roll and get the job done.

“This time around, however, we should get a lot out of them in terms of the progress of the team and the way we want to play.

“They will have time to recover from the travelling and the weekend game and we will get four or five decent sessions with them, which allows us to work on a number of things.

“We could have had a friendly in this window but we thought it was more beneficial to have some good training sessions together.”