Mental scars, underdone squad: Robbie Slater pinpoints Popovic’s biggest challenges

With just 17 days until the Socceroos’ must-win clash, ROBBIE SLATER breaks down the monumental challenges facing Tony Popovic with the 2026 World Cup just around the corner.

They say teams often mirror their managers so we know the Socceroos under new coach Tony Popovic will be very organised and very strong defensively.

Tony was an outstanding player for Australia with 58 caps for the Socceroos and a great career in England where he spent five seasons and captained Crystal Palace.

We have seen in his time coaching both overseas and here in the A-League with Wanderers, Glory and most recently Melbourne Victory that the structure of his team is that they are always very difficult to score against.

But stepping up to coach the Socceroos now, with just 17 days until their next World Cup qualifier against China, presents a whole new set of challenges.

Here are the challenges Popovic faces now and in the future:

Tony Popovic was announced as the Socceroos new coach on Monday. Picture: Getty Images

1. Picking a squad: Most players in the current Socceroos squad did not play on the weekend, either through injury or sitting on the bench. This is a big problem going forward because the coach is new, he needs to prioritise the players he needs and the squad he is going to select to win. Given the short turnaround, you would expect it is pretty similar to their last game. He is going to get the players and only have one training session before the China game and then a short turnaround to play Group leaders Japan five days later. What happens beyond these first two games will be up to Tony.

The Socceroos have had a poor run with injuries. Picture: Getty Images

2. The mentality of the group:He needs to put the Bahrain and Indonesia results behind them. It is done. It happened, you can’t change it, put it out of your system and concentrate only on the three points against China. He needs the team to completely let go of the past. Obviously he will address the players when he gets them together, he needs to tell them to only worry about the future. He needs to fix the mindset on two fronts - the playing side of the game where they dropped those five points out of six. And then also the coach-relationship side, because Arnie is gone and he is the new leader. With that comes a new message obviously because everyone has their own strategy and he needs to get the players on board with his new way forward from day one. Arnie was popular with the players, but Tony will need to ensure he has a strong relationship with the players and let them know this is his team.

Can the Socceroos overcome their mental scars? Picture: Getty Images

3. We must score more goals:Stating the obvious, but goals has been our problem. How is he going to solve the goalscoring crisis? Where are the goals going to come from? We tried playing with wingers against Bahrain and Indonesia, maybe he will go with a No.10 and a more creative player. His first game he cannot change too much, the China game is not the time to experiment because we dropped those five points. We need to win. His first game is all about picking a team that is going to win and if you want to change the structure look at that when you have more time.

Can Nestory Irankunda become the player Australia needs him to be? Picture: Getty Images

4. Will he change the captaincy? Maty Ryan has been the Socceroos captain for a few years now under Arnie, does that now change under Tony? This is not my opinion, but not all coaches like their goalkeeper to be captain. Will Tony want to keep the same captain as Arnie or start with a clean slate? That in itself can prove to be a risky decision to change the captaincy because then you’re potentially upsetting someone. There is no real definite reason why Maty Ryan should lose the captaincy other than Ryan is one of several Socceroos players not getting game time at a club level.

Should Mat Ryan continue as captain? Picture: Getty Images

5. Depth and development: A lot of the challenges Tony will face won’t necessarily be solved when he gets the team for the first time, it will be how he fixes issues long term. And the ongoing development of his players at club level if they are not getting game time is one of those key concerns. We are seeing a pattern develop where Australia’s best players are not getting enough game time at their clubs. We have got eight games to go in the World Cup qualifiers and we need players who are playing.

Maybe after these first two games, Tony will have to say to his players that they need to start playing if they want to be picked for the Socceroos. There’s a lot of ageing players in the squad so as far as building for the future, it is a very tough question to see who Tony can build the future Socceroos team around. Harry Souttar is still young at 25 and is a big centre half who is playing at a top club in the English Championship. Nestory Irankunda is a player we hope will become a key player in the future. There is a lot of optimism around him like there was for Daniel Arzani, let’s hope it’s not the same outcome. It’s not a criticism of Daniel who is now playing in the A-League but we expected his career to go to the heights. But Irankunda is someone we hope would be central to Australia’s future.

Originally published as Mental scars, underdone squad: Robbie Slater pinpoints Popovic’s biggest challenges