Bert van Marwijk has made no secret of his displeasure with the Socceroos' performance against Hungary on Sunday morning but says fatigue was the reason why Australia were guilty of too many errors in Budapest.
The Dutch coach slammed the first half display of Australia's 2-1 win, criticising the lack of patience in their play, poor passing and bad tactical decisions which he says were impacted by the high work load of the squad.
Much to do: Australian Socceroos coach Bert van Marwijk.
Photo: AAP
Van Marwijk did not make any changes to the starting lineup from the team that beat Czech Republic a week earlier with the players undergoing a heavy training load between games. In fielding the same 11 against Hungary, Australia were visibly sluggish and guilty of far more errors which were evidently due to fatigue.
"Maybe some journalists saw it but we worked very hard the last few weeks and last few days we are a little bit more relaxed but today I saw already, after half an hour, that we were very tired and when you are very tired then you have to play more simple," he said.
"We tried to force something sometimes in some situations thats not good but they were tired and Im very happy that we were three weeks so hard and we didnt get injuries until now. Thats very positive I think because they will get stronger and stronger now and get everyday more rest"
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While the Socceroos' head to Russia with a perfect record from their pre-tournament friendlies, their 2-1 win over Hungary almost felt like a defeat, such was the manner of their performance. The Socceroos scored an own goal because of a defensive mix-up and were fortunate not to have conceded more against Hungary, who were given a flurry of chances from mistakes and turnovers.
When asked of his team's display, van Marwijk was candidly unimpressed with their performance with the ball.
"Bad. Especially in the first half but you can learn from it but the first half was, in my opinion, a bad performance in a long of things. Starts with the… how you pass the ball with the right speed. We do a lot of practice with that and play the ball to the right player. So we made a lot of mistakes with that and also we run too much with the ball."
Van Marwijk suggested his team lacked composure in possession which led to poor tactical decisions.
"It was a game where you must have patience. Patience when the opponent has the ball because when you press them, they play the long ball. When you dont want to play the long ball, you must have patience and we tried to force it some times and then you go out of your position and the other side, we must also have patience when you have the ball. When they dont press you, you must keep playing the ball," he said.
"Patience and playing the ball with concentration and the right speed is easy to say but I think in practice is difficult because when you say patience they start to slow – to act slowly and give the balls at not the right speed."
Dominic Bossi is a football reporter with The Sydney Morning Herald.
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