Football Australia CEO backs Arnold as Socceroos coach after disastrous international break

Football Australia boss James Johnson has thrown his support behind coach Graham Arnold as the Socceroos’ hopes of direct World Cup qualification hang in the balance.

The Socceroos sit fifth in Group C after a shock home 1-0 loss to Bahrain was compounded by a 0-0 away draw with Indonesia to start the third round of qualifying, piling pressure on their coach.

The latter result prompted Arnold to criticise his players’ poor finishing, saying “I can only do so much, I can’t play the game for them”, before noting he had to “have a really good think about things”.

Australia are five points short of leaders Japan and three behind second-placed Saudi Arabia after their goalless and winless start, with the top two in the group securing direct qualification.

Arnold, who is contracted until the end of the World Cup cycle, has FA’s backing to turn things around.

“I always back my coaches in,” Johnson said at a Matildas game announcement in Geelong on Friday.

“So look, Graham, he’s a great coach, and we’re right behind him.”

Asked if Arnold was coaching for his job, Johnson insisted FA wasn’t panicking, with eight games left in the current phase.

“Arnie’s a very experienced coach and we’re fully supportive of Arnie,” he said.

“He’s got a bit of work to do between now and when the team comes back to Australia, but we’re not panicking in any way.”

Johnson reiterated he had faith in Arnold to “find solutions” and turn things around.

That clearly needs to start with the October 10 match against China in Adelaide, before facing Japan in Saitama five days later.

“Of course we want to see improvements based on this window because we’re disappointed with the results in this window. We’re not where we want to be,” Johnson said.

“But we do need to put this first (window of) round three into context. It’s two games; there’s 10 games in round three and we’re actually in a different qualification process.

“It’s the longest qualification process in the history of the men’s World Cup, and for those teams that don’t (automatically qualify from) round three ? there is a round four and a round five, so there is a long, long way to go.

“No one’s panicking. What is required at the moment is cool and calm leadership.

“And we put our faith in Graham to get the team back on path when we play against China.”

Australia had a dearth of creativity against Bahrain in particular, and Arnold may have to consider his formation and personnel.

Asked what problems he had identified in the opening two games, Johnson said: “Graham’s got to identify those problems, it’s his job.

“But look, he’s someone that will reflect on the performance of the team. He’ll take some days off.

“It was an obviously difficult window. It’s not where we want the team to be, and it’s not where the team or Graham wants the team to be.

“Graham will come back in, he’ll assess some of the challenges that we saw in the first two games, and then he needs to come up with the solutions to address those challenges and get the team ready to maximise our points when we play against China in Adelaide.”