Socceroos coach Graham Arnold not hitting panic stations despite dire start to qualifying campaign

Already under pressure after a disastrous start to World Cup qualifying, Graham Arnold concedes he’ll have some thinking to do to turn the Socceroos’ fortunes around.

But the Socceroos boss remains adamant direct qualification to football’s showpiece tournament isn’t yet out of reach.

In stark contrast to qualifying for Qatar 2022, which started brightly then dramatically fell away - forcing Australia to take the play-off route - this time around, the Socceroos have started on the back foot.

Australia sit fifth in group C - three points short of current leaders Saudi Arabia - after backing up last week’s horror 1-0 upset home loss to Bahrain with a frustrating 0-0 draw with Indonesia in Jakarta on Tuesday night.

The top two qualify directly for the 2026 World Cup finals, with third and fourth places heading into play-offs.

As the Socceroos fumbled against Indonesia, piling pressure on Arnold, Saudi Arabia came from a goal down, with 10 men, to beat China 2-1 then Japan thrashed Bahrain 5-0 .

They top the group with two wins with Saudi Arabia in second on four points.

“We should have won and won comfortably. We had the chances, we missed chances - again,” Arnold told reporters.

“Look, I can only do so much, I can’t play the game for them.

“And at the end of the day, we should have beaten Bahrain - we missed chances - and today we should have won comfortably and we missed chances.

“So I’m as disappointed probably as every other Australian is.

“But there’s another eight games to go and the goal is always to qualify direct but you have those extra play-off spots.

“For me at this moment, I’m just frustrated and I just need to go home to Australia and have a really good think about things.”

There is plenty to think about ahead of hosting China in a must-win clash in Adelaide on October 10, then playing Japan away five days later.

Chief among those will clearly be finding a way to score after the Socceroos once again failed to bury clear-cut chances despite clear improvement on the Bahrain performance.

That included a period of dominance at the back end of the first half.

Nestory Irankunda showed flashes of what he is capable of but Craig Goodwin, Adam Taggart and Awer Mabil all missed good chances, while set piece delivery from Goodwin and Sammy Silvera was found wanting.

“I saw the boys put in a lot of effort and they worked extremely hard,” Arnold said.

“Again, we created five or six chances and It’s no surprise that the man of the match was the goalkeeper for Indonesia because he made a lot of good saves

“But for us, it’s hurtful because obviously again, not putting the ball in the back of the net, it’s something that’s been going on for a year where we should have won games, even against the biggest teams in the world.

“But not putting the ball in the back of the net, obviously it hurts and we don’t get the points.”