The Socceroos have reached the last 16 in Qatar even before Tuesday\u2019s final group
\nDOHA
\nA prickly Graham Arnold hit back on Monday at suggestions that his Australia team are too defensive as the title contenders look to end the Asian Cup group stage with a bang.
\nThe Socceroos have reached the last 16 in Qatar even before Tuesday\u2019s final group match against Uzbekistan thanks to a 2-0 win over India and 1-0 defeat of Syria.
\nThe stodgy Syria win came from a neat Jackson Irvine swivel and shot just before the hour — Australia\u2019s only shot on target all game. Syria also had one shot on target.
\nArnold said afterwards that \u201cclean sheets win tournaments\u201d, but on the eve of the Uzbekistan game said that comment had been unfairly misconstrued.
\n\u201cMy methods are playing attacking football, putting high pressure on,\u201d he said on Monday.
\n\u201cI got asked a question about winning this tournament and I said clean sheets win you this tournament.
\n\u201cI think probably the Australian media read that the wrong way, as normal.
\n\u201cWhat\u2019s important is that the players know their roles and their jobs. We\u2019ve played two teams where we spent a lot of time in their half.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve created quite a number of chances and individually we\u2019ve not finished that off.\u201d
\nArnold, who took Australia to the last 16 of the Qatar World Cup before giving eventual champions Argentina a scare in a 2-1 defeat, will be missing first-choice forward Mitchell Duke against Uzbekistan because of a hamstring niggle.
\nThat means tweaking his attacking line-up, but returning to the earlier theme, he again took issue at a question suggesting his side are too negative.
\n\u201cAs I said, I don\u2019t know where you get from that we are a defensive team,\u201d he told one reporter.
\n\u201cWe have a job to do defensively,\u201d said the 60-year-old, whose side will want to top the group to get a theoretically easier run through the knockouts.
\n\u201cWe are an attacking team that knows how to defend.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Socceroos have reached the last 16 in Qatar even before Tuesday\u2019s final group DOHA A prickly Graham Arnold hit back on Monday at suggestions that his Australia team are too defensive as the title contenders look to end the Asian Cup group stage with a bang. The Socceroos have reached the last 16 in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-382495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n