Alex Wilkinson says in the short time Ange Postecoglou has been in charge of the national team, the Socceroos have completely changed their mindset.
“I think there’s probably a change in belief,” Wilkinson told FFA TV when asked about the differences from late 2013, when Postecoglou took over, to now.
“When Ange took over it took a while to get across how he wanted to play and how he wanted to do things.
“From where we were back then to now, there’s a huge, huge improvement.
“And there’s still a lot of improvement in us all over the park.”
Wilkinson, 30, is in career best form right now. He’s an established foreign star for his club Jeonbuk Motors in the K-League, and he’s looking more and more comfortable on the international stage.
His performance on Thursday morning (AEDT) against Germany was one of his best in the Green and Gold in the 2-2 draw.
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It was as impressive as his display against China PR in the Quarter Final of January's Asian Cup.
The former Central Coast captain has quietly gone about his business during the Ange era, debuting against Ecuador in London a year ago, playing all three games at the World Cup in Brazil and being part of the Asian Cup winning Socceroos in January this year.
It gives Postecoglou a third strong option in central defence alongside the incumbent Matt Spiranovic and Trent Sainsbury. And now with Luke DeVere showing his worth, there’s a bit of depth back there.
And Wilkinson believes there’s still a lot of improvement to come in the Socceroos.
“There’s no reason why we can’t improve over the next year or two,” said Wilkinson.
“But belief is the key. And belief’s a strong thing, [when] everyone is pulling in the same direction we’re pretty hard to stop.”