'No room for error now' says Souttar as Socceroos prepare for Indonesia

The Subway Socceroos will take on Indonesia in the Round of 16 of the Asian Cup on Sunday, January 28 at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium.

For many in the squad it will be the first time they have faced Indonesia, and such provides an exciting challenge for the players as Harry Souttar explained.

• READ MORE: How To Watch: Australia vs Indonesia | AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023™

“Obviously, we know it's going to be knock out football, so there's no room for error,” he said.

“A new challenge for us, we got a couple of days to prepare for the game and I'm sure we'll be watching clips and kind of practicing and training in the next couple of days ready to go.”

Australia is already aware of what sort of battle they will face against Indonesia though as Souttar said it will be another tough match.

“You've got to break them down, but it's not going to be easy, they're defending deep in and there's not a lot of space to work in, we've got to be patient," he said.

One area Souttar believes the Socceroos can break Indonesia down is through set pieces, an aspect of the game that he thrives in personally.

“I truly believe that every time we get a set piece that we're going to create a chance at least,” he said.

“Obviously we've kind of got to make a little improvement, since the first game on it, I think we've had a few chances and I've certainly had a few chances that I feel I could have done better in the last two games.

“But certainly one (area) I love that as a team that we've got a real chance of scoring.”

Tweet: https://twitter.com/Socceroos/status/1750629757421801521

He added that the group stages gave the side plenty of learning experiences.

“The group stages was what it was, we finished off the group with seven points, but that's done,” he said.

“We can take the positives and we can learn from certain areas of our game that we maybe need to improve on going forward.”

And Souttar went into detail on what areas he felt the Socceroos can improve on during the knockout stages of the Asian Cup.

“I think a lot of stuff about keeping the ball, controlling the ball, trying to move it,” he said.

“Maybe not forcing it as much as we have been doing from the build-up attack, and we'd be trying to be a little bit more positive one v ones and defensively as well can we tighten up in areas.

“I think there's an all-round kind of improvement that we're certainly aware of, moving forward into the competition with higher calibre teams.

“But it's knockout football and wins are a must.”

Tweet: https://twitter.com/Socceroos/status/1750413191858069817

AFC ASIAN CUP QATAR 2023™ ROUND OF 16

Every AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 match will be live on Paramount+