Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou has admitted that he may have erred in leaving out former Newcastle Jets defender-midfielder Josh Brilliante from Australia’s World Cup squad in Brazil.
Brilliante signed on for Italian Serie A side Fiorentina during the offseason, and Athens-born Postecoglou admitted dropping him from the 30-man squad was one of the toughest decisions of his life.
“Josh was extremely unlucky to miss the World Cup squad,” Postecoglou said exclusively on FFA TV. “Probably in retrospect I might have even erred in not taking him.”
Postecoglou said he was impressed with the form the 21-year-old is showing for his new club, and it is expected that Brilliante will be settled into a Socceroos squad which will take part in the AFC Asian Cup, when it features on home soil in January.
“It’s great. He’s hit the ground running [at Fiorentina] at a big club in a tier-one competition in Serie A,” Postecoglou said.
“He’s made a breakthrough which is fantastic. And we’ll certainly move that along by giving him some international exposure … importantly it’s great for us.”
Brilliante has been named in a 20-man squad set to play Belgium and Saudi Arabia in Europe next month.