Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou isn’t taking the impending Asian Cup lightly, and has been working towards a tactic since before the World Cup.

“Even pre-World Cup we scouted every Asian team at the World Cup. We’ve got people on the ground everywhere,” he said, speaking at the launch of the 100 days to go milestone for January’s Cup.

“We’re not underestimating the enormity of this challenge. There won’t be anything any Asian team has done over the last six months – whether they’re in our group or not – that we won’t know about. The one thing we won’t be short of is preparation.”

Postecoglou’s pedantic nature is also translated to his players, often travelling to see Australian potentials in action and sitting them down for a decisive interview.

His imperative is to stamp out over-confidence.

“One thing we won’t be doing is being that arrogant that we’re thinking about doing things before we’ve done the hard work,” he says.

“Our job is to prepare the team for a really, really tough tournament. Our focus is on preparing for that first game in Melbourne [against Kuwait].”

The team will take on Kuwait on January 9, and will play three friendlies before then.

The 23-man squad is off to the Middle East in two weeks to take on the UAE and Qatar before heading to Japan in November to take on the Blue Samurai.