Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou has revealed there will be new faces in his squad to face Ecuador next month in a crucial World Cup warm-up match.
Postecoglou will name his 23-man squad next week for the March 5 friendly in London and says it will be his final opportunity to experiment before settling on his extended World Cup squad in May.
"I'm casting the net pretty wide at the moment and this Ecuador game will be an important one for me," Postecoglou said at the unveiling of the Socceroos' World Cup jersey on Monday.
"There'll be a little bit of a new look to the side and that will kind of give me an indication as to where we're heading to beyond that.
"There'll be some new faces and some people getting an opportunity, whether they come from the A-League or overseas, but definitely this game gives me the opportunity to try a few things."
Having just come back from a scouting trip in Europe, Postecoglou indicated he would include some players who impressed him there.
He touched base with the likes of Swindon Town midfielder Massimo Luongo, Millwall duo Shane Lowry and Scott McDonald, Bailey Wright and Neill Kilkenny of English League One side Preston and Scotland-based Jackson Irvine.
He also spent time in Germany assessing FSV Frankfurt players Mathew Leckie and Nikita Rukavytsya before heading to Holland to watch FC Utrecht duo Tommy Oar and Adam Sarota, who recently came back from injury.
"There's a few that I went to watch and some of them will be included," he said.
"But from my perspective it's about using this game a bit as a test case of how we're going to look moving forward and that meant bringing in some players who haven't been involved before or haven't been involved a lot and giving them an opportunity."
Postecoglou wouldn't be drawn on whether under-fire skipper Lucas Neill would be included, saying only: "You'll see next week."
Neill, who has failed to secure a club since leaving Japanese side Omiya Ardija in December, is training with his former English side Blackburn Rovers and last week played a game for their under-21 squad.
Postecoglou did rule out young defender Trent Sainsbury, who injured his knee just after completing a transfer to Dutch side PEC Zwolle from the Central Coast last month.
Postecoglou said the Ecuador game would also be a good opportunity for the players to work under his new coaching staff in assistant Ante Milicic, football analyst Peter Cklamovski and sport scientist and conditioning coach Andrew Young.
"I wanted new staff in place for the March game," Postecoglou said.
"So this Ecuador game is a good chance to present the new environment to the players and start building towards our plans toward the World Cup."
