Australian football great Mark Bosnich believes the Matildas need to solve a big problem after their campaign to win Olympic gold was all but torpedoed in a 3-0 loss to Germany on Friday morning.
The Aussies were completely outclassed by the football powerhouse on a stifling, dispiriting night in the south of France.
The World Cup semi-finalists, seeking their first ever Olympic medal, were simply not allowed to find their stride against the accomplished former champions in Marseille on Thursday on the eve of the opening ceremony in Paris, 750km away.
Bosnich says the Matildas stars looked to be out of position in the buildup play.
‘Well, this was for me a massive problem,’ he said on Stan Sport’s Olympics Daily show.
‘Now ideally, you want to have people in positions where they know they don’t even have to put their head up if they don’t want to but they know that somebody’s going to be there.
‘And this was happening time and time again.’
Bosnich explained that there were too many players around the ball.
Mark Bosnich says the Matildas need to solve a big problem before their next match
Bosnich believes Mary Fowler is the best player in the team and should get more quality ball
‘When people are running to the ball you want to stay away, maybe give an option and that’s it,’ he said.
‘But that’s something that they need to sort out and so they’re very very quick and I’m not talking about a whole changes too late to do a whole change.
The Matildas play Zambia next, a must-win game, and Bosnich says the side should build the team around Mary Fowler.
‘The idea is to get the team to realise who now is their best player,’ Bosnich said .
‘In my opinion it’s Mary Fowler, and [they need to] work out a way to get her the ball as early as possible and in the best position as possible so she’s got time and space to do her stuff … that is the issue
‘If they can solve that problem, not only can they beat Zambia, but they can go through to the knockout stages and go deep.’
