Australia coach Tony Gustavsson has defended his lack of squad rotation throughout the World Cup after his fatigued Matildas suffered a 2-0 defeat to Sweden in their World Cup third-place playoff.
Gustavsson said that stats back continuity in squads and that his oft-repeated “23 in 23” mantra didn’t necessarily mean that all 23 squad members would play.
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Australia’s hopes of achieving a podium finish in a home World Cup were dashed at the hands of Peter Gerhardsson’s Sweden on Friday night, the Blågult out-muscling and out-playing the Matildas on their way to securing a bronze medal — their third-placed finish in four tournaments.
Despite the heavy workload they had throughout the tournament — and the one day less rest they would have compared to the Swedes — Gustavsson named an unchanged starting XI from the side that lost 3-1 to England for the clash and it appeared to backfire as a physical Sweden bossed the game against an increasingly out on their feet Matildas.
“The girls are backing up 90-minute games, 120-minute games and it does get to a point where you do get a bit tired,” attacker Cortnee Vine said. “Today, it was the physicality of Sweden. They came out and just beat us on the ball. That’s tired legs, to be honest.”
Ultimately, despite frequently stating throughout his three years in charge of the side that it would take “23 in 23” — 23 players to succeed at the 2023 World Cup — only 14 members of Gustavsson’s squad ultimately played more than 30 minutes across their seven games at the tournament.
The coach said that he entered the game knowing he would have to go to his bench sooner than normal, but that he backed his starters to make an impact. Sweden ended up taking a 2-0 lead just two minutes after his first subs, Vine and Emily van Egmond, entered the game.
“If we lose I [knew] the question will come,” Gustavsson said. “And I think it’s a fair question. [But] if I would have rotated a lot of players and then lost it would be why didn’t you stick with it?
“When I’ve said 23 in 23, that doesn’t necessarily mean that 23 players should play; it means that we need 23 players. The way that the players have supported each other stuck together, even if it’s a [back-up] goalkeeper or if it’s a Kyah Simon who’s there for a [penalty], or if it’s a game changer that knows that they’re in the roster to just go in and close out a game or go for a goal – it’s been 23 in 23. I want to be clear on that.
“When it comes to the substitutions; we’ve had a clear strategy going into tournaments based on experience but also based on some stats. If you look at both men’s and women’s big tournaments and look at teams that come top four and have won a lot of medals: continuity in starting lineups and less rotation in rosters have been success factors.
“And we believe in relationships, the more time you spend together the better you play together. It’s not necessarily always about the best players.
“The players know that this has been a clear strategy you saw in the Olympics. You saw it now. We think it might be the reason why this team has been able to break barriers and break records and create history.”
Beyond the lack of rotation of the team, the selection of Simon as a “game-changer” will now be the subject of significant scrutiny.
The attacker was selected in the 23-player squad despite being on the comeback trail from an ACL injury suffered with Tottenham Hotspur last October and ultimately didn’t play a single minute across the past month — despite a calf injury to Sam Kerr leaving Australia shorthanded in attack.
According to Gustavsson, though, the 32-year-old, who missed selection in the 2019 World Cup squad through injury, was on track to feature in the tournament until suffering a setback in training following the closing of the window to make changes to the 23-player squad.
“The [penalty] shootout [against France], I could have used her there,” he said.
“But that’s the only point I could have used her.
“That wasn’t the case when I selected her. But she had some setbacks in her training during the World Cup so she wasn’t able to be a game-changer. So she became just a [penalty] taker.
“She was selected being available and in the last two weeks of training camp, she was phenomenal. Played an 11-aside and did a really good job then.
“After the selection up in the Gold Coast she had a minor setback – just a minor one, a little knock. We knew it was not going to be a problem and so that’s why I kept her. And then after the window closed, she had another setback where she was just able to take a [penalty].”
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