Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou believes the development of the Socceroos has stalled compared to the rest Asia, with his home nation's journey to the Qatar 2022 World Cup looking rocky.
Australia's 2-2 draw with Oman earlier this week means the green and gold need to likely beat Japan (home) and group leaders Saudi Arabia to qualify automatically for the World Cup.
A third-place finish in their World Cup qualifying group will mean Graham Arnold's team need to reach Qatar via playoff route that will involve a match against third-place in Asia's other group before a single eliminator against fifth place in South America to reach football's biggest tournament.
Speaking after his Celtic side went top of the Scottish Premiership with a famous 3-0 win over Rangers in the Old Firm derby, Postecoglou feels Australia's progression as a football nation has slowed in recent years.
"I'm following it, obviously," Celtic boss Postecoglou said to. SEN.
"I've got a vested interest, it's my nation,
"We've qualified for the last few World Cups and you want them to do it again. It's not an easy path, we know that.
"From my perspective, the signs have been there for a while that the rest of Asia is improving and we've kind of stalled in our development."
Postecoglou coached the Socceroos between 2013-17, winning the 2015 Asian Cup on home soil and manning the dugout at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
And the master tactician believes Australia need to reaching World Cups, and not hope that missing one will be a lesson.
"The four years I had in charge were fantastic for me," he said.
"We won an Asian Cup, we qualified for a World Cup, and I think we need to maintain those kind of standards.
"We should be disappointed if we don't go to a World Cup, it's not about saying 'well, let's just miss one so we can learn'.
"We've done enough learning, our expectation should be to qualify for World Cups all the time."