FOUR A-League players are amongst seven new faces added to the Socceroos squad for the upcoming World Cup Qualifier in Thailand.

Ange Postecoglou has included Luke Brattan, Tommy Oar, Jason Geria, Josh Risdon, Nathan Burns, Milos Degenek and Aziz Behich to the squad that played against Saudi Arabia and Japan, and will trim the 30-man group down to 23 after this weekend’s matches.

The Socceroos will have an extended training camp in this FIFA international window, with FFA and Postecoglou opting to train rather than play a friendly, before the game in Thailand.

That opportunity, and the start of the A-League, will allow the Socceroos boss to run the rule over different candidates.

Tommy Oar. Source: Getty Images

“It’s a little bit of an unusual window, we only have one game and decided not to play a friendly before,” he told foxsports.com.au earlier this month.

“It’s an opportunity to bring in two or three guys on the fringes to have a good look at.

“They might be unlikely to play, but they’ll have meaningful training, five or six sessions.

“It’s a good opportunity for us in areas we think we’re light on, or guys we really want to see, or guys who haven’t been involved for a while.

THE STATE OF PLAY: Australia’s World Cup 2018 equation as it stands

“If guys miss two or three camps they need to be re-integrated into where we’re at.”

Postecoglou spoke about the need to find other options in his squad, particularly at right-back, and depth to support Robbie Kruse and Mathew Leckie.

This squad reflects those concerns, with Behich rewarded for his game time in Turkey (with Jason Davidson again overlooked), Degenek rushed back in after being ruled out with injury last time, while showing his hand that young A-League right backs Risdon and Geria have the opportunity to stake their claim for selection.

Recalls for Oar and Burns are particularly interesting, given the former hasn’t hit fulll stride yet for Brisbane Roar, while the latter hasn’t played regularly for FC Tokyo. But both have performed for the national team in the past.

Postecoglou explained to foxsports.com.au earlier this month how important it is to find options to assist Kruse, who isn’t a regular at Bayer Leverkusen, and Leckie, who shoulder the bulk of the burden for the green and gold in the wide attacking areas.

“We don’t have a lot of depth in those areas,” he said.

Jason Geria of the Victory. Source: Getty Images

“Chris Ikonomidis and Craig Goodwin are still not yet at that level, they’re specialist positions when we play that way. The only other guy I think can do that (role) is Burnsy, but he hasn’t been playing a lot lately. So that all comes into the calculation of the kind of team we pick every game.”

Postecoglou explained on Wednesday why he announced an extended squad.

“We have decided to name an extended squad for this game so I can have another look at the matches being played all over the world this weekend,” Postecoglou said.

“We have players who are in the squad or on the fringe, including those playing in the Hyundai A-League, that are just starting their seasons and with the tight turnaround from Japan to Thailand I wanted to have another look at them after they have showed good signs in the opening rounds.

Luke Brattan of the City. Source: Getty Images

“It is yet another good sign of the depth we are creating and when we announce the team after this weekend there will be players who miss out that are playing well enough to be part of the squad.”

The game against Thailand had been in doubt due to the passing of Thai monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej earlier this month.

However, Football Federation Australia confirmed the match would go ahead as planned, at Bangkok’s Rajamangala Stadium on Tuesday 15 November, however, with strict conditions for supporters in the stadium.

SOCCEROOS SQUAD

GOALKEEPERS

Adam Federici (Bournemouth, England), Mitch Langerak (Stuttgart, Germany), Mat Ryan (Valencia, Spain)

DEFENDERS

Aziz Behich (Bursaspor, Turkey), Milos Degenek (1860 Munich, Germany), Jason Geria (Melbourne Victory), Alex Gersbah (Rosenbory, Norway), Ryan McGowan (Henan Jianye, China), Josh Risdon (Perth Glory), Trent Sainsbury (Jiangsu, China), Brad Smith (Bournemouth, England), Matthew Spiranovic (Huangzhou Greentown, China), Bailey Wright (Preston North End, England)

MIDFIELDERS

Luke Brattan (Melbourne City), Chris Ikonomidis (Aarhus, Denmark), Jackson Irvine (Burton Albion, England), Mile Jedinak (Aston Villa, England) James Jeggo (Sturm Graz, Austria), Massimo Luongo (QPR, England), Mark Milligan (Baniyas, UAE), Aaron Mooy (Huddersfield, England), Tom Rogic (Celtic, Scotland)

ATTACKERS

Nathan Burns (FC Tokyo, Japan), Tim Cahill (Melbourne City), Apostolos Giannou (Guangzhou, China), Craig Goodwin (Sparta Rotterdam, Netherlands), Tomi Juric (Luzern, Switzerland), Robbie Kruse (Bayer Leverkusen, Germany), Mathew Leckie (Ingolstadt, Germany), Tommy Oar (Brisbane Roar)

Watch Thailand v Australia on Tuesday 15 November on Fox Sports and follow online in our live blog from 11pm AEDT.

LIVE Stream Socceroos v Thailand on FOX SPORTS. Get your free 2-week FOXTEL PLAY trial and start watching in minutes.