Win, lose, or draw, the Socceroos' fate in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers is set.

But that's not the case for the team's beleaguered coach, Graham Arnold.

The Socceroos play Saudi Arabia in Jeddah early on Wednesday morning knowing they will finish third in their qualifying group behind the Saudis and Australia's conquerors last Thursday, Japan.

Their journey to Qatar will now follow the more circuitous route, firstly against the third-placed team in the other Asian group – likely Iraq or the United Arab Emirates – and then, if they win, the Socceroos will play another sudden death match against the fifth-placed South American side.

However, Graham Arnold's position as head coach is not so certain, despite being contracted until the end of the year.

Football Australia is canvassing options about how to approach the sudden-death matches, including sticking with Arnold or sacking him and installing a new coach.

The head body understands the difficulty Arnold has faced over the past few months as COVID and injury have wreaked havoc with his preparations and squad selection.

But he didn't do himself any favours by breaching his COVID isolation order last week to go for a walk along the beach. Football Australia bosses were incensed and fined him $25,000, which he donated to a flood relief charity.

It was a weary Arnold that faced the media on Monday, batting away questions about his future and the criticism of his coaching style.

"I wouldn't say it's been the last couple of weeks, I'd say it's probably been the last couple of years," he said of the criticism.

"But it is what it is; it's made me a much stronger person."

He said he didn't read any media reports and wasn't on social media, but said his wife had been affected.

"The only one who has told me a little bit is my wife, who has been hurt by it," Arnold said.

"At the end of the day, she's the one that's checking in on me, but I'm fine and this is always part of the job.

"I know I've given my best and I am giving my best to help these players."

There was an unmistakable sense of fatalism around Arnold's demeanour and answers as he prepares for tomorrow's Saudi game.

"The journey's been good, the journey's been tough," he said.

"What I can control is tomorrow night and what I can control is helping these players perform well."

And then a throwaway line that said everything about Arnold's frustrations as coach of a disparate group of 30 or more players spread across the world during a global pandemic.

Regardless of the result tomorrow morning, there's no hiding from a wretched qualifying campaign that started so well and ended appallingly.

The Socceroos began the campaign with a record run of 11 games unbeaten and firmly held their destiny in their own hands.

But then the train came off the tracks, firstly with draws against lower-ranked teams in China and Oman, then culminating in Thursday's 2-0 loss to Japan, a scoreline that hid the gulf between the two sides.

Missing first-choice players like Tom Rogic, Aaron Mooy and Jackson Irvine through injury and COVID, the Socceroos seemed devoid of ideas as Japan cut them up, creating chance after chance before the dam wall finally broke in the final minutes.

The squad had just one full training session together before the match, and Arnold wasn't there to run it due to isolating at home with his second bout of COVID.

Arnold has adopted an incredibly pragmatic method of coaching the Socceroos, a team that really only exists as an idea.

The Socceroos are, in reality, a jigsaw puzzle to be re-made every few months as players come and go.

He spends tens of hours every week in front of his laptop analysing the games played by Australians spread far and wide.

Arnold doesn't have the luxury of month-long training camps or day-to-day access to players to implement his game style.

Instead, when the players jet in from around the world — sometimes just a day before a game — he asks them to play to their strengths and do what they do for their club sides.

It is, in other words, a Frankenstein team.

Which is all well and good, but if the creative midfielder from the French second division doesn't gel with the full-back from the A-League Men, and the striker from Japan is unfamiliar with the running patterns of the midfielder from Scotland, then you won't necessarily get the most out of the players.

It's like a scratch match of park football. Anyone can come in, everyone knows the rules, they each know how to play. But it's not a team; it's just a bunch of people playing soccer.

It raises some important questions. What is Graham Arnold's style? Does he have a philosophy of how he wants the team to play and, if so, how can he put it into action?

His critics argue he seems devoid of ideas, and failing to directly qualify for Qatar after being in such a strong position means the pressure is on.

But as Arnold keeps saying, he's not going to be reading this or anything anyone writes about him.

And his frustrations at the deficiencies of Australia's top-flight league, which favours older journeymen over emerging young talent, have been repeated so many times he's almost apologetic for sounding like a broken record.

"I've been talking about this for 15 years, about the system of football in Australia," Arnold said.

"And at the end of the day, they're decisions that I can't make."

It's out of his hands – as is his future as coach.

Football Australia (FA) could decide to cut their losses by axing Arnold and paying out his contract in a hail-Mary attempt to bring in a fresh face on short notice to help the team qualify for Qatar.

There's a lot at stake for FA, which stands to earn around $14 million just for qualifying for the World Cup, not to mention the priceless publicity the Socceroos would attract during the competition.

Graham Arnold can only be sure of coaching one more game, but he's not treating the Saudi clash as a "dead rubber".

And while he seems resigned to his fate, he's not sounding like someone who's given up, either.

"There'll be a lot of youngsters involved – like there was against Japan – and the senior players need to help those young kids get through this experience," he said.

"I've been around the national team now for 40 years and I've never known a game to be a dead rubber.

"It's more about going out against this team that's qualified for a World Cup and showing our worth and giving an opportunity for these players to step up and for them to push for a position in the play-off squad."