Arnold has already shown his willingness to change his team if he thinks it will help the Socceroos’ fortunes,having taken his skipper off whentheir World Cup play-off against Peru went to penalties,sending Andrew Redmayne on for the shootout that would make him an instant national hero - a shock call that an unaware Ryan graciously embraced.

Ryan,30,is the warm favourite to retain the gloves but would have been much more vulnerable to being superseded by Langerak had he not moved to Danish Superliga giants FC Copenhagen this season. He had previously endured a lean run at club level.

Suddenly frozen out by Graham Potter at Brighton and Hove Albion in late 2020 after three years as a Premier League regular,Ryan saw just 540 league minutes at Arsenal andReal Sociedad in the last two seasons.

Now Ryan is going toe-to-toe with the world’s most lethal strikers in the UEFA Champions League - a tournament he is experiencing for the first time in his career. After successfully navigating their qualification pathway to end a five-year absence from the group stage,Copenhagen have been pooled with Borussia Dortmund and Sevilla,who they drew 0-0 with last week. Next month,a showdown with the red-hot Erling Haaland and Manchester City,the other team in Group G,awaits.

“It’ll be a big challenge and when we do come up against him,if we can manage to keep him quiet and not let him score or[let] City get a result,that’s something we’ll never forget as a club or as individuals,” Ryan said.

“That’s the great thing about playing at the highest level. You get to test yourself against the world’s best teams and players. We get to do that with the World Cup coming up[too]. As a goalkeeper,getting clean sheets in the Champions League is something you dream of doing.”

Ryan says he learned a lot from his experiences inEngland and Spain in managing the mental challenges that come with not being the first-choice goalkeeper at his club,and is proud of the level he played at when rare opportunities did come his way.

“I always felt like I was ready and prepared,I always was knuckling down at training as hard as I could ...[that’s] why I was able to play some of probably the best games I’ve played in my career[in that period],” he said.

“Playing more regularly,don’t get me wrong,I enjoy it much more than the circumstances I’ve been in. But in terms of my form,I’m really not finding too many differences. Externally,for Arnie and other people out there,when they see someone playing regularly,it ticks more boxes,even though while I wasn’t playing regularly,I still felt that I was planning to a real high level.”

Watch theUEFA Champions League,UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League group stage matches on Stan Sport. Resumes Wednesday,October 5.