Veteran midfielder Mark Bresciano bluntly admits something is not right with the Socceroos and drastic improvement is needed before the Asian Cup.

Bresciano admitted Tuesday’s 1-0 loss to Qatar in Doha was an unacceptable result for a side with ambitions of winning the continental trophy on home soil in January.

While the 34-year-old says he and the teammates believe in the way they want to play under Ange Postecoglou, he’s worried time is running out.

“Personally I think a big improvement (is needed),” Bresciano said.

“Something’s not right (and) we’ve got to fix it because it (the Asian Cup) is getting close.

“If we’re going to have any chance of winning it, games like tonight we shouldn’t be losing.”

The Socceroos beat 96th-ranked Qatar easily three times in 2008 and Bresciano played in two of the victories.

He said while Middle Eastern teams were improving all the time, Tuesday’s result was also a reflection of the fact the Socceroos are a team in transition.

“We’re going through this transition with the young boys coming in and maybe the standard has dropped a little bit,” he said.

“But we know that and we’re working on that and we’ve got to become the best we can be before January.”

Skipper Mile Jedinak said it was “bitterly disappointing” to come away with a loss from a match he felt Australia dominated.

“I think the performance itself, there was a lot of positives but we’ve got to start cutting out those bits in our game where we’re giving away goals,” Jedinak said.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do but the confidence, it’s still going to be there.

“We believe in the way we’re going to play and hopefully we’ll rectify that (against Japan) in November.”