Mat Ryan insists Australia coach Ange Postecoglou has got the Socceroos moving in the right direction ahead of Wednesday's international friendly with Ecuador at the New Den, the home of Millwall, in London.

Postecoglou takes charge for his second game after replacing Holger Osieck who paid the price for successive 6-0 defeats to Brazil and France last year.

Since those morale-sapping losses Australia have rallied with victories over Canada and Costa Rica but with a daunting group including Spain, Netherlands and Chile awaiting in June's World Cup finals, Postecoglou's side know they must show continued signs of improvement in the run-up to Brazil.

And Ryan, the goalkeeper who is expected to start against the South Americans ahead of Mitchell Langerak and Brad Jones, insists the arrival of the new coach has lifted the squad.

He said: "There's a different energy about the squad now, with all respect to Holger. Ange likes to play a running game, plenty of movement and it's an all-action style.

"We are all putting in and trying to adapt to that style. It's different to the way we played under Holger.

"Ange pioneered it during his time with Brisbane and Melbourne Victory and he has brought that way of playing to the Socceroos.

"It was pretty evident that we needed to make a bit of a change after some of the bad results we had last year."

Postecoglou is anxious to see more signs of his side developing the pattern of play they will take with them into the World Cup in Brazil.

He said: "We want to win a certain way and just as importantly we want to play to our philosophy and make sure whatever we achieve out of the game is by design and not by accident."

Chris Herd, the uncapped Aston Villa defender, has withdrawn from the squad because of personal reasons and has been replaced by Alex Wilkinson of South Korea club Jeonbuk Motors.

Wilkinson, Curtis Good and Massimo Luongo will be hoping to make their first appearances for the national team while Tim Cahill is expected to wear the captain's armband in the absence of Lucas Neill who was omitted from the squad.

Ecuador will be captained by Manchester United winger Antonio Valencia as Reinaldo Rueda's side prepare for a World Cup group that includes France, Switzerland and Honduras.

They face Australia having won just one of their last ten games and coach Rueda is keen to instil a competitive edge to this fixture to help prepare his players for the unfamiliar experience of the World Cup.

He said: "New groups always have problems, and in our case it's worse because our players haven't been through an Under-20 World Cup.

"So the emphasis of our preparation will be on this: we'll be trying to work with great intensity in our warm up games so that we're ready to go from the start."

Postecoglou knows his side face a tough test against Ecuador, ranked 24th in the FIfa world rankings, 19 places ahead of Australia.

He said: "Like most South American teams they've got players who are technically gifted. But they are also a very strong and very quick side particularly in transition."