Mathew Ryan and the Socceroos will do it the Atletico Madrid way as they take on Antoine Griezmann and company.

Ryan probably doesn’t have great memories of the LaLiga runners-up and Europa League winners.

The Albion keeper dropped a clanger against them on his first outing at the Amex.

Now he is studying what they get up to as he prepares for his World Cup kick-off.

And not just as a reminder of the threat their French striker Griezmann can pose.

Ryan has had an eye on Atleti’s defensive shape as part of preparations for tomorrow’s group opener against France in Kazan (11am).

These have been times of change for the Socceroos since the exit of boss Ange Postecoglu.

His replacement Bert van Marwijk has been working to keep things organised.

And, Ryan revealed, he has looked towards what Diego Simeone has been doing at the Wanda Metropolitano.

Ryan revealed: “Coach van Marwijk talks to us a lot about Atletico Madrid.

“Our defensive system is based on theirs.”

In front of him, the Albion favourite will now have a back four rather than the 3-5-2 set-up preferred by Postecoglu.

Mile Jedinak and Aaron Mooy, two well-known adversaries of the Seagulls, offer the midfield protection in a 4-2-3-1 set-up.

Much of the talk around the Socceroos camp has been about a player not likely to start but who could feature at some stage.

Daniel Arzani, 19, could become the youngest Aussie to take part in a World Cup finals and is expected to make the big move from Melbourne City to their parent club in Manchester sooner rather than later.

Trent Sainsbury of Grasshoppers and Mark Milligan of Al-Ahly are likely to be the centre-backs.

Ryan has been working on his distribution by kicking balls into the collection bags at the end of training - from 50 yards away.

Van Marwijk said: “Maybe we don’t have the best players but we want to become the best team.

“We have trained very hard to try and develop our own way of playing and that means we don’t always have to adapt to the opponent.

“We have to take the initiatives ourselves.”

The French flew to Kazan yesterday while the opening match between Russia and Saudi Arabia was in progress.

Ex-Albion midfielder Alexis Bertin, now an expert summariser on the radio for France-Bleu Normandie, expects them to reach the last four.

He told The Argus: “I think they have great attacking potential with the individual talent they have.

“The concern we might have is do they have the squad strength at the back.

The Argus:

“They have Laurent Koscielny out, there are young players we have not seen much like Benjamin Pavard and Lucas Hernandez and we have players coming back from injury like Benjamin Mendy.

“Things went well in recent friendlies but how will it go in matches of high intensity at a World Cup?

“I think they can get to at least the semi-finals for sure.

“After that, it depends on the spirit of the players. We have the talent.”

Bertin, who played for Albion in the 2006-07 season, came through the same Le Havre youth system as three of Didier Deschamps’ squad – Paul Pogba, Mendy and Steve Mandanda.

He sees Pogba playing a key midfield role and has his own views on the calls in France for Corentin Tolisso to start.

The current boss of sixth-tier part-timers Octeville said: “I would rather have (Blaise) Matuidi for the experience he has at the highest level.

“But Tolisso had a good season at Bayern and he brings more of dynamic threat going forward.”

That last bit is what Ryan will be thinking about as he plots how to cause a shock the Atleti way.