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Socceroos coach Graham Arnold will call on in-form Jamie Maclaren against Taiwan, along with important defenders Trent Sainsbury and Harry Souttar.

Jamie Maclaren will start up front for the Socceroos in their World Cup qualifier against Taiwan after coach Graham Arnold demanded a more ruthless performance in front of goal.

Maclaren scored 25 goals and provided five assists across 24 games with Melbourne City this season to seal his third A-League golden boot.

He missed the opening game against Kuwait, which Australia won 3-0, as he settled into camp after he and teammates Connor Metcalfe and Curtis Good were among the later arrivals.

"Jamie at this moment will start," Arnold told reporters on Sunday.

"He's got great confidence, great belief at the moment, and he'll carry that into the Socceroos jersey."

Mathew Leckie, Jackson Irvine and Ajdin Hrustic all scored in the Kuwait game but Arnold rued his side's failure to deliver a bigger scoreline.

"When I watched the game back, we could have been up 6-0 after 39 minutes," he said.

"It's about being more ruthless and when you get those chances, I expect the boys to take those chances.

"But again, it's always about improvement and I expect improvement in every part of our play."

Meanwhile Trent Sainsbury and Harry Souttar will start in the centre of defence after missing the first game with back stiffness and a hip issue respectively.

"They're recovered quite well, they trained great last night, their energy was fantastic and the intention is those two will start tomorrow night," Arnold said.

More A-League players are expected to feature after Ryan McGowan started against Kuwait and Chris Ikonomidis and Mitch Duke were used off the bench.

"You can expect a few A-League players to play," Arnold said.

"They've been here for five or six days now so they're more than ready."

Apostolos Giannou (rib) is unavailable while McGowan pulled up sore after playing against Kuwait just two days after arriving from Sydney FC.

The game kicks off at 5am Tuesday AEST at Jaber Al-Ahmad International Stadium.