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Socceroos captain Mat Ryan was happy to get the next stage of World Cup qualifying off to a winning start against China but knows more is to come from his team.

A 3-0 win over China might be a great start to the next step of Socceroos' World Cup qualifying but captain Mat Ryan knows there's room for improvement.

Goals to Awer Mabil, Martin Boyle and Mitch Duke secured Australia a ninth-straight victory and put them top of Group B after the opening round of fixtures following Japan's earlier shock loss at home to Oman.

Ryan, who was untroubled by a disappointing Chinese team at Doha's Khalifa International Stadium on his return from off-season knee surgery, wasn't completely content with the display.

"When you look at the result. It's what we deserved," Ryan told Network 10.

"Maybe a little bit disappointing we didn't convert a couple more chances and be even more dominant.

"That's an example of the standards that we set for ourselves but obviously qualifying to get to a World Cup, to start off with a three-nil win, it's nice to carry on where we left off last group phase.

"We'll enjoy the victory tonight but we're a long way from where we want to be in terms of finishing the job."

Friday's win means the Socceroos have now kept seven clean sheets in their past nine matches.

That defensive resilience was highlighted by Ryan not having to make a single save against the Chinese and the goalkeeper said it was an indication of the unity being forged in Graham Arnold's squad.

"It starts with the coaching staff and the gameplan they come up with, the structure," Ryan said.

"I think the first 15 minutes we took a little bit to get settled and figure out what they were doing defensively and us playing out and all that type of stuff but we quickly got up to speed and obviously we had a couple of nice attacking phases which we were able to convert.

"We controlled the game."