Adelaide United’s Travis Dodd is set to reclaim the captain’s armband but admits every player needs to take on greater leadership when the Reds play the Central Coast Mariners at Hindmarsh Stadium on Friday.
Dodd has missed the past two games with a calf injury and says he’s ‘itching’ to get back onto the pitch.
“I’m certainly looking forward to it, it has been a tough couple of weeks for me. I thought in myself I would be good to go last week to Wellington but I spoke to Viddie (coach Aurelio Vidmar) and the medical staff and thought it was best to have another week of recovery,” he said.
“I definitely want to play 90 minutes and hopefully I can get through it. I want Viddie to leave me out there for as long as I can be out there, no player wants to come off.”
“I’ll play wherever the coach needs me to, whether it’s midfield or up front, we’ve still got to wait to see how Lloyd (Owusu) is, see if he can get through sessions and a game.”
The Reds have been an unsettled line-up this season and the return of Dodd is sure to be a steady influence for his team-mates.
But the 29-year-old said his leadership alone couldn’t turn around the team’s fortunes.
“I think Lucas (vice-captain Lucas Pantelis) has done a great job over the last couple of weeks. The first game against North Queensland he scored two so he leads the guys well,” he said.
“It’s not only up to him to be the leader out there. Although we’ve got young players out there everyone needs to step up to the plate and put their hand up and say ‘Yes I want to lead this team and drive this team forward’.”
Dodd, who’s never missed Hyundai A-League games through injury before, said his observations of the Reds’ form during his absence were similar to those held by Vidmar.
“One of the things that is very obvious on the sidelines up there is that we are creating opportunities but we are just not putting them away,” he said.
“We’ve been getting into some great positions but letting ourselves done in front of goals and that’s something we’ve worked on this week.”
“On the flipside we need to be strong defensively, all over the park, from the front through to the goalkeeper. We can’t keep conceding these soft goals and we need to be solid everywhere.”
