Defender Robbie Cornthwaite has served his two-match club-imposed suspension but may remain on the outer given Adelaide United’s strong team effort against Central Coast at Hindmarsh Stadium on Friday.
The Reds’ defence, led by Eugene Galekovic, Mark Rudan and Scott Jamieson has conceded just one goal during Cornthwaite’s absence and there are no guarantees the 197cm player will earn a recall when United tackles Melbourne Victory next week.
This is despite Adelaide’s loss of Alemao who had his nose broken during the first half of the clash against the Mariners.
Coach Aurelio Vidmar said Cornthwaite’s availability ensured he’d have a selection dilemma ahead of Round 7.
“That’s a great sign as well, he’s been a very good player for us over the last couple of seasons and now I’ve got that headache to worry about this week,” he said.
“Every week there is something you need to contend with so we just wait and see.”
While it’ll be tough to dislodge players from a winning combination, Vidmar fell of short of naming the victorious team his ‘best 11’.
“Fabian (Barbiero) hasn’t even had a sniff this year, (Kristian) Sarkies hasn’t had a sniff and Fabian for us last year was fantastic so we’d love to have a Fabian in there, we’d love to have a Sarks in there,” he said.
Barbiero is set to test his calf injury this week while the club is unsure when Sarkies will get back from a similar injury.
Apart from adding different personnel, the Reds’ leader believes his side can improve its finishing in attack. Against Central Coast, United had 10 shots at goal but only three were on target.
“We are not hitting the target and that’s sort of been a theme through the course of the season so far,” he said.
“We are getting into great areas but are lacking just a little bit of spark. The movements are very, very good so we are getting there we just need to sharpen up a bit more.”
“Maybe that first 30 minutes we could’ve had three or four goals.”
“We just need a good run of wins now, so hopefully two or three on the trot would be great.”
