After being held to a frustrating scoreless draw at home by Wellington on Friday night, Gold Coast United coach Miron Bleiberg has indicated that his team’s inability to score had more to do with his side than opposition tactics.
Bleiberg highlighted what he described as a ‘big gap’ between Gold Coast’s midfield and forwards as one of the major reasons for the result.
“We were isolated mainly because we didn-t push up high enough,” Bleiberg said.
“Both Robson and Anderson, I think kept a bit to close to the back four, and didn’t push forward.”
“Jason was supposed to be the link man and as a result he ran out of petrol towards the end.”
“We worked all week about how to defend, maybe they took me too seriously and they stayed back a bit, in defence we were there, but we didn’t open out.”
“It wasn’t so much Wellington’s tactics, it was our problem which we have to correct and address.”
United looked cagey right from kick off and as Qantas Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek looked on, Gold Coast struggled to control the match.
“You have to give credit to Wellington they were well organised, we didn’t deserve to win … I think we were all a bit nervous and it didn’t work for us,” Bleiberg said.
“We were not as free flowing as we should be, but in some situations when it doesn’t work for you sometimes it is better to get a point.”
An out-of-character Gold Coast hardly threatened the Phoenix goal, United captain Jason Culina admitting that his side never looked like scoring.
“We didn’t get forward enough and probably had too much emphasis on defending,” Culina said.
“There wasn’t that cohesion that was there before, obviously Robson missed a few games … but once players get fitter they get more dominance in games.”
“But we didn’t concede and we got a point so we can’t cry about the result.”
