Despite securing six draws from their opening 10 games of the season, including four 0-0s, Gold Coast United coach Miron Bleiberg insists the club is determined to play attacking and free-flowing football.
There is no doubt that Gold Coast version 2.0 is a more resilient outfit than the original having conceded just six goals and lost one match in their opening 10. On Saturday night, they absorbed 90 minutes of pressure from Melbourne Heart at AAMI Park and emerged with a point in a gritty 0-0 away performance.
While conceding that the latest result owed as much to good luck, in the form of the home side’s profligacy, as it did good management, Bleiberg is pleased with where his side are placed a third of the way through the season.
“They played very good and they played very mobile. Still, don’t take away from us, they couldn’t break us down. We still have a clean sheet. We still haven’t lost for seven games. We are doing our job. If we can’t win, we don’t lose,” he said.
“But we are not trying to Arsenal under George Graham – to be the king of the draw. It’s not in my nature, not the players that we have. We play basically with a lot of attacking players.”
While adamant about his team’s attacking intent, there is undoubtedly a change in approach from Bleiberg this year, with his team looking far more accountable across the park.
“I believe that as far we will not get beaten and we won’t concede, we will find ourselves somewhere near the top,” he said. “If we have had 11 rounds and we are in third, I shouldn’t cry too much.”
“We have more clean sheets than any other team in the competition. That is a sign of quality. If you go 10 games out of 30 with just one loss, on this theory it means you’ll only lose three or four games a season. If we do that, you will be somewhere near the top.”
Captain Jason Culina agrees there is a more considered and understated approach from Gold Coast, who famously arrived into the Hyundai A-League last season accompanied by a range of wild predictions from both the coach and the owner Clive Palmer.
“I think we are a little bit more consistent this year, that’s very important, especially in a season where there’s 30 games. As long as we can maintain that consistency, we will be right,” he said.
“We are not making too much noise at the moment. We are just there. We are hanging around. Hopefully we can build on our performances. We are not scoring as much as we’d like, but we’re working hard and when you work hard things eventually start to happen.”
Bleiberg said that he expects the goals to start flowing – Gold Coast have managed just nine in 10 games – when his new look strike force of Culina, Bruce Djite and Joel Porter, have more time to work together.
