Adelaide United coach Rini Coolen said the Reds are ‘fresh and ready’ to play their third game in a week as they prepare to face off against Newcastle Jets at Energy Australia on Saturday night.
United beat Perth 2-0 in Adelaide on Wednesday and were thumped 4-0 by Brisbane last Saturday but Coolen said the busy schedule is a scenario most teams have been or will face this season and the key is in the preparation.
“Every team is in that position at some stage, we have to take care of it and be ready for every game,” Coolen said.
“It’s not easy, but we are professionals and you have to prepare for every game, and it’s tough but we have to be ready. Everybody seems fresh and that’s the most important thing. We didn’t have to train about tactical things, just make them fresh and ready for the next game.”
Reds midfielder Adam Hughes admitted to a lighter couple of days on the track and said everyone looks to have recovered from the hard slog against Perth.
“Everybody has held together well after the last match against Perth. It was a bit of physical encounter but everyone seems to have come through unscathed so that’s the main thing,” he said.
“We’ve taken the last couple of days pretty easy, obviously we had recovery yesterday and this morning was fairly light, so it’s just a matter of getting the muscles right heading into tomorrow’s match.”
Having already met the Jets twice this season, Coolen admitted he knows exactly what to expect from Newcastle.
The Reds have hosted Newcastle on both occasions, with a 0-0 draw on the opening day of the campaign followed by a 2-1 win in mid September.
The Dutchman said unlike the match against Glory on Wednesday, the Reds will need to start on the front foot and take control of the match.
“We’re not a team who likes to just wait and see what happens … we prefer to build up the game, control it, create some chances, and we have to do something ourselves,” Coolen said.
“I think they (Newcastle) have already shown that they have good players and they are real hard to beat. Every game is a tough game, the levels are not so much different … so they will be hard to beat and we’re expecting a real tough game.”
Hughes echoed the sentiments of his coach and highlighted the inclusion to the Jets’ line up of England international Francis Jeffers.
The Reds hard-nosed midfielder conceded the former Arsenal and Everton striker will be a bit of an unknown entity ahead of his Hyundai A-League debut.
Hughes said the priority will be containing Newcastle’s midfield and ‘the rest will take care of itself’.
“They’re probably an unpredictable team. They’ve got good footballers there, they haven’t been scoring many goals but they’ve got Jeffers there and he’s a proven goal scorer around the world,” Hughes said.
“So it’s going to be one of those ones where I don’t know how fit he is, but containing him and making sure we stay on top in the midfield will be important, and obviously make sure our transition is of pace and then once that occurs we normally seem to score our goals.”
“They (Newcastle) like to keep the ball on the deck and try to knock it around as well, so I think it’s one of those ones where it’s going to be a similar type of football from both teams, and whoever cancels the other team out better is probably going to go on and win the match.”
