Gold Coast United boss Miron Bleiberg has revealed his side’s run home will be bolstered by two new signings who may well suit up for Wednesday night’s match against Melbourne Heart at AAMI Park.
Speaking after Gold Coast’s 4-0 trouncing of North Queensland Fury, Bleiberg said a deal has finally been reached with German midfielder Peter Perchtold and he will be joined by another fresh face in Korean Sungkil Kim.
Kim will be rushed into the squad as an injury replacement for Robson and the two new imports could line up as early as Wednesday night.
“We had (Kim) train with us in the pre-season and he was good but then I didn’t want to waste a visa spot on him because we had enough midfielders,” Bleiberg said.
“If he wasn’t, I would have signed him at that time. Jason (Culina) is out, Robson is out, James Brown is out so we don’t have a playmaker.”
“He is, so we rushed him in and hopefully he will play on Wednesday. And then we have Peter Perchtold, and (Shane) Smeltz, and Bruce (Djite), and Michael Thwaite, and (Joel) Porter on the bench. Can you imagine?”
United were clinical in their 4-0 win over the Fury and the prospect of their side getting even stronger would have Bleiberg licking his lips, but he said that there is much more improvement to come from his troops.
“If you asked me before the game how I wanted it to go, it was a like dream come true. To be fair to Fury they can put a stronger side out than the one they did today and there’s some reason behind their rotation policy but they were weakened, so we shouldn’t go overboard,” he said.
“I wasn’t that happy but everyone says that’s the best we’ve played in a while. But the boys will hear from me on Monday about the things I wasn’t happy with.”
“I’m very happy with the defensive side of things but I was less impressed with the midfield and forward line, even though Bas van den Brink is becoming better and better every day. The pass he gave for the first goal was a million dollar pass.”
“We needed this win for a moral point of view. It was good and thinking about one step forward, if we get a good result in Melbourne then we come home to an open stadium for the game against Newcastle thanks to Clive Palmer, then Gold Coast United will start to roll on and the sky’s the limit.”
Gold Coast vice-captain Michael Thwaite is expecting a ‘massive’ week in the build-up to Saturday’s free admission extravaganza against the Jets, held by Clive Palmer as a fundraiser for victims of the Queensland floods.
“It was pouring with rain last time and we still got 11,000 so if we can get 15-20,000 this time it’ll be great. Anything for free is good and it’s for a good charity. (The pitch is still) terrible, but it’s getting better. It’ll be ready for the Titans’ season,” Thwaite said.
