Brisbane Roar coach Rado Vidosic believes fatigue should not have been an issue for his men in their shock 1-0 loss to new boys Western Sydney.
Brisbane Roar coach Rado Vidosic believes fatigue should not have been an issue for his men in Saturday night’s shock 1-0 loss to new boys Western Sydney.
The reigning champions were stunned on Saturday night by a strong and organised Wanderers outfit that claimed their first win thanks to a Mark Bridge goal in the 19th minute.
Despite starting as the shortest priced favourites in the history of the Hyundai A-League, Brisbane were never in the game – clearly out-enthused by the visitors who, up until then, had not even scored a goal.
After the match, Vidosic looked as puzzled as anyone when asked for the reason why his men looked so sluggish and out of ideas at home.
“I don’t know if it was a little bit of fatigue, or complacency. I don’t know at this point in time,” he said.
“I need to look at the video and talk to players and find out why.
“They looked really good leading into the game (at training) on Friday and on Thursday, but today unfortunately that first 30 minutes, we were not in the game.”
The Roar have already been tasked with the league’s two most difficult away trips in the first three weeks of the season – they were away to Perth in the opening round, and last weekend crossed the Tasman to face Wellington.
“We had a great performance after the Perth game but then on top of that you get another trip,” Vidosic said.
“You lose a whole day going there and back… but it should not be the problem.
“They should be able to pass the ball better, defend better.
“The goal they scored from the set piece, they should have defended better. Sometimes people get a little bit confused what their job is, they leave their man and he scores the goal.”
The team’s fluid, passing football was nowhere to be seen on Saturday night, with the Wanderers’ high-energy, high-pressing game shutting down all avenues to goal through the middle.
Vidosic asked his men to be a little bit patient after half-time, and his substitutions helped bring marquee man Thomas Broich into the game.
“It was end-to-end stuff – maybe something we didn’t want, but unfortunately we just could not control the play a little bit better in their half,” he said.
“We changed a few things tactically and we kind of got into their half much easier, but then it was very hard to penetrate behind them.
“Defensively, they were excellent. We just could not penetrate behind them.
“We got around them a few times with crosses but I thought in the second half, although we maybe had a bit more of the play, we didn’t dominate as much as we would like.
“They should have punished us with a few more goals on the fast break.”
