First-year A-league coach Josep Gombau has asked for patience from Adelaide United fans as the side adapts to his possession-based style.
First-year A-league coach Josep Gombau has asked for patience from Adelaide United fans as the side adapts to his possession-based style.
Adelaide fell to their first defeat of the season on Saturday evening in Gosford going down 1-0 to the Central Coast Mariners.
Having started the season with a resounding 3-1 victory over Perth and a draw last weekend to Melbourne Victory, the Reds were the victim of a cleverly taken second-minute goal to Mariners marksman Nick Fitzgerald at Bluetongue Stadium.
Spaniard Gombau said the side is adjusting to the new system and that there have been promising signs, even going so far as to label the loss the best performance of the season.
“Day by day we are more comfortable with the ball,” the former Barcelona youth coach said.
“When the club came to speak to my they wanted to create this style, we want to play an open style and every player in the club knows this, even the youth team.
“But we need time, we need time to work a lot.
“Now we are in this process (which isn’t easy) we need to be patient.”
Despite dominating possession with 66 per cent of the ball they only yielded seven shots – none on target – compared to the Mariners’ 15.
Gombau was unfazed by their fewer sights on goal.
“We want to have a lot of passes and we want to be offensive,” he said.
“Today we had (most) of the possession of the game, we had a lot of passes but we didn’t create chances.
“But we are underway… in the style we played today we played better than the last two games.”
Gombau said he would not be swayed from his long-term plan, in the face of criticism in the infancy of his stint at Coopers Stadium.
“The lose can make the fans, or the people that don’t understand what we want to do, say that we didn-t play well or we don’t create chances… but as a coach I am satisfied,” he said.
“Of course I know that we lost the game but I see a long way (in the future) and we are going to be doing well.”
Skipper Eugene Galekovic said the side might take up until the Christmas period to fully have their head around Gombau’s taxing style.
“It takes time,” said the 32 year-old.
“We had the whole pre-season of working the system.
“We know we will get better as the season gets close to Christmas, we are going to improve and that’s our aim.
“Results are a part of it, but they way we played is encouraging.”
