Adelaide United coach Guillermo Amor believes his side needs to begin taking an easier, less taxing route to goal following Thursday’s comprehensive 4-2 loss to Melbourne City at Coopers Stadium.
The Reds yielded a three-goal headstart for the third consecutive week and their defence leaked like a sieve, but the opportunities they created at the other end were plentiful.
United had more total shots (21-14), shots on target (8-6), crosses (42-10) and corners (12-4), while typically accruing more possession, but City’s more economical approach paid dividends and made the visitors look infinitely more polished.
REPORT: City too slick for Reds in Adelaide
“More possession is good, these things (statistics) are good,” Amor said.
“All these things are good but they need to translate into goals.
“The chances that we’re having, sometimes it costs them because there’s a lot of effort required to create those chances.
“They need to come a bit easier and be more of a clearcut chance rather than what they’ve been having.
“On the other hand, Melbourne City had one chance early on and scored.
“That’s football. It happens but it seems to be happening a lot.”
Slack defending of the near-post saw Adelaide concede the first goal in the eighth minute when Erik Paartalu headed home Aaron Mooy’s awesome, swinging corner, while Mooy’s cracking 35th-minute goal only came about as a result of the Reds’ inability to clear.
The second half was better for United which, in the 426th minute of regulation this season, finally saw one of their players (Sergio Cirio) hit the scoreboard.
But Amor, who described himself as an ‘optimist’ and a ‘winner’, wants the costly errors to start drying up.
“There were some good moments and some bad ones as well,” he said.
“There were some mistakes that cost the team.
“I’m an optimist, I’m a winner. And because of these little things, these are making me annoyed.
“The errors we’ve made and keep making, we’re working on these things every day to try and get better.
“We’ll continue to do that.”
