Adelaide United head coach Carl Veart has backed his young side to prove the doubters wrong this season amid concerns they may struggle to score goals.
The Reds head into the 2024-25 Isuzu UTE A-League campaign without three of their top scorers last season following the departures of Hiroshi Ibusuki (15 goals), Nestory Irankunda (8) and Ben Halloran (4).
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Youngsters Luka Jovanovic and off-season signing Archie Goodwin are likely to battle it out for the starting spot in Veart’s team but the Reds boss isn’t concerned with his striking depth heading into their round two opener against Central Coast Mariners.
“People said we weren’t going to score many goals last year losing Craig (Goodwin) and not replacing him,” said Veart.
“You know, this year they’re saying because we’ve lost Hiroshi and Nestor and haven’t really replaced them, that we’re not going to score again. But last year, we were the leading goal scorers in the league.
He added: “So, you know, we have confidence in the style of football that we play that we’ll score goals.”
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Having sat out round one due to having the bye, Adelaide United will look to hit the ground running when they host the Mariners at Coopers Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The reigning Champions head into the game off the back of a midweek loss to Shanghai Port in the ACL Elite, a result which means the Mariners have now lost all three of their games in the competition so far.
Furthermore, Mark Jackson’s side were also knocked out of the Australia Cup in the round of 32 and were held to a goalless draw by Melbourne Victory in round one of the Isuzu UTE A-League meaning they’re winless in their last five competitive fixtures.
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“Central Coast had to do a lot of work in the pre-season,” said Veart. “They lost a lot of their good players from last season but they seem to have replaced them.
“They’ve had a good pre-season in that they’ve had a lot of games with the Champions League in Asia as well. The other night, their game in China, I thought they were very good.
“We’re fresh in that we haven’t had a game but it always takes, you know, three or four games before you sort of get up to speed and they’ve had that.
He added: “I wouldn’t expect them to be too tired from their trip. They did it last year and they did it successfully last year, so we know it’s going to be a tough game and we’re really looking forward to it.”
Someone who wont be involved in round one though is off-season signing, Dutch defender Bart Vriends.
The 33-year-old Eredivisie stalwart is yet to play for the club having suffered a number of small muscular injuries during pre-season but Veart has confirmed his new signing isn’t far away from making his Reds debut.
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“Bart will be joining full training next week,” said Veart when asked for a status update on Vriends.
“He has one more box to tick tomorrow at training. Once he ticks that off he’ll join with the team on Monday – full training – and hopefully he’ll be available for Wanderers next week.”
Joining Vriends on the sidelines is fellow off-season signing Jordan Elsey.
“Look, Jordan picked up a small injury this week, so he won’t be available for tomorrow, which is unfortunate,” confirmed Veart at his pre-game press conference.
“You know, he’s worked extremely hard coming back from the ACL (injury). This is the risk when you come back from ACL injuries that you know, generally, you will pick up a smaller injury, which Jordan has to his leg. So he’ll be out for a couple of weeks, most probably.”
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