Ange Postecoglou revealed on Tuesday that his first matter of business as Brisbane Roar coach will be to tighten up his team’s defence.
Brisbane has the second-worst tally of goals conceded (18) in the Hyundai A-League after 11 rounds this season.
Only bottom-placed new boys North Queensland Fury have a worse record which has seen their goal breached 19 times.
However, speaking ahead of Brisbane’s crunch match against second-placed Sydney FC on Sunday, Frank Farina’s replacement will still be encouraging his players to attack the Sky Blues as the Roar aim to stay in touch with the top six.
Brisbane currently sits in seventh position and three points adrift of sixth-placed Adelaide.
“We’ve got some fantastic attacking players but, especially this year, we have been leaking goals,” Postecoglou said.
“So we definitely have to shore that up.”
“If you want to be successful and win championships you need to have a solid defence and that’s something we need to work on.”
“It’s about a balance of both, but I tend to think you get more confidence by keeping a clean sheet when you’re going through a down patch, so that’s what we’ll be striving for this week.”
Postecoglou is under no illusions as to the size of the task handed to him to turn around the fortunes of a team which has seemingly lost its way in recent times.
The Roar have lost their last three matches as well as their senior coach after Farina was charged with drink-driving last week.
But Postecoglou remains optimistic.
“It’s a massive challenge for us but if we go (to Sydney) and get a result it’ll be further momentum in the right direction,” Postecoglou said.
