Adelaide United midfielder Fabian Barbiero is hopeful he can return to his best form in time to get the Reds off the bottom of the ladder and back into finals calculations.
Barbiero, who rose to prominence during United’s Asian Champions League campaign in 2008 and by scoring a match-winning goal in last season’s preliminary final against Brisbane Roar, has struggled to build momentum all year.
His pre-season was ruined by groin inflammation and the ‘early signs’ of osteitis pubis and since then he’s managed to play just 352 minutes in eight matches this season.
He’s yet to score a goal and he received a red card against Sydney FC in Round 11 which stemmed from some rusty play in the midfield.
Last year he played 19 matches and scored two goals.
Barbiero has started in consecutive games just once this season and believes continuity will see him improve his efforts during the home stretch of the season.
“I’m not at my best, I know that myself but with a few games under my belt I can be back to my best,” he said.
“I’ve just got my body right now and it’s been alright for the last couple of months now so hopefully I can get a few games in a row to get my match fitness up and start getting my touch back and start performing.”
“I haven’t had much game time and that’s what I’m aiming for, that’s I goal I can sort of set myself.”
The 25-year-old said after the frustrating run with injuries, he’s now more in tune with his body and confident he can move forward with his football.
“No players likes being injured but you can sort of learn from what your body can and can’t do, what you should be doing and I have sort of taken it that way,” he said.
“I’ve been pushing, week in and week out, a little bit more so providing my body holds up I’ll get (my work rate) back to normal.”
Barbiero is keen to replicate the form he displayed in 2008-09 but both he and Adelaide’s coaching staff have tried to hold realistic expectations during the season.
“I don’t want to put pressure on myself, I just want to go out and play my game and just continue doing the simple things,” he said.
“They (the coaches) admire my work rate at training, I give 100 percent, even in games they like what I give in the games.”
Adelaide United plays Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium this Saturday and the Reds will go into the clash underdogs given their recent form.
But Barbiero said the team felt it wasn’t too far away from stringing some quality performances together.
“The boys are obviously down, they don’t like being bottom but there are things that we can take from the game (against Newcastle) and the way we’ve been playing,” he said.
“We can’t afford to drop off now and drop our heads, we are creating chances, we’ve got a lot of possession but we are just not using it effectively and the boys just want to get one on the board.”
