Gold Coast’s 2-1 victory over Sydney on Saturday sent United back to the top of the ladder and left coach Miron Bleiberg satisfied that he had the roster to cover the loss of any player.
With Jason Culina on international duty, United’s attack barely skipped a beat as Zenon Caravella, Tahj Minniecon and Robson upped the ante from the midfield, leaving Bleiberg supremely confident in his charges.
“We said we were going to have a good team and we have good team, we said we were going to depth and we have depth, we said Robson could do a job when Jason wasn’t there and we did that,” he said.
“Luckily we were given a clean sheet to build this team and we built it very carefully, if Jason is out we have a solution, if Joel Porter is out we have a solution.”
Missing big-name players seemed to play into the hands of Gold Coast as Sydney was never sure where the threat would come from.
Robson played the anchor role in the middle with Minniecon and Caravella popping up all over the in the typical up-tempo Bleiberg formation.
Sydney captain John Aloisi recalled the intensity of the match and paid tribute to United’s stand in playmaker.
“Gold Coast had some good players coming in and they really wanted to prove that they could perform without Jason,” Aloisi said.
“They moved the ball very quickly and were well organised, the Brazilian in the mid-field (Robson) ran the show and did a great job.”
Bleiberg – who guarded his tactics closely in the lead-up to the match – was excited by the new combinations and heaped praise on 26-year-old Caravella.
“In my book, Zenon was man of the match for the effort he put in,” Bleiberg said.
“He ran a marathon today, usually a player runs about 10km in a game, he did double that.”
Bleiberg had the unwanted opportunity to roll out his back-up plan for Joel Porter when the striker was felled by a calf injury in the 19th minute against Sydney.
Lanky Brazilian Milson – who doubles as Robson’s interpreter – showed plenty of speed and was a constant threat on goal as United looked to blow the game apart.
Milson will play a substantial role over the coming rounds with Porter expected to miss at least two weeks and could also be called upon for the return grudge match against Brisbane Roar in October with Shane Smeltz expected to be on international duty with New Zealand.
