Thomas Broich has prodded former Brisbane Roar coach Ange Postecoglou by claiming his successor Rado Vidosic has always been “the brains” behind the club’s success.
Thomas Broich has prodded former Brisbane Roar coach Ange Postecoglou by claiming his successor Rado Vidosic has always been “the brains” behind the club’s success.
Postecoglou – now in charge of Melbourne Victory – will return to Suncorp Stadium this weekend for the first time since turning his back on the Roar after guiding them to a second successive Hyundai A-League championship.
But Broich foreshadowed the less-than-receptive welcome Postecoglou can expect by emphatically backing his former assistant Vidosic to win an intriguing tactical battle on Saturday night.
“He’s always been … you could call him the brains behind our success,” the reigning Johnny Warren Medallist said.
“He’s very analytical. Like rotations, set pieces and stuff. He loves that.
“(Ange) might know what we are about, what our strengths are, but we are still a pretty decent team and we have our ways to break their defence down.
“Rado’s working on (a few surprises) and we’ve been practicing it today already.”
Postecoglou’s first match at the helm of Victory was a 2-1 derby loss to the Heart that showed just how much work is ahead of him if he wants to replicate his feats at the Roar.
But Brisbane also need to fine-tune their attack after firing blanks in Sunday’s 1-0 loss to Perth in the grand final rematch.
The Roar worked their way into some good attacking positions but failed to convert their chances, with pacey duo Nick Fitzgerald and Ben Halloran seemingly reluctant to pull the trigger.
Broich, however, issued a message of calm.
“We’ll get there. There is nothing to worry about,” he said.
“When Ange took over a couple of years ago it took him a while to get everything the way he wanted it, and it’s the same with Rado.
“He has changed our game plan slightly. We need to keep working on that and eventually we will end up a better team than we used to be.
“We can’t change our style overnight and Victory can’t change theirs overnight.
“It’s not the end of the world. Our performance was pretty average, there’s heaps to work on but at the same time, it’s just round one.”
Broich was dismissive of Brisbane’s defeat, saying Glory striker Billy Mehmet’s 89th-minute match-winning header did not tell the full story.
“We copped a late goal, but if it had been 0-0 then everyone would have been like ‘Oh yeah, that’s alright, away from home, grand final rematch – not an easy game’,” he said.
“Now it’s like, ‘Oh my god, Brisbane Roar lost their first game’.
“Ange lost his first game and Victory lost, but it’s round one. Relax, and wait and see what happens.”
