Melbourne Heart coach John van’t Schip said the A-League’s newboys gifted Adelaide United ‘easy goals’ as the Reds went on to win 3-2 and claim their first win of the season, while the Heart languish at the foot of the table with a point after three matches.
Van’t Schip admitted the Heart produced a far better performance in comparison to their opening two fixtures, but conceded his side still need to improve greatly to record their first win.
“The problem with a game like this if you want to win or get a result, you can’t give away that easy the goals,” he said.
“The results are important but it’s going to take time, that’s what we said. But there are things that we have to improve. But, as a team we also have to be more eager to get a result and that’s something that has to get into the team.”
“Of course it’s only three games gone, but when you’re not getting points, it’s not good for the confidence. That’s something that we have to work hard on to get out first result.”
Heart captain Simon Colosimo echoed the sentiments of his coach, admitting despite playing some impressive football, sloppy mistakes has cost Melbourne points so far this season.
“They are things we need to take out of our game,” he said.
“Like the coach said we are playing good football, but playing good football and giving goals away won’t get you results.”
Colosimo said the Heart were made to work overtime to find the back of the net, only to undo all of their good work through costly errors, which were punished by United.
“We had to work ever so hard to score our goals, we had to beat a player, pass through, dribble on the side, do all of that and get a good cross in, a good header, whatever,” he said.
“They were good finishes but, taking nothing away from Adelaide, we just made it a little bit easier for them. And, at this level, as a team and as individuals we can’t afford to do that.”
Colosimo acknowledged Melbourne were aware of the attacking threat posed by the likes of Matthew Leckie and Iain Ramsay, but admitted on the day the Heart’s defence were unable to contain the young speedsters.
“I think it was one of those days that we’re going to look back as a group and know we gave too much away,” he said.
“We knew they’ve got some good players running at you, they attack in numbers, they have a good go. I think the game plan was right I just don’t think defensively it was executed.”
