New Jets coach Gary van Egmond believes his team is starting to adapt to his plans after an impressive 2-0 win over the Perth Glory on Saturday evening in just his second game in charge.
The Jets played a high pressing game where the front-line strikers harried the Glory defensive line and midfielders and the tactic worked as the Perth side seemed rushed and were ineffective in playing the ball out of their territory.
Newcastle profited from the pressure with two well-taken goals to Jeremy Brockie in the 10th and 11th minute to move the side level with the Glory in second place on the Hyundai A-League ladder with nine point a piece.
“We spoke about it before the game that the best way to nullify Mehmet, Smeltz and Travis (Dodd) was not to give them the service,” van Egmond said after match.
“The way you do that is by pressuring high up the park and limiting their decision time of the central midfielders and defenders and then we can pick up the ball and capitalise on it and the boys executed that very well.”
“From what I have seen on the training park and after two games that I am hopeful (that they are adapting).”
“As a coach all you can do is see if they absorb the information and start to implement what you want and from what I am seeing I think that is very much happening.”
Van Egmond said he could tell by the atmosphere in the dressing rooms that his side was ‘switched on’ and ready to put the pedal down from the start of the match.
“Even before the game the atmosphere in the dressing room was the same atmosphere of the teams that come out and really perform and you could tell that the players were on from the first whistle,” he said.
“It was a great start, Jeremy getting two goals, so a fantastic start but if we are a little bit critical of ourselves we could have gone on with it a little bit more and that is the progress we need to make.”
Van Egmond also said he was pleased with the debut performance of new recruit Francis Jeffers, who played a strong game before being replaced by Labinot Haliti in the 68th minute.
“He is a smart player,” the Jets coach said of Jeffers. “He links up and he was a little bit unlucky when Kasey (Wehrman) spotted him on a good run and he has just played that ball in on the other side of the defence.”
“But the timing of his runs are great. He has played in the English Premier League – he is a class player and he is only going to get better.”
