A ruthless Miron Beliberg leads his men to Melbourne on Saturday, saying a win over the Heart is the only acceptable result for Gold Coast United.
A ruthless Miron Beliberg leads his men to Melbourne on Saturday, saying a win over the Heart is the only acceptable result for Gold Coast United.
United has shown a liking for playing away from home this season having claimed a win and two draws from three road trips. And, after a draw against Adelaide last Sunday at Skilled Park, Bleiberg wants to take three points from the new new-comers.
“We will be opened right up and playing for the win, no doubt,” Bleiberg said ahead of the match.
“We didn’t win at home against Adelaide so we have to win away from home if we want to keep ourselves on the top end of the ladder – simple as that.”
Playing away from home aids United’s style two-fold; not only does it take the pressure off them to get the win, it shifts that pressure onto the opposition and forces them to open up and try and score goals.
“We like to play open football and when teams come to our town they sometimes close shop and play for a point – when we go to their home they must try and score goals in front of their crowd which plays into our hands as we like the open football,” Bleiberg said.
“We will be open and aggressive against Heart and I think we can do the job.”
United sit fourth on the Hyundai A-league ladder two points ahead of the seventh-placed Heart.
A win for the Melbourne team would see them pass United, but Bleiberg believes his men have every reason to take confidence into the clash.
“I don’t know much about Heart. We haven’t played them so I don’t really have a feel of their game,” he said.
“But I think our position on the table versus their position on the table will allow us to go into the match with confidence.”
Bleiberg and United hit the scene with a bang in their inaugural season but the astute tactician has been happy to see the limelight shift to the new team from the south.
“This year we are a little bit off the radar with Heart taking all the attention, and I am happy for that,” he said.
“Now it is up to them to do bigger and better things than we did – if they can finish better than third we will take our hat off to them.”
Despite injury worries, strikers Joel Porter and Bruce Djite are both fit to take on Heart, but whether they start together for the first time this season remains another Miron mystery.
