Adelaide United coach Rini Coolen believes Friday night’s clash with competition leaders Brisbane Roar is a chance to build confidence.
Adelaide United coach Rini Coolen believes Friday night’s clash with competition leaders Brisbane Roar is a chance to build confidence.
After a resounding 1-0 victory over Melbourne Victory two weeks ago, the Reds suffered a shock 2-1 defeat to Sydney FC at Hindmarsh Stadium last Saturday night.
Coolen was disappointed with a team performance that captain Jon McKain described as “rubbish from start to finish”.
“The way we lost the game (to Sydney) we were all disappointed about it,” Coolen said.
“In a home game we should be playing much better, but we have worked on things the past couple of days (in training).”
The Dutch coach refused to say whether a match against the 2010-11 A-League champions was the best thing for his team at the moment, but insisted the fixture could be beneficial.
“Somebody asked me if this is a good moment to play against Brisbane – we will find out after the game,” Coolen said.
“But we can use a game like this to build up our level and our confidence by trying to get a result.”
“If it’s not then we have to work until the week after but every game we travel for we aim to get results.”
With Brisbane unbeaten in 31 games at Suncorp Stadium, United face a difficult task in breaking the longest-unbeaten streak in the Hyundai A-League’s short history.
The Roar have collected maximum points in their opening three fixtures this season as well.
Coolen said he had a game plan that would require his side to press the Roar players on the ball and to look for attacking openings.
“At the moment they (Brisbane) are definitely the best team in the league, it’s what they showed us last year and are (continuing to do) this season,” Coolen said.
“Like every team they have the individual players who can make a difference but it’s more the team performance from Brisbane that makes them very strong.”
“It’s about how the team plays, about their transitions and how they keep possession of the ball.”
“We have a game plan like every game though … we have to press them in certain areas when they have the ball and defend them (in other areas).”
“We have to also find moments to hurt them and I think we have enough quality players to find those moments and create chances.”
With Ukrainian midfielder Evgeniy Levchenko set to return from a calf injury along with marquee signing Dario Vidosic, who recovered from a knock sustained against Sydney last week, the Reds almost have a full squad to choose from with Bruce Djite and Nigel Boogaard the only absences.
Coolen said a full-strength squad would allow for the players to gel and work together more frequently, and ensure confidence, high-level football and ultimately results can return.
“At the moment the fitness of every player is very good … the only thing we have to work on is playing together as much as possible with the same players in the same positions,” Coolen said.
“We need to keep up the competition between players and (have them) playing more together to get results because that’s what you need to build up the confidence.”
“We believe in each other, but we need results to build up to a high level and trust in each other further … that’s our work and we work on that every day as hard as possible.”
