Adelaide United coach Rini Coolen denied his team is stuck in a rut following consecutive losses including the 7-1 thumping to Brisbane Roar last week.
Adelaide has won only one of their four matches this season with their last three points coming on October 14 courtesy of a 1-0 win against Melbourne Victory at home.
Since then the Reds have suffered two disappointing losses – losing late to Sydney FC 2-1 and being on the receiving end of a record loss to Brisbane.
Coolen rejected the claim that it’s been one of the hardest weeks he has ever experienced as Adelaide’s coach, and was ready for his team to bounce back with a win against Friday night’s opponents Melbourne Heart.
“We want to bounce back after a couple of bad games … everyone wants that,” Coolen said.
“We are all professionals and we take the blame that we are responsible for the results, and the results are not good.”
“We are pretty confident that the players will do their job, not only because you want them doing that, but that’s the message I saw amongst them in the last couple of training sessions … they are focused to do better.”
“Playing in home games with the confidence and experience that we get, culminated with the crowd behind us, who are always there when we need them, we are very strong and together we can get out of this problem.”
“We need to start getting more points and playing better football … and that starts with ourselves changing that on the pitch this Friday (against Melbourne Heart).”
Melbourne travel to Hindmarsh Stadium on the back of a frustrating draw to Sydney last Saturday night.
The Heart were on track to record their first win of the season before they were denied by a 93rd-minute equaliser from Sydney dynamo Nicky Carle.
The result added to an ordinary season thus far for the Hyundai A-League’s youngest club, as they sit bottom of the table with only two points from four outings.
Coolen is looking forward to the challenge the red-and-whites will provide, suggesting an important three points is on the line for two sides who are struggling.
“They are in the same situation as us … looking for points and looking for confidence,” Coolen said.
“We all know how important it is for both teams to collect some points.”
“They have a lot of good individual players and a very good squad … I think they have been unlucky in a couple of games, especially the last one (against Sydney) where they conceded a goal from a corner, that wasn’t (meant to be).”
“They did everything to change that game with their system and took a lot of risks.”
Coolen didn’t feel extra pressure from the possibility of Adelaide sitting on the bottom of the table if they lose to the Heart.
And the Dutch coach wasn’t worried about the season getting away from his team if results don’t change either, saying United would have plenty of time to re-ignite their campaign if another poor result occurred this week.
“Of course you want to have a good start to the season, that makes things much easier,” Coolen said.
“If you have a start like we have had, you’re not happy with it, but people are making it much worse than it is at the moment … there are still plenty of games to go (this season).”
“But we have to start changing it now because it’s the only way we can get confidence back … that’s our job and we know that.”
Adelaide will welcome back Bruce Djite from a groin injury while the Heart’s new signing, five-time Qantas Socceroo Adrian Madaschi, is a strong chance to debut.
